142 research outputs found
‘The first, but not the last’:Women's descriptive and substantive representation in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election
Get PDFThe 2021 Scottish Parliament election delivered the most diverse range of MSPs in Holyrood’s history, including a record number of women. We situate the 2021 election within its wider context, evaluating dynamics of party feminisation over time. Drawing on original candidate data and analysis of party manifestos across the main Scottish parties, we assess parties’ substantive appeals to women voters; the integration of different groups of women as candidates, MSPs and leaders; and the adoption and implementation of gender quotas. We find evidence of descriptive and substantive party feminisation in Scotland over time—including increases in both the amount and diversity of party manifesto pledges directed at women voters; improvements in the number and diversity of women selected and elected; and the increasing diffusion of, and inter-party competition over, gender quota measures. Yet we also find that progress has been uneven across parties and that some groups of women continue to be descriptively and substantively under-represented in Scottish politics
Doing politics differently? Applying a feminist institutionalist lens to the UK Women's Equality Party
No full textThe U.K. Women's Equality Party (WEP) was established in 2015 to “bring about change by winning—support, votes and seats.” It has thus far recruited tens of thousands of members and run candidates in European, national, devolved, and local elections. This article provides one of the first empirical analyses of this new actor in U.K. politics. Adopting a feminist institutionalist lens, we examine the extent to which WEP “does things differently” by looking at its discourse, formal party rules, and informal ways of doing things “on the ground.” Drawing on a set of semistructured interviews, observations of local and national party meetings, and document analysis, we argue that while WEP has to some extent tried to set up alternative participatory structures and new “ways of working,” it has also at times fallen back on more traditional, centralized, and hierarchical modes of party organizing, as well as informal practices that are more typically associated with male-dominated parties.<br/
The Women’s Equality Party: emergence, organisation and challenges
No full textWomen’s political parties are designed to increase women’s representation in politics. More than 30 have been established in Europe since 1987, yet there has been little systematic analysis of why and when they emerge, how they organise and what challenges they face. We argue that the study of women’s parties can offer insights into questions concerning inter and intra-party power relations and the relationship between social movements and political parties, while also contributing to broader debates around the ‘big questions’ of representation, gender (in)equality, and the dynamics of political inclusion and exclusion. This article explores these issues through a case study analysis of the UK’s Women’s Equality Party. Drawing upon original empirical research undertaken with party activists and officials, we argue that the party’s impact has been constrained by wider organisational logics and an unequal party system, while it has so far adhered to traditional (male-dominated) patterns of party organisation
The Scottish Parliament’s record on women’s representation is in the balance
No full textSince its establishment, the Scottish Parliament has set the standard in the UK for gender representation, with elections in 1999 and 2003 bringing record numbers of women into the legislature. Since then, however, progress towards a consistent equality has stalled. In the latest post in our Gender and Democracy series, Meryl Kenny of the University of New South Wales argues that an impressive record hangs in the balance, and that parties must be vigilant to avoid undoing all of their good work
A political earthquake forecast for Scotland – but will there be a genderquake?
No full textPolls indicate that the general election will see a funamental rewriting of the Scottish political landscape, with the SNP poised for a near sweep. The party also seems poised to take over from Labour as leaders on the issue of women’s representation in this election at least, although it is far from clear whether that will translate into support for quotas in the future, write Meryl Kenny and Fiona Mackay
'I just didn't see anyone like me’ : women's experiences in Scottish media, creative and cultural industries
Get PDFThis paper was prepared for Gender Equal Media Scotland and Engender by Meryl Kenny, Shan-Jan Sarah Liu, Fiona McKay and Elena Thomson, and provides new research on: intersectional obstacles to women’s participation in Scottish media, creative and cultural industries; mechanisms and initiatives that have been successful in improving access and representation of different groups of women in the sector; as well as women’s experiences of the effectiveness (or not) of these measures
Reclaiming Party Politics Research
Get PDFIn a 2021 Special Issue in European Political Science, Anika Gauja and Karina Kosiara-Pedersen review the sub-field of party politics research. In doing so, they argue party politics scholarship reflects the broader development of the political science discipline, illustrating the evolving relationship between politics researchers and the organisations they study. In this reply, we argue that the party politics sub-field reflects the wider discipline in another crucial respect – it continues to marginalise gender politics scholarship. We demonstrate that a gendered lens fundamentally transforms key questions in the field around what party politics scholars study, and how and why they conduct their research, with relevant consequences for whose work is included. In failing to engage with this scholarship, “mainstream” party politics scholars are (re)producing unequal power relations and hierarchies within the discipline, whilst also depriving themselves of the capacity to address fully key questions of representation, democracy, continuity and change
Gendering institutions: the political recruitment of women in post-devolution Scotland
Get PDFBoth feminist and mainstream political science has taken an institutional ‘turn’, opening up
possibilities for dialogue between the two fields. Yet, despite sharing a number of common
interests and preoccupations, there has been little interplay between mainstream new
institutionalist scholars and feminist political scientists working on institutions. This thesis
attempts to fill this gap and evaluates the potential for theoretical synthesis between feminist
gender analysis and new institutional theory. It argues that there is potential for mutual
benefit from a synthesis of these two approaches, and that a ‘feminist institutionalism’ offers
a promising theoretical approach for the study of gender and institutions.
The thesis evaluates the potential of a feminist institutionalist approach in the context of the
comparative literature on gender and political recruitment. It critically evaluates the supply
and demand model (Norris and Lovenduski, 1995), one of the only models that attempts to
systematically integrate gender into the dynamics of the recruitment process. The thesis
contends that a feminist institutionalist approach offers a way to take the supply and demand
forward, developing the theoretical interconnections that are present implicitly in Pippa
Norris and Joni Lovenduski’s work on political recruitment and reintegrating and
reformulating the key features of the model into a feminist and institutionalist framework.
The thesis develops this theory-building project through an illustrative case study – the
institutions of political recruitment in post-devolution Scotland. Using a multi-method
approach – including discourse analysis, process tracing, and political interviewing – the
thesis combines a macro-level analysis of gendered patterns of selection and recruitment in
Scottish political parties over time with a micro-level case study of a Scottish Labour Party
constituency seat selection contest in the run-up to the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections.
The case study finds some evidence of institutional innovation and reform in the candidate
selection process, but also highlights underlying continuities in the institutions of political
recruitment. The case study illustrates the specific and gendered difficulties of
institutionalizing a ‘new’ more gender-balanced politics within a pre-existing institutional
context. Findings from the case study suggest that the ‘success’ of institutional innovation in
candidate selection is a complex and contingent question, and that elements of the ‘old’
continue to co-exist with elements of the ‘new’, constraining and shaping each other. The Scottish case, then, underscores the need to rethink conventional models of political
recruitment, illustrating the difficulties of reforming and redesigning the institutions of
political recruitment in the face of powerful institutional and gendered legacies. As such, the
thesis generates new theoretical and empirical insights into the gendered dynamics of
institutional power, continuity and change that contribute to the growing body of research on
gender and institutions and inform the wider literature on both new institutional theory and
feminist political science
Online Appointment Scheduler: The Perfect Fit for the On-Demand Generation
No full textColumn description. Special Libraries, Special Challenges is a column dedicated to exploring the unique public services challenges that arise in libraries that specialize in a particular subject, such as law, medicine, business, and so forth. In each column, the author will discuss public service dilemmas and opportunities that arise in special libraries. Special or subject-matter librarians interested in authoring a piece for this column are invited to contact Patti Gibbons and Deborah Schander. This article is written by Meryl Brodsky. Meryl is the Business Librarian at Eastern Michigan University. She holds a MLS from Southern Connecticut State University and an MBA from Cornell University. This article explores a case study at Eastern Michigan University and how the Business Librarian transitioned from traditional office hours to an appointment-based system to better meet the reference needs of current students. The article examines the LibCal online scheduling program, how it was rolled out at EMU, its effectiveness and reception
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