Gender and party politics: New perspectives on women’s participation and representation

Abstract

Despite advances in women’s political participation and representation, parties remain heavily gendered organisations. Women continue to join parties and get elected less than men; if they achieve office, their careers are distinctively vulnerable; and the political integration of their interests face considerable challenges. The proposed panel looks at these issues by bridging the literature on gender and politics with that on party organisation, adopting a gendered lens to the study of political parties. Its contributions take an international comparative perspective and cover a broad range of countries from the Global North and the Global South, using a variety of qualitative and quantitative approaches. The panel thus provides novel insights into the gendered nature of party organisations and its implications for the representativeness of today’s democracies.

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