Suchergebnisse

"This volume is the first to use insights from recent feminist theory on the "ethic of care" to study the slow progress women have made toward political equality.Using empirical case-study materials, including her own interviews with female politicians, Mackay examines "care" as both a political practice and a political idea, using it to explain the current situation with regard to women's representation and to offer a prescription and resource for change."--Bloomsbury Publishing

While still rare, women are achieving important leadership roles as managers inside universities. This article explores the practical and theoretical dilemmas posed for academic feminists who enter such positions in the age of the rise of the 'neoliberal academy'. These are familiar dilemmas for feminist bureaucrats – femocrats – working inside political, governmental, judicial and economic institutions but have been less explored with respect to the academy. What can academic feminists do when they take on middle or senior management roles? How do they experience being simultaneously the embodiment of institutional authority (to manage, regulate, quantify, monetise) as managers, as well as a source of oppositional knowledge as feminists? To what extent are there opportunities to work with the grain of an institution to challenge the gendered status quo from within? Or are academic feminists who manage inevitably co-opted and compromised? The article takes an autoethnographic approach to reflect upon the author's experience as a 'tempered radical' in third tier management (as an executive dean and head of school) in a public research-intensive UK university, and to offer lessons about the radical potential of insider strategies of change.

Scotland bears many hallmarks of a case of successful feminist constitutional activism: high levels of women's descriptive representation in the devolved parliament and a gender-inclusive institutional design mutually reinforced one another, opening up the political process. In this article domestic violence policy is examined in order to address the question as to whether political devolution has led to positive gender outcomes, in respect of substantive gains for women. The actors, institutions and outcomes of Scottish initiatives (1998–2007) are traced and it is argued that policies have been distinctive in the UK with respect to timing, framing and approach. Domestic violence, therefore, provides a striking case where devolution 'has made a difference' to the substantive representation of women, with positive – albeit fragile – outcomes.

Contemporary developments concerning the study of the gender politics of representation within British political science programs are examined. Differences between feminist political scientists' conceptualization of numerical & substantive forms of political representation are considered. Analysis of literature that has explored the representation of women in British political institutions since the early 1960s is performed, demonstrating the extent to which various systemic, party political, & individual factors have augmented women's participation in British politics. Even though approaches to substantive representation are less developed than their numerical counterparts, several themes that have been addressed by such scholarship are highlighted, eg, female political actors' greater engagement with issues of equality. It is subsequently noted that contemporary research has failed to identify the prerequisites for change within the gender politics of representation in the UK; consequently, it is predicted that future numerical & substantive research will address various issues, eg, ascertaining the role of systemic determinants in producing change in political representation & analyzing the representation of both men & women in British politics. Indeed, research that has already incorporated such research perspectives is reviewed to illuminate their potential. 116 References. J. W. Parker

This article advances the concept of 'feminist critical friends' as a descriptor for those studying the efforts of 'insider' gender justice advocates working to transform governance structures and advance gender reform agendas within political, social, economic and military institutions. In refining the concept of feminist critical friendship, we reject perspectives that overstate the failures and 'co-option' that comes with engagement, while also resisting voluntarist versions that cede too much influence to feminist insiders. We pay attention to, and take seriously, the small wins that are achieved against the gendered, institutional and political odds, and recognise that sometimes, though not always, these can align to produce significant shifts in the gendered status quo. The article seeks to unpack the who, what, why and how of feminist critical friendship in order to advance this as a productive standpoint for feminist researchers interested in analysing processes of institutional stasis and change.

This article examines the apparent tension between power-sharing as the dominant approach to conflict settlement and the inclusion of women and provisions for gender equality as promoted through the Women, Peace and Security agenda. We argue that applying a feminist institutionalist (FI) lens - which attends to the interactions between political and social institutions, and the interplay between formal and informal rules, norms and practices - provides a means of explaining the so-called 'gendered paradox of power-sharing', including the gap between the promise of formal frameworks and outcomes for women in practice. We draw upon extant feminist research on three post-conflict power-sharing cases: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, and Burundi. Using the concepts of: nested newness, formal and informal institutions, the gendered logic of appropriateness, and gendered actors, we illuminate why it has been so difficult for the gender progressive institutional innovations to be instantiated. In so doing, we answer the call of Byrne and McCulloch (2012) for more systematic analysis and theorising around the gendered paradox of power-sharing, and we also provide a basis for identifying what institutional mechanisms might be needed to embed the inclusion of women and the integration of the WPS norms in power-sharing frameworks in the future.