Gender and politics, also called gender in politics, is a field of study in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

and

gender studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field ...

that aims to understand the relationship between peoples'

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...

s and phenomena in

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

. Researchers of gender and politics study how peoples' political participation and experiences interact with their

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...

, and how ideas of gender shape political institutions and decision-making. Women's political participation in the context of

patriarchal Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of Dominance hierarchy, dominance and Social privilege, privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical Anthropology, anthropological term for families or clans controll ...

political systems is a particular focus of study. Gender and politics is an

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...

field, drawing not just from political science and gender studies but also related fields such as feminist political thought, and peoples' gendered treatment is commonly seen as intersectionally linked to their entire

social identity Identity is the qualities, beliefs, personality traits, appearance, and/or expressions that characterize a person or group.Compare ''Collins Dictionary of Sociology'', quoted in In sociology, emphasis is placed on collective identity, in which ...

History

Scholars interested in the relationship between gender and politics published studies on the topic as early as the 1960s and 1970s, and by the mid-2000s the topic had become a coherent subfield of political science, with dedicated publishing venues and conferences.

Scope and context

Overview

The study of gender and politics is concerned with how peoples' gender structures their participation in and experience of political events, and how political institutions are encoded with gendered ideas. This study exists in the context that, historically and across countries, gender has been a core determinant of how resources are distributed, how policies are set, and who participates in political decision-making. Because of the breadth covered by the subfield, it spans numerous areas of study in politics such as

international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...

comparative politics Comparative politics is a field in political science characterized either by the use of the ''comparative method'' or other empirical methods to explore politics both within and between countries. Substantively, this can include questions relatin ...

political philosophy Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, l ...

, and

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...

, and it draws from and builds on ideas in feminist political theory like

intersectionality Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of adva ...

and modern conceptions of gender. The study of gender and politics overlaps with the study of how other components of peoples' social identities interact with their political participation and experiences, with researchers particularly emphasizing that the interaction of gender and politics is intersectional and dependent on factors like peoples' race, class, and

gender expression Gender expression, or gender presentation, is a person's behavior, mannerisms, interests, and appearance that are associated with gender, specifically with the categories of femininity or masculinity. This also includes gender roles. These cat ...

. The study of gender and politics may also be referred to as "gender in politics", and is closely related to the study of "women and politics" or "women in politics", which may also be used

synecdochically Synecdoche ( ) is a type of metonymy: it is a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something is used to refer to the whole (''pars pro toto''), or vice versa (''totum pro parte''). The term comes from Greek language, Greek . Example ...

to refer to the connection between gender and politics.

Women and politics

A central concern in the study of gender and politics is the patriarchal exclusion of women from politics, which is a common but not universal theme historically and across cultures. As the involvement of women in public affairs increased across many societies during the 20th and 21st centuries, academic attention was also increasingly focused on the changing role of women in politics. For example, a common topic in the study of gender and politics is the participation of women as politicians, voters, and activists in a particular country. Since that participation exists in some political context, many scholars of gender and politics also study the political mechanisms that either enable or suppress women's participation in politics; women's social participation may increase or decrease as a result of political institutions, government policies, or social events. Another common topic of study is the impact on women of particular social policies, such as debates over

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

reproductive rights Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to reproduction and reproductive health that vary amongst countries around the world. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights as follows: Reproductive rights rest on t ...

, women in government quotas, and policies on

violence against women Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), are violent acts primarily or exclusively committed against women or girls, usually by men or boys. Such violence is often consi ...

. Gender and politics researchers have also analyzed the position of women in the discipline of political science, which has mirrored the broader societal trend of increasing inclusion and participation of women beginning in the second half of the 20th century.

Works and institutions

Gender and politics is the focus of the journals ''

Politics & Gender ''Politics & Gender'' is a political science journal that publishes scholarship on gender and politics and on women and politics. It aims to represent the full range of questions, issues, and approaches on gender and women across the major subfie ...

'' and the '' European Journal of Politics and Gender. Gender and politics is also the title of a book series, ''Gender and Politics'', which launched in 2012 and published dozens of volumes over the next several years. There are a number of institutes and centers devoted to the study of gender and politics. The

Center for American Women and Politics The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) is a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Established in 1971, it is nationally and internationally recognized as the leading source of scholar ...

in the

Eagleton Institute of Politics The Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University was established in 1956 with an endowment from Florence Peshine Eagleton (1870–1953), and it focuses on state and national politics through education and public service. Ruth Mandel serve ...

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

is dedicated to the study of women's political participation in the United States. Other examples include the

Women & Politics Institute The Women & Politics Institute (WPI) is a research institute located in the School of Public Affairs at American University, in Washington, D.C. Their mission is to close the gender gap in political leadership. The institute provides young women ...

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

, which seeks "to close the gender gap in political leadership" by providing relevant academic training to young women, and the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at the

University of Massachusetts Boston The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a Public university, public research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus Un ...

which has a similar mandate.

References