chapter 6 - feminism

Question 1

what is feminism?

Answer 1

‘critical and disruptive social movement’ with origins outside of academia

feminism is a dialogue around a common evolving agenda, of correcting gender biases in the mainstream of the discipline

concern with women’s unequal position in society

Question 2

in what way are feminist approaches political?

Answer 2

they seek to recognise and understand gender power and relations (empirical), but also to change and transform them (normative, prescriptive)

Question 3

different waves of feminism

Answer 3

first-wave feminism: focused on legal and constitutional rights and suffrage (19-20 century)

second-wave feminism (1960s-1980s): broader issues of equality, e.g. workplace and family, domestic violence and reproductive rights

third wave feminism (90s-): diversity + inclusion of women of colour

Question 4

political science: gendered foundations

Answer 4

• most political scientists are male
• feminist approaches still often sidelined in political science and teaching
• women were relegated to the private sphere and ‘low politics’, men associated with public sphere and ‘high politics’
• distortion of the participation of women in politics (Bourque and Grossholtz)
• feminists argued that the positivist legacy wasn’t value free, there where masculine biases + focusing only on measurable political behaviour didn’t capture all politics
• feminists sought to expand the definition of politics

Question 5

4 categories of distortion of the participation of women in politics
- Susan Bourque and Jean Grossholtz

Answer 5

1. ‘fudging the footnotes’: inaccurate statements are made which aren’t substantiated by the cited material
2. assumption of male dominance
3. acceptance of masculinity as ideal political behaviour
4. commitment to the ‘eternal feminine’, basing explanations of political behaviour on unexamined stereotypes of women’s domestic roles

Question 6

'’where are the women’’

Answer 6

integrating women into the theories, frameworks and research areas

this can have significant influence on theories, concepts and mechanisms

e.g. Paxton: democracy is a gendered concept: emphasis on suffrage and participation of all major adult social groups, but in practice women are often excluded : only male suffrage is taken into account when looking at democratic transition -> more countries are seen as democracies than if you would include women participation

Question 7

the concept of gender

Answer 7

feminists prefer gender to sex

meaning of gender = inconsistencies in definitions of feminist approaches

a widely used definition (Joan Scott) = gender as a constitutive element of social relations based on perceived differences between women and men
- this makes gender a relevant analytical category for analysis

common in all definitions of different feminist approaches: gender is a primary way of signifying relationships of power

Question 8

female underrepresentation?

Answer 8

lately there is a shift of focus from female underrepresentation towards male over-representation

Question 9

gendered institutions

Answer 9

constructions of masculinity and femininity are intertwined in the daily culture or ‘logic’ of political institutions,

rather than ‘existing out in society or fixed within individuals which they then bring whole to the institution’

Question 10

intersectionality

Answer 10

Kimberl’e Creshaw

different intersecting categories of race, ethnicity, class, caste, dis/ability, sexuality play a role in the representation of different people

Question 11

3 key areas of feminist research

Answer 11

• political representation
• feminising political parties
• gendering the state and state feminism

Question 12

institutional turn

Answer 12

-> shifted focus from individual women to an institutional level of analysis (institutionalized advantages and disadvantages)

Question 13

feminism - political representation

Answer 13

• descriptive representation of women: the presence of women ‘standing for’ women = representativeness
• substantive representation of women: acting for women, and promoting women’s interests = representation

finding: female legislators are more likely than male legislators to ‘act for’ women, although within constraint

over time: more interest in how substantive representation occurs: not only focusing on legislature and parliaments, but also including other actors

Question 14

feminism - feminising political parties

Answer 14

explores interactive relationship between gender and party politics, conceptualising parties as gendered and gendering

• descriptive representation: looking at candidate selection and recruitment: gender shapes these structures, practices and rules
• substantive representation: argues that a gendered perspective can offer important insights for theories and frameworks of party characteristics, competition and change

Question 15

descriptive vs substantive representation

Answer 15

• descriptive representation of women: the presence of women ‘standing for’ women = representativeness
• substantive representation of women: acting for women, and promoting women’s interests = representation

Question 16

feminism - gendering the state and state feminism

Answer 16

emphasizes the fact that states aren’t single coherent entities, but differentiated sets of institutions, agencies and discourses through which specific gender pwower relations are constructed and reproduced

*mostly focused on western democracies

Question 17

feminisms’ dilemmas

Answer 17

• is political science still worthwhile for feminists as their concerns are largely ignored?
• feminist critique: feminist political science is not bold enough

Question 18

feminism and methods

Answer 18

• problem-driven rather than method-driven approach
• broad range of theoretical and methodological frames and synthesising different types of methods in innovative ways to answer specific questions
• open to combining interpretive and discursive approaches with traditional positivist methods and tools

Question 19

challenges feminism

Answer 19

1. continue to gender political science research (not enough to describe that it is gendered, its effects need to be analyzed + intersectionality has to be addressed)
2. incorporating the concept of gender into quantitative research
3. comparison and its role in theory building (more emphasis on comparative politics of gender)

Question 20

women in politics
vs
gender and politics

Answer 20

• women in politics looks at the underrepresentation of women
• gender and politics looks at the role gender plays in institutions and power dynamics