ABSTRACT
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 women’s 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 women’s 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 women’s interests, for local government arrangements that enable women to engage effectively, and for accountability mechanisms that answer to women. The book’s 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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |21 pages
Introduction
chapter 1|19 pages
Governing Women
part Section 1|62 pages
Women's Civil Society Mobilization
chapter 4|22 pages
Transnational Feminism and Women's Human Rights
part Section 2|88 pages
Women in Political Competition
chapter 7|19 pages
From Political Sidecars to Legislatures
chapter 8|25 pages
Political Parties and Gender in Latin America
part Section 3|63 pages
Decentralization and Gender Equality
chapter 9|21 pages
Decentralizing Government and De-centering Gender
chapter 11|20 pages
Who Speaks For Whom?
part Section 4|54 pages
Gender Equality and Good Governance