Gender And Politics

Gender and politics, also called gender in politics, is a field of study in political science and gender studies that aims to understand the relationship between peoples' genders and phenomena in politics. Researchers of gender and politics study how peoples' political participation and experiences interact with their gender identity, and how ideas of gender shape political institutions and decision-making. Women's political participation in the context of patriarchal political systems is a particular focus of study. Gender and politics is an interdisciplinary field, drawing not just from political science and gender studies but also related fields such as feminist political thought, and peoples' gendered treatment is commonly seen as intersectionally linked to their entire social identity.

Scope and context

Overview

The study of gender and politics is concerned with how peoples' gender structures their participation in and experience of political events, and how political institutions are encoded with gendered ideas. This study exists in the context that, historically and across countries, gender has been a core determinant of how resources are distributed, how policies are set, and who participates in political decision-making. Because of the breadth covered by the subfield, it spans numerous areas of study in politics such as international relations, comparative politics, political philosophy, and public policy, and it draws from and builds on ideas in feminist political theory like intersectionality and modern conceptions of gender. The study of gender and politics overlaps with the study of how other components of peoples' social identities interact with their political participation and experiences, with researchers particularly emphasizing that the interaction of gender and politics is intersectional and dependent on factors like peoples' race, class, and gender expression.

The study of gender and politics may also be referred to as "gender in politics", and is closely related to the study of "women and politics" or "women in politics", which may also be used synecdochically to refer to the connection between gender and politics.

In a study conducted by Amy Friesenhahn called At the Intersection of Gender and Party:
Legislative Freedom, we see how intricate the study of gender and politics is. The study delves into the intricate dynamics of gender and politics, particularly focusing on the behavior of politicians in relation to women-friendly districts. The findings shed light on how district characteristics influence legislative freedom and party defections on women's issue roll-call votes among both Democratic and Republican members of Congress. The study reveals that Democratic women MCs representing moderately women-friendly districts are more likely to defect from party on women’s issue roll-call votes than their partisan counterparts who are men. On the other hand, there are no apparent gender differences in party defection among Republican MCs on women’s issue roll-call votes. However, the Republican women-friendly district effect increases the likelihood of Republicans defecting from party on women’s issues. The research also highlights the importance of district-level demographic characteristics as a conditional explanatory factor for Republican MCs exercising legislative freedom on women’s issues. It suggests that as districts become more women-friendly, Republican MCs, even men, will likely serve as substantive representatives for women’s interests. Moreover, the study acknowledges certain limitations, such as the inability of existing measures to capture the likely success of women candidates of color. Future research is encouraged to delve deeper into intersectionality and the effects of descriptive representation in terms of race and gender, combined with district characteristics, on women’s issue roll-call voting behavior. The study contributes to the ongoing discourse on gender and politics, providing insights into how district characteristics intersect with gender to influence political behavior. It underscores the nuanced nature of political representation and the need to further explore intersectional dynamics within political contexts.

Women and politics

A central concern in the study of gender and politics is the patriarchal exclusion of women from politics, which is a common but not universal theme historically and across cultures. As the involvement of women in public affairs increased across many societies during the 20th and 21st centuries, academic attention was also increasingly focused on the changing role of women in politics. For example, a common topic in the study of gender and politics is the participation of women as politicians, voters, and activists in a particular country. Since that participation exists in some political context, many scholars of gender and politics also study the political mechanisms that either enable or suppress women's participation in politics; women's social participation may increase or decrease as a result of political institutions, government policies, or social events. Another common topic of study is the impact on women of particular social policies, such as debates over women's rights, reproductive rights, women in government quotas, and policies on violence against women.

Gender and politics researchers have also analyzed the position of women in the discipline of political science, which has mirrored the broader societal trend of increasing inclusion and participation of women beginning in the second half of the 20th century.

Works and institutions

Gender and politics is the focus of the journals ''Politics & Gender'' and the ''European Journal of Politics and Gender''. Gender and politics is also the title of a book series, ''Gender and Politics'', which launched in 2012 and published dozens of volumes over the next several years.

There are a number of institutes and centers devoted to the study of gender and politics. The Center for American Women and Politics in the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University is dedicated to the study of women's political participation in the United States. Other examples include the Women & Politics Institute at American University, which seeks "to close the gender gap in political leadership" by providing relevant academic training to young women, and the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston which has a similar mandate.

See also

*Identity politics
* Gender essentialism
* Gender empowerment
** Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM)
* Sociology of gender
* Anti-gender movement
* Patriarchy
* Sexism in American political elections

References

{{reflist

Subfields of political science
Gender studies
Gender and society
Feminism and society
Control (social and political)
Social privilege