The Adoption of Feminist Policies Under Conservative Governments

This dissertation sheds light on the role conservative governments play in promoting feminist policies despite an inherent tension between conservative principles and feminist claims. It is critical to focus on the process by which conservative governments adopt or reject feminist policies not only because we know little about the process, but also because conservative governments represent the least likely case. As such, we can learn more from the case of conservative governments than from the experience of leftist parties as it allows us to understand the influence of variables beyond an egalitarian ideology. Specifically, the dissertation will consider feminist policies addressing economic inequalities for women: father quotas in parental leave (a specific time period reserved exclusively for fathers) and corporate board quotas. This dissertation employs a comparative within case study of three cases in Germany with four additional preliminary case studies in United Kingdom and Japan utilizing process tracing, qualitative content analysis, and elite interviews. The dissertation finds that (a) feminist policy adoption under conservative governments is successful when coalition constraints facilitate the inclusion of the feminist policy on the policy agenda of the coalition government; and (b) when critical actors occupy veto player positions enabling the passage of the feminist policy into law

Reproducing Hierarchies at the APSA Annual Meeting: Patterns of Panel Attendance by Gender, Race, and Ethnicity

Research on the political science profession has shown that homophilous research networks—that is, those organized along the lines of gender and race/ethnicity—reproduce hierarchies. Research networks composed of white men experience the most prestige and lead to the most opportunities. This study documents homophilous networks in a setting where they likely are nurtured: academic conferences. Drawing data from the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, we examine the correspondence between the gender and the racial/ethnic composition of section members, panelists, and audience members for four research sections: Political Methodology; Political Psychology; Race, Ethnicity, and Politics; and Women and Politics. We find that attendees’ and panelists’ gender and racial/ethnic identity largely mirror the dominant gender and racial/ethnic group in their section. These findings indicate that homophily manifests at academic conferences and that efforts to diversify research networks should consider who listens to whom in these settings

Can Government-Controlled Media Cause Social Change? Television and Fertility in India *

Abstract Does exposure to government-controlled media shape social attitudes and behaviors? Governments routinely enlist public broadcasting to advance progressive social change. However, the efficacy of so-called "developmental communications" is unclear. Modernization theorists contend that the media serve as an important instrument of persuasion in poor countries-especially among certain population groups. Yet, where institutionalization is weak, government-controlled outlets are often dominated by ruling-party propaganda, which may induce distrust in the media and its messaging campaigns. To adjudicate which of these propositions holds sway, we investigate television's impact on fertility preferences and behaviors in India. Exploiting unique data, as well as plausibly exogenous variation in TV ownership due to electromagnetic wave refraction, we show that exposure to India's monopolistic state broadcaster, Doordarshan, caused women to desire fewer children-especially fewer girls-while increasing family planning discussions and contraceptive use. The results demonstrate that even biased state media can engender far-reaching societal transformation. * We than

The 2021 federal German election: A gender and intersectional analysis

On 26 September 2021, Germans elected the 20th Bundestag. This election was special in many ways. The article analyses the electoral campaign, voting behaviour, turnout, and the formation of a new coalition government by using a gender and intersectional lens. Against the conceptual background of descriptive, substantive, and symbolic representation, we outline the implications of the election for gender and intersectional politics in the new German Bundestag and the government. In descriptive and symbolic terms, we find higher numbers of women (and of minorities) in the Bundestag and its leadership as well as in government; in substantive terms, we observe the presence of ‘critical actors’ and the commitment to progressive politics in the new ‘Ampel’ coalition. Hence, we see at least a chance for change in several key policy areas and social progress in the next 4 years.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Crisis, Gender Role Congruency, and Perceptions of Executive Leadership

At a time of pandemics, international economic downturns, and increasing environmental threats due to climate change, countries around the world are facing numerous crises. What impact might we expect these crises to have on the already common perception that executive leadership is a masculine domain? For years, women executives' ability to lead has been questioned (Jalalzai 2013). However, the outbreak of COVID-19 brought headlines like CNN's "Women Leaders Are Doing a Disproportionately Great Job at Handling the Pandemic " (Fincher 2020). Do crises offer women presidents and prime ministers opportunities to be perceived as competent leaders? Or do they prime masculinized leadership expectations and reinforce common conceptions that women are unfit to lead? We maintain that people's perceptions of crisis leadership will depend on whether the crisis creates role (in)congruity between traditional gender norms and the leadership expectations generated by the particular crisis