Governing Women: Womens Political Effectiveness in Contexts of Democratization and Governance Reform [Paperback]

Though the proportion of women in national assemblies still barely scrapes 16% on average, the striking outliers  Rwanda with 49% of its assembly female, Argentina with 35%, Liberia and Chile with new women presidents this year  have raised expectations that there is an upward trend in womens representation from which we may expect big changes in the quality of governance. But getting women into public office is just the first step in the challenge of creating governance and accountability systems that respond to womens needs and protect their rights.

Using case studies from around the world, the essays in this volume consider the conditions for effective connections between women in civil society and women in politics, for the evolution of political party platforms responsive to womens interests, for local government arrangements that enable women to engage effectively, and for accountability mechanisms that answer to women. The books argument is that good governance from a gender perspective requires more than more women in politics. It requires fundamental incentive changes to orient public action and policy to support gender equality.

Acknowledgments.  Introduction  1. Governing Women: Will New Public Space for Some Women Make a Difference for All Women?  Anne Marie Goetz  Section 1: Womens Civil Society Mobilization  2. Crossing the Lines: Womens Social Mobilization in Latin America  Virginia Bouvier  3. Consequences of Political Liberalization and Socio-Cultural Mobilization for Women in Algeria, Egypt and Jordan  Marnia Lazreg  4. Transnational Feminism and Womens Human Rights: Successes and Challenges of a Political Strategy  Brooke A. Ackerly and Bina DCostaló8