State Feminism and Political Representation

Extract

State Feminism and Political Representation. Edited by Joni Lovenduski with Claudie Baudino, Marila Guadagnini, Petra Meier, and Diane Sainsbury. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 315p., $34.99 paper, $85.00 cloth.

This latest volume from the Research Network on Gender Politics and the State (RNGS), inspired by Amy Mazur and Dorothy Stetson's 1995 Comparative State Feminism, explores women's campaigns for political representation in 10 European Union countries (Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden) and the United States. The introduction and conclusion outline the RNGS framework, hypotheses, and findings, based on 33 debates (the basic unit of analysis) over three decades. Eleven chapters present each country's debates. RNGS promotes a theory of state feminism defined as “the advocacy of women's movement demands inside the state” (p. 4).