Hostname: page-component-55f67697df-2mk96 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-09T06:34:21.722Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Before Prime Minister: Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel, and Gendered Party Leadership Contests

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2015

Karen Beckwith
Karen Beckwith*
Affiliation:
Case Western Reserve University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Given that most national executives have been men, it is a commonplace to observe that access to executive power is gendered. Men have historically served as heads of government, and few women have been presidents or prime ministers. Women's numbers are increasing, however, as is research focusing on women who have achieved national executive leadership (e.g., Jalalzai 2013; Murray 2010). Such research has emphasized women's individual resources and credentials, family background, and political experience as factors contributing to their political success; research focusing on the strategic and institutional structural factors that contribute to this success has been rare.

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , December 2015 , pp. 718 - 745
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Alderman, Keith. 1999. “Revision of Leadership Election Procedures in the Conservative Party.” Parliamentary Affairs 52 (2): 260–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrews, Edmund L. “Kohl Shaken By Scandal Over Cash For His Party,” New York Times, 21 December, 1999. http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/21/world/kohl-shaken-by-scandal-over-cash-for-his-party.html?scp=4&sq=helmut%20kohl%20scandal%201999&st=cse (accessed June 16, 2010).Google Scholar
Bale, Tim, and Webb, Paul. 2014. “The Selection of Party Leaders in the UK.” In The Selection of Political Party Leaders in Contemporary Parliamentary Democracies: A Comparative Study, ed. Pilet, Jean-Benoit and Cross, William P.. London and New York: Routledge, 12–30.Google Scholar
Bashevkin, Sylvia B. 2010. “When Do Outsiders Break In? Institutional Circumstances of Party Leadership Victories by Women in Canada.” Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 48 (1): 72–90.Google Scholar
Bates, Robert H. 2007. “Markets, Politics, and Choice.” In Passion, Craft, and Method in Comparative Politics, ed. Munck, Gerardo L. and Snyder, Richard. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 504–55.Google Scholar
Bell, Mark, and Alasdair Murray. 2007. Introduction to “In the Balance: Coalition and Minority Government in Britain and Abroad,” ed. Mark Bell and Alasdair Murray. Discussion Paper: CentreForum. http://www.centreforum.org/assets/pubs/in-the-balance-web.pdf (accessed June 28, 2010).Google Scholar
Bhavnani, Rikhil R. 2009. “Do Electoral Quotas Work after They Are Withdrawn? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in India.” American Political Science Review 103 (1): 23–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, David, and Butler, Gareth. 2000. Twentieth-Century British Political Facts, 1900–2000. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Clemens, Clay. 2006. “From the Outside In: Angela Merkel as Opposition Leader, 2000–2005.” German Politics and Society 24 (3): 41–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cross, William P., and Blais, André. 2012. The Selection and Removal of Party Leaders in the Anglo Parliamentary Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Denham, Andrew, and O'Hara, Kieron. 2008. Democratising Conservative Leadership Selection: From Grey Suits to Grass Roots. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Detterbeck, Klaus, and Rohlfing, Ingo. 2014. “Party Leader Selection in Germany.” In The Selection of Political Party Leaders in Contemporary Parliamentary Democracies: A Comparative Study, ed. Pilet, Jean-Benoit and Cross, William P.. London and New York: Routledge, 76–92.Google Scholar
“A German Suicide is Tied to Scandal,” New York Times, 21 January, 2000. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/21/world/a-german-suicide-is-tied-to-scandal.html (accessed September 1, 2015).Google Scholar
Gerring, John. 2007. Case Study Research: Principles and Practices. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gillard, Julia. 2014. My Story. London: Bantam Press.Google Scholar
Goetz, Klaus H. 2003. “Government at the Centre.” In Developments in German Politics 3, ed. Padgett, Stephen, Patterson, William E., and Smith, Gordon. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 17–37.Google Scholar
Green, Simon. 1999. “The 1998 German Bundestag Election: The End of an Era.” Parliamentary Affairs 52 (2): 306–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heath, Edward. 1998. The Course of My Life: My Autobiography. London: Hodder and Stoughton.Google Scholar
Helms, Ludger. 2000. “Is There Life After Kohl? The CDU Crisis and the Future of Party Democracy in Germany.” Government and Opposition 35 (4): 419–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hogwood, Patricia. 2004. “The Chancellor-Candidates and the Campaign.” German Politics 13 (2): 243–67.Google Scholar
Hughes, Melanie M., and Tripp, Aili Mari. 2015. “Civil War and Trajectories of Change in Women's Political Representation in Africa, 1985–2010.” Social Forces 93 (4): 1513–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jalalzai, Farida. 2013. Shattered, Cracked, or Firmly Intact? Women and the Executive Glass Ceiling Worldwide. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
James, Peter. 2000. “The 1998 German Federal Election.” Politics 20 (1): 33–38.Google Scholar
Kaiser, André, and Fischer, Jörn. 2009. “Linkages between Parliamentary and Ministerial Careers in Germany, 1949–2008: The Bundestag as Recruitment Pool.” German Politics 18 (2): 140–54.Google Scholar
Karacs, Imre, “Kohl Scandal: Europe's Old Master Admits He Ran Secret Slush Funds,” The Independent, December 1, 1999, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/kohl-scandal-europes-old-master-admits-he-ran-secret-slush-funds-1124613.html (accessed June 15, 2010).Google Scholar
King, Anthony. 2002. “The Outsider as Political Leader: The Case of Margaret Thatcher.” British Journal of Political Science 32 (3): 435–54.Google Scholar
King, Gary, Keohane, Robert O., and Verba, Sidney. 1994. Designing Social Inquiry. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Marr, Andrew. “The Power and the Glory,” Financial Times, 24/25 July, 2010.Google Scholar
Murray, Rainbow, ed. 2010. Cracking the Highest Glass Ceiling: A Global Comparison of Women's Campaigns for Executive Office. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.Google Scholar
Norris, Pippa. 2008. Driving Democracy: Do Power-Sharing Institutions Work? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Brien, Diana Z. 2015. “Rising to the Top: Gender, Political Performance, and Party Leadership in Parliamentary Democracies.” American Journal of Political Science, doi: 10.1111/ajps.12173.Google Scholar
Parker, George, and Warrell, Helen. “Theresa May: Britain's Angela Merkel?” Financial Times, 25 July, 2014.Google Scholar
Pilet, Jean-Benoit, and Cross, William P.. 2014. “The Selection of Party Leaders in Comparative Perspective.” In The Selection of Political Party Leaders in Contemporary Parliamentary Democracies: A Comparative Study, ed. Pilet, Jean-Benoit and Cross, William P.. London and New York: Routledge, 222–39.Google Scholar
Reynolds, Andrew. 1999. “Women in the Legislatures and Executives of the World: Knocking at the Highest Glass Ceiling.” World Politics 51 (4): 547–72.Google Scholar
Ríos Tobar, Marcela. 2008. “Seizing a Window of Opportunity: The Election of President Bachelet in Chile.” Politics & Gender 4 (3): 509–19.Google Scholar
Ryan, Michelle K., and Haslam, S. Alexander. 2005. “The Glass Cliff: Evidence that Women Are Over-Represented in Precarious Leadership Positions.” British Journal of Management 16 (2): 81–90.Google Scholar
Smith, Gordon. 2003. “The ‘New Model’ Party System.” In Developments in German Politics, ed. Padgett, Stephen, Paterson, William E., and Smith, Gordon. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 82–100.Google Scholar
Thatcher, Margaret. 1995. The Path to Power. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Tripp, Aili Mari. 2015. Women and Power in Post-Conflict Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wiliarty, Sarah. 2008. “Angela Merkel's Path to Power: The Role of Internal Party Dynamics and Leadership.” German Politics 17 (1): 81–96.Google Scholar
Wiliarty, Sarah. 2010. The CDU and the Politics of Gender in Germany: Bringing Women to the Party. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar