Women & Politics Worldwide

Book Overview

To what extent do women participate in the decisions that shape the political and economic contours of the world? In what ways do women in different countries have different political goals? How should women mobilize for change?

This important book--the first to analyze the complexities of women's political participation on a cross-national scale and from a feminist perspective--surveys forty-three countries, chosen to represent a variety of political systems, levels of economic development, and regions, in order to answer these questions. The research definitively demonstrates that in no country do women have political status, access, or influence equal to men's.

The book begins by offering an expanded definition of political engagement; by elaborating on the patterns that emerge from the study; and by describing the methodology and data collection. The rest of the chapters focus on individual countries and follow a set format: they describe the political history and institutions in the country, summarize the organization of women's movements there, and analyze how groups of women articulate political demands and what responses they receive from their government or community. While the contexts of activism vary widely, the authors find that the issues that engage women politically are often similar across the globe: these include resistance to militarism, the desire to become equal partners in new democracies, and frustration about their lack of representation in programs for economic development.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300054084
• ISBN13: 9780300054088
• Release Date: April 1994
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 832 Pages
• Weight: 3.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 7.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

Facinating

I love this book. I read it two years ago, and I want to read it again. It tells you all you need to know about how far women has reached on different levels in society. Also it teaches you that "feminist" questions are wery different from one country to an other. In developing countries women emancipation is much related to basic health care systems, schooling for children (while at the same time World Bank higher management team is made up of 5 % women). The first four chapters gives you the analysis you need to see the picture clear. Then you can select the country chapters that you like to go through.

Must-have resource on women and politics

On a scale of 10, this book rates and eleven! It is the first of its kind to include essays on countries from North America to Nepal, Kenya to Korea. It sets the standard for future international and comparative research on women and politics. A monumental work co-edited by a U.S. and a Bangladeshi scholar, it provides the first ever collection of incisive articles about women in politics in 43 countries, each chapter written by women scholars, activists, and officials in that country. Each chapter first presents a useful snapshot of political, demographic, educational, and economic data on women; handy summary tables provide easy comparison across countries in each topical area. However, chapters are not written in cookbook style; rather, each author addresses the unique historical and current political issues most salient to women in her country, from rural development to democratization, health to headscarves. Four introductory chapters give excellent orientations to the conceptual framework, research design, methodology, data collection procedures. The framework introduces important concepts in the study of women and politics, such as nationalism, international economic forces, the women's movement, formal and informal politics, women's issues, and women's gender ideologies and action strategies. A lively, accessible work, no one who is interested in women and politics should be without it