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The Comparative Politics of Women's Movements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2005

Karen Beckwith
Karen Beckwith
Affiliation:
College of Wooster (kbeckwith@wooster.edu)
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Extract

The comparative study of women's movements is developing within the political science subfield of women and politics, largely by drawing on concepts and findings from several disciplines. From political science it borrows theories of the state, political development, democracy, and democratization. Sociology offers insights on social movements and the gendered nature of societies. Women's studies scholarship enables us to understand systematic gendered arrangements of power and privilege, including those fragmented or reinforced by class, race, sexuality, and ethnicity. The subfield of women and politics contributes both feminist theoretical insights and scholarship on elected women, female leaders, and women's policy preferences; these contributions inform comparative research on women's movements.Karen Beckwith is a professor of political science at the College of Wooster (kbeckwith@wooster.edu). She is coeditor, with Lee Ann Banaszak and Dieter Rucht, of Women's Movements Facing the Reconfigured State and author of American Women and Political Participation. Beckwith is the founding editor, with Lisa Baldez, of Politics & Gender, the journal of the Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association. The author thanks Jeff Lantis and Kent Kille for extensive comments on earlier versions of this article.

Type
REVIEW ESSAYS
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , September 2005 , pp. 583 - 596
Copyright
© 2005 American Political Science Association

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