Conservatism, Rightist Parties and Women’s Political Representation

Abstract

The study of women’s political representation – whether that is descriptive, substantive, or symbolic – has often focused on women in leftist parties, in part because of their historic tendency to elect more women to our legislatures and in part because gender and politics scholars often equate better representation with feminist or women-friendly outcomes. However, there is an emerging recognition that right-wing women are increasing their presence in politics – whether as elected representatives or as women’s groups in civil society. These conservative women act as women, make claims about women, and seek to act for women; sometimes explicitly anti-feminist, they contend that conservatism can speak to women and for women’s interest and challenge others’ representations of women. This panel seeks conceptual and/or empirical papers that examine women’s political representation by conservatives (broadly defined) and is particularly keen to receive papers that combine both approaches. Papers are especially welcome that explore the ways in which taking conservatism and conservative women seriously impacts upon the way in which gender and politics scholars study women’s political representation – in terms of research questions, methods and design as well as the analytic frameworks that we employ.

Title	Details
Conservative Women Representing Women in Finland	View Paper Details
Beyond the ‘Usual Suspects’: Rightwing Parties and MPs as Critical Actors in Women’s Substantive Representation	View Paper Details
Conservative Women Challenging Citizenship (France 1880-1940)	View Paper Details
The Italian Christian Democracy and the Political Representation of Women	View Paper Details
The Rightist Discourse and the Difficulties of Institutionalising Feminism in Post-Communist Romania	View Paper Details
Responsive Actions or Symbolic Gestures? Justice and Development Party and Feminist Groups in Turkey	View Paper Details