Gender, Politics and Institutions / Gender and Politics (PDF)

University of London, UK

'This book demonstrates how very much feminist and gender studies have to contribute to the 'neo-institutionalist' turn in political science. It offers major insights into the 'gendering' of institutions, with essays by top scholars on a wide range of issues, from government structures to electoral politics, family organization to welfare provision. Most importantly, it makes it clear that gender matters in a multitude of ways, and that one cannot fully understand institutional continuity or change without coming to grips with 'feminist institutionalism'.'

Vivien A. Schmidt, Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration, Boston University, USA

'In Gender, Politics and Institutions, a group of international and internationally recognized scholars of gender and politics examines how political institutions function to create, sustain, structure, undermine and transform inequalities of political power between women and men. The book provides a careful elucidation of elements of institutional analysis and institutionalist theory. It undertakes a detailed discussion of gender: where gender can be found in institutions and institutional actors, and how gender works as an active if not always visible and explicit process. The various chapters address gendered institutionalist public policy, state structures, electoral competition, political development of new institutions (such as the International Criminal Court), and the continuities and disruptions that confirm and/or recast gendered political arrangements in the context of state transitions to democracy. The volume's scope of institutional analysis is matched by the range of country cases it employs, making it a powerful contribution to comparative politics research.The collection is also an acknowledgment of and a challenge to mainstream comparative political institutionalism, in each of its variants, and offers an opening for enriching and extending political science's appreciation of how political institutions function across time. Gender, Politics and Institutions is an excellent contribution to the study of political institutions, a volume that comparative scholars of institutional politics, state political development, and gender and the state will turn to as the foundational work on gender, institutions, and political power.'

Karen Beckwith, Flora Stone Mather Professor of Political Science, Case Western Reserve University, USA

'This collection of essays travels across the world, carefully mixing theory and analysis from gender and institutional studies, with very promising results. The authors manage to maintain an engaging and clear dialogue, and offer a compelling insight into future research possibilities.'

LSE Politics and Policy Blog

'Do we need another institutionalism? The answer is absolutely. We need institutionalism to evolve in order to situate formal and informal institutions within a context of wider social divisions including gender. This ground-breaking book, edited by Mona Lena Krook and Fiona Mackay, does precisely this. Feminist institutionalism has arrived!'

Allan McConnell, Professor of Politics, University of Sydney, Australia