Nordic Political Science Association - conference workshop

Panel 22. Gender, Politics and Democracy

Over the past decades, there has been a tremendous growth in the scholarship on gender and politics in local, national, and international politics. A similar scholarly focus on democracy and citizenship from a gender perspective has gained prominence and shed light on concepts such as inclusion and exclusion. More recently, postcolonial feminism (Lewis and Mills, 2003) and an analytical focus of intersectionality (Crenshaw 1989, 1991) adds to the complexity with a range of difference-making categories such as for example age, class, ethnicity/race, religious believes and sexual identities. These studies have advanced our knowledge of the complex ways in which gender shapes and interacts with political institutions, processes, policies and outcomes, but there are indeed still gaps in research regarding how gender, politics and democracy are linked. For instance, we know less about how aspects related to gender, politics and democracy are affected by the rapidly changing political landscape in many countries, where new parties are emerging, and old ones suffer electoral losses. There is also the influence of anti-gender mobilization and how this plays out in both democracies and autocracies. With a changing political landscape that combines stories of both progression and setbacks—to both democracy and the gender equality framework—it is important for the political science community in the Nordic countries to exchange ideas, perspectives, and research findings. This workshop aims to bring together a diverse group of scholars working in the field of politics and gender with the purpose of discussing what remains current gaps within the literature, as well building our knowledge about how the research frontier currently looks in studies of gender and politics. Language: English