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Women in political life: Variations at the global level
Abstract
Data regarding the participation of women in elective and appointive office at local and national levels in 60 countries are analyzed. Included are data from both industrializing and industrialized countries. Overall, the data reveal that, globally, women’s presence among political elites remains low, significant variations in the proportion of women elected to public office exists among the industrializing countries andthe industrialized centrally planned and market oriented economies. Regional differences are significant for women’s appoinment to the diplomatic service in the industrializing countries.
An Assessment of Articles About Women in the “Top 15” Political Science Journals* - Volume 26 Issue 3 - Rita Mae Kelly, Kimberly Fisher
It is argued that mostly men take place in foreign policy decision-making process; masculine values come to the forefront; women and feminine values are usually overlooked, It is maintained in the context of this view emphasized especially by the feminists that rendering women more visible in the field of international relations may not only lead to radical transformations in the current structure, but also ensure a more peaceful structure. However, history shows that very few women have participated in these mechanisms and that most of them, contrary to the expectations, have pursued masculine policies. This study aims to determine the place of the women in foreign policy decision-making mechanisms; to investigate whether the roles they play and policies they adopt are actually in line feminine values and to identify and analyze the relevant reasons.
The first detailed study of women elected to the national legislatures of Central American republics.
Because general-education courses attract large numbers of men, incorporating information on women from an international perspective complicates the effort to reach all students. My first effort to modify one such course failed because of a weak goal and poor course design. Subsequently, I created two complementary but independent sex-roles courses that appear to be more effective. Successful strategies include dividing important issues between the two courses while keeping each self-contained and keeping the content areas few and discrete. Information about international issues must pervade the required readings, the lectures, and all other course materials to provide credibility and force to the perspective. Films and works of fiction help situate abstract concepts in lived experience and provide immediacy. Nonhierarchical teaching fosters greater class participation and engagement with course materials.
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Because general-education courses attract large numbers of men, incorporating information on women from an international perspective complicates the effort to reach all students. My first effort to modify one such course failed because of a weak goal and poor course design. Subsequently, I created two complementary but independent sex-roles courses that appear to be more effective. Successful strategies include dividing important issues between the two courses while keeping each self-contained and keeping the content areas few and discrete. Information about international issues must pervade the required readings, the lectures, and all other course materials to provide credibility and force to the perspective. Films and works of fiction help situate abstract concepts in lived experience and provide immediacy. Nonhierarchical teaching fosters greater class participation and engagement with course materials.
whole problem of how political science views women be discarded with the observation that women are rarely influential actors in public activities and therefore do not merit the serious attention of observers of political life. The invisibility of women in political science stems from the traditional concerns and emphases of the discipline which come, in turn, from its largely Western setting. By examining politics in other cultural settings, we can come to understand why women have received so little attention in political science. Only with a significant expansion of its scope can the discipline incorporate women into its analyses. The changing circumstances of politics around the world now mandates such an expansion. Nowhere is this more obviously the case than in Africa. Before examining how and why political scientists have ignored African women, it is important to review briefly political science as a discipline.
This essay seeks to examine the approaches andmethods most propitious to the cross-cultural study of women and politics, because it is in the cross-cultural context where the methodological problems of studying women and politics are posted in their complexity. Using Arend Lijphart's concept of the "comparative method," the essay applies this concept to the cross-cultural study of women and politics as a means of avoiding a number of conceptual problems inherent in the subject matter. The essay focuses on political participation, broadly defined, and uses this focus as a means of illustrating through substantive examples the problems of studying women and politics. A critique of the predominantly American literature is offered, as well as an examination of the successful uses of the comparative method as examples for future research. The particular data problems for women's studies scholars are discussed. Operationalization of the variable sex or gender is placed in the context of cross-cultural study. A number of research approaches are discussed: the case study variant of the comparative method, longitudinal analysis, elite studies, cohort analysis, cross-sectional analysis, and the ecological approach. The last two approaches are critized as being particularly unsuited to studying women and politics.