Gender, Political Power, and the State: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

Abstract

This panel focuses on gender, political power and the state from historical and contemporary perspectives. Two papers address the transnational intellectual history of feminist political thought. One addresses the reception of Mary Wollstonecraft’s ideas in nineteenth century Brazil asking who in a society with limited female formal education, was reading Wollstonecraft and to what political end The other examines Danish suffragette periodicals to analyse transnational exchanges and the framing of struggles in other countries. The third paper continues the debate about women’s suffrage continue by looking at how political parties in positioned themselves when confronted with proposals to extend voting right and how they navigated the dilemma between satisfying existing constituencies and anticipating future electorates. The other three papers explore different phenomena from a long-term perspective. The first explores the drivers behind the gendered effects of British welfare reform over the past 40 years. The second examines different approach to reproductive rights in socialist Yugoslavia and revisiting socialist state feminism. The third asks how states decide which intimate relationships are “family”, based on Indian appellate court cases from 2000 to 2024.

Title	Details
Wollstonecraftian principles in the Early Brazilian Feminist Press and the Case of Francisca Diniz	View Paper Details
The Intimacy Contract in Action: How Indian Courts Determine which Extramarital Relationships Deserve Recognition	View Paper Details
Suffrage as a Party System Issue: Party Strategies in the Politics of Voting Rights Extension	View Paper Details
On reproductive autonomy: reconsidering the case of Socialist Yugoslavia from the standpoint of contemporary debates	View Paper Details
Gendered Images of Welfare?: The Representation of Women and Gender in Welfare Speeches in the UK House of Commons 1979-2019	View Paper Details
Transnational Feminism and Women as Political Subjects as Framed in Danish Suffragette Periodicals 1907-1915	View Paper Details