We were delighted to begin our term as co-editors of Politics & Gender in July 2019. We intend to maintain the commitment to excellence in the study of gender and politics established by our predecessors. We are particularly grateful to Mary Caputi (California State—Long Beach) and her team for their dedication to the journal over the past three years. Since its establishment in 2005, the journal's strong reputation has been earned by publishing the highest-quality research on politics and gender and by a commitment to pluralism and diversity in terms of methodological approach, substantive topics, and theoretical perspectives. We are wholly committed to maintaining these principles.
Our vision for Politics & Gender understands gender as fundamental to and constitutive of politics, both narrowly and broadly defined. We view the study of gender and politics as necessarily intersectional, recognizing that gender hierarchies work with and through other key social and political hierarchies, including race, ethnicity, and class. We understand the topic of gender and politics to include, centrally, issues of sexuality, sexual identity, and gender identity. We recognize that sex and gender shape, facilitate, and constrain the behavior of political actors—both women and men—in all contexts and arenas and, importantly, in all parts of the world. We further understand political institutions, processes, movements, behavior, and development to be gendered in consequential ways. Gender is central to all aspects of politics, and we welcome research that explores gender and politics in all of its forms and locations.
Any doubts about the centrality of gender to politics should have been swept away in recent years. The current American presidential election highlights the evolving impact of sexism, challenges and opportunities for female candidates, and the performance of both femininity and masculinity in politics. Around the world, prominent female leaders—Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand), Michelle Bachelet (Chile), Angela Merkel (Germany), and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Liberia), to name just a few—challenge and construct gendered expectations for political leadership and representation. The recent wave of activism across the globe often has been organized by and primarily composed of women, defined by gendered tactics and messages, and seeking gendered reform. Central policy agendas—reproductive rights, representation, LGBTQ rights and identity, sexual violence—are characterized by progress, backsliding, and backlash. All of these phenomena—and so many more!—call for scholars’ careful theoretical and empirical attention to the intersections of politics and gender.
In this context, we should not be surprised by the increasing production of research on politics and gender. In the two-year period from 2016 to 2018 alone, submissions to Politics & Gender increased 85%. Notably, this sharp uptick in submissions has occurred despite the welcome expansion and diversification of publication outlets for work on politics and gender, including Politics, Groups, and Identities and the European Journal of Politics and Gender. We are delighted to see these and other outlets for work on politics and gender emerge and expand. For Politics & Gender, these developments create an exciting—and also challenging—landscape as the journal moves forward. As editors, we are working with the Women and Politics Research Section and Cambridge University Press on concrete strategies to ensure the journal adapts to these new realities in ways that both maintain excellence and advance the field.
The ways in which knowledge is disseminated also are evolving. Fewer readers peruse full issues of any journal in print, and scholars and the public increasingly engage with research via social media and blogs. We intend to enhance the reach and impact of research published in Politics & Gender in several ways. You can now follow Politics & Gender on Twitter at @PoliticsGenderJ. A dedicated social media assistant is working with us to promote articles in Politics & Gender as they become available, as well as to share links to curated articles, or sets of articles, on important themes, related to current events, and/or relevant to syllabi. We look forward to working closely with Politics & Gender authors on strategies for sharing their research in appropriate blogs and other venues that reach both scholars and engaged public audiences.
In addition to upholding the journal's reputation for excellence, we are committed to ensuring transparency, clarity, and efficiency in the work of Politics & Gender. Expanded and updated information for authors and readers related to the journal's procedures and policies is available on the journal website. That commitment extends to us as editors—we encourage you to reach out with any questions or concerns that you might have about the journal throughout our term.
We are proud to be supported by an outstanding and diverse editorial team. Meryl Kenney (University of Edinburgh, UK) serves as book editor, and our associate editors are Sarah Bush (Yale University), Suzanne Dovi (University of Arizona), Alice J. Kang (University of Nebraska), Diana Z. O'Brien (Rice University), Wendy G. Smooth (Ohio State University), and Pär Zetterberg (Uppsala University, Sweden). Each brings expertise in important fields and topics in the study of politics and gender, an established record of scholarly excellence, and a commitment to advancing gender and politics research. Our editorial board features scholars with a range of expertise, institutional affiliations, and experiences, and includes representation from most regions of the world. Perhaps most importantly, we are delighted to be working with Notre Dame graduate students Emma Rosenberg and Hannah Early Bagdanov, as our editorial assistants, and University of Calgary graduate student Meagan Cloutier on special journal projects. We thank them all for their expertise, assistance, patience, and good humor.
Our goal for Politics & Gender is to maintain and expand its reputation as the leading venue for theoretical and empirical exploration of the multitude of ways in which gender informs, explains, and makes politics. We are honored to have been tasked with editing this journal at such a pivotal time for the field of politics and gender.
