Political women american democracy

Christina Wolbrecht, Karen Beckwith, Lisa Baldez978-0-511-38642-8

What do we know about women, politics, and democracy in the United States?The past thirty years have witnessed a dramatic increase in women’s participationin American politics and an explosion of research on women, and the transformationseffected by them, during the same period. Political Women and AmericanDemocracy provides a critical synthesis of scholarly research by leading expertsin the field. The collected chapters examine women as citizens, voters, participants,movement activists, partisans, candidates, and legislators. They provideframeworks for understanding and organizing existing scholarship; focus on theoretical,methodological, and empirical debates; and map out productive directionsfor future research. As the only book to focus specifically on women andgender in U.S. politics, Political Women and American Democracy will be aninvaluable resource for scholars and students studying and conducting womenand politics research.

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Table of contents :
Cover……Page 1
Half-title……Page 3
Title……Page 5
Copyright……Page 6
Dedication……Page 7
Contents……Page 9
Preface……Page 11
Editors……Page 13
Authors……Page 14
1 Introduction: What We Saw at the Revolution……Page 19
Notes……Page 28
2
Gender as a Category of Analysis in American
Political Development……Page 30
Gender as political identity……Page 32
Gender and liberalism……Page 33
Gender and civic membership……Page 34
Gender and democratization……Page 36
Gender as a feature of state institutions……Page 38
Gender and public policy……Page 39
Gender and american political development in a global context……Page 41
Gender as a core problematic in american political development……Page 44
Institutions……Page 45
Ideology……Page 46
Notes……Page 47
3 Gender, Public Opinion, and Political Reasoning……Page 49
Broad theoretical approaches to gender differences……Page 50
Socialization and Personality……Page 51
Gender and Feminist Consciousness……Page 53
Self-Interest: Work and Family……Page 54
Social Welfare Policies and Compassion……Page 56
Origins of Gender Differences in Support of Social Welfare Policies……Page 57
Attitudes toward Governmental Use of Force……Page 59
Origins of Gender Differences on Force and Violence……Page 60
Morality Issues……Page 62
Vote Choice and Partisanship……Page 63
Explanations for the Gender Gap in Vote Choice……Page 64
Conclusion……Page 66
Notes……Page 67
4
Gender in the Aggregate, Gender in the Individual,
Gender and Political Action……Page 68
What could come of a serious, continuous conversation between aggregate and individual analysis?……Page 69
Before there was a literature: the early history of the study of gender and participation……Page 71
A self-conscious literature……Page 73
What could individual-level analyses learn from the aggregate literature about political context?……Page 77
How Do Preexisting Organizations Shape Political Action?……Page 78
Do Social Movements Offer Up New Discursive Tools
for Ordinary People?……Page 79
Notes……Page 80
5 What Revolution?……Page 82
Banish the dummy variable: the trouble with categories in studying women in action……Page 85
Neutrality and individual agency……Page 88
The origins of intersectional theory in black feminism……Page 89
Intersectionality in action……Page 92
Transforming women and politics through intersectional perspectives……Page 95
Notes……Page 96
Defining women’s movements……Page 97
Social movement concepts……Page 99
American political development and women’s movements……Page 100
Dynamic Changes in the First Wave……Page 101
Movement Consequences……Page 103
Multiple Activisms……Page 104
Multiple Identities……Page 105
Intersecting Causes……Page 106
External Effects……Page 108
Internal Effects……Page 110
Conclusion: tomorrow’s agenda……Page 111
Notes……Page 112
7 Representation by Gender and Parties……Page 114
Representation by gender or party……Page 115
Representation by gender and party……Page 119
Substantive Representation……Page 121
Descriptive, Substantive, and Party Representation……Page 124
Conclusion……Page 126
Notes……Page 127
8 Women as Candidates in American Politics……Page 128
Ambition and candidate emergence……Page 131
Stereotypes……Page 133
Campaigning and “presenting”……Page 135
Media coverage……Page 137
Structural and electoral……Page 138
Vote choice……Page 141
Impact of women candidates on the public……Page 143
Conclusion……Page 144
9 Women as Officeholders……Page 146
Policy Preferences……Page 147
Policy Leadership……Page 148
Policy Impact and Outcomes……Page 149
Legislative and Leadership Styles……Page 150
Constituent Responsiveness……Page 151
Directions for future research: explaining variation……Page 153
Individuals……Page 154
Institutions……Page 157
Political Context……Page 161
Concluding recommendations……Page 163
Notes……Page 164
10
Theorizing Women’s Representation in the United States……Page 166
The political representation of u.s. women……Page 168
Feminist contributions to understanding the representation of women……Page 170
The standards problem and the inclusion problem……Page 176
Future directions for study……Page 178
Conclusion……Page 181
Notes……Page 182
11 Political Women in Comparative Democracies……Page 185
Public opinion and voting behavior……Page 186
Women’s movements……Page 188
Elective office……Page 191
Public policy……Page 194
Conclusion……Page 196
Notes……Page 197
12 Conclusion: Between Participation and Representation……Page 199
Political participation, political voice, and women’s movements……Page 201
Political representation, political women, and u.s. democracy……Page 203
A Gendered Party System?……Page 205
Gendered Incumbency?……Page 206
Women’s Movements as Key Actors……Page 207
Conclusion: prospects for future research?……Page 208
The Full Range of Political Women……Page 209
Patterns of Change……Page 210
Political Space and Context……Page 211
Feminist Democratic Theory, State Theorizing, and Gender……Page 212
Notes……Page 213
References……Page 217
Index……Page 269