Popular consensus has long been that if "enough women" are present in political institutions they will represent "women's interests." Yet many believe that differences among women - women disagreeing about what is in "their interest" - fatally undermine both the principle and the practice ofwomen's group representation. In this book, Karen Celis and Sarah Childs redress women's poverty of political representation with a new feminist account of democratic representation. Rather than giving up on women's group representation, Celis and Childs re-think and re-design representativeinstitutions, taking women's differences - both ideological and intersectional - as their starting point.Feminist Democratic Representation considers a broad spectrum of contemporary problematics - abortion, prostitution/sex work, Muslim women's dress, and Marine Le Pen - to discuss women's under- and misrepresentation and the "good, bad and the ugly" representative. As problem-driven scholars firmlygrounded in feminist and democratic empirical and theoretical political science, Celis and Childs imagine what good representation for women in all their diversity could look like - representation as it should be. To realize this ideal in today's established representative democracies, they presenta second-generation feminist design for parliaments and legislatures, underpinned by a re-thinking of feminist and democratic principles.Celis and Childs conceive of representation as a melange of dimensions, and they shift the focus in women's group representation from feminist outcome to feminist process. Inclusive, responsive, and egalitarian representation for all women demands a new category of representatives in parliaments:the "affected representatives of women" who are epistemologically and experientially close to differently affected women. Affected representatives passionately advocate within political institutions, and publicly hold elected representatives to account. Feminist processes of representation have wideeffects and deepen relationships between women and their democratic institutions. Against the more fashionable tide of post-representative politics, Feminist Democratic Representation argues not simply for more, but significantly better, representation.

Feminist Democratic Representation

Politics & Social Sciences

Celis, Karen

Childs, Sarah

Social Sciences

Oxford University Press

It was not long after the election of a record number of women to the House of Commons in 1997 that the backlash began. The criticism was all-encompassing: they wore the wrong clothes, they voted the wrong way and they were concerned with the wrong issues. Above all, they were accused of failing to make difference, to have failed women, and were dismissed by some as 'Blair's Babes'. Drawing on in-depth interviews with more than half of the new Labour women MPs, Sarah Childs reveals how these women actually experienced being MPs, and explores whether they acted for and like women - in their constituencies, in parliament and in government. She presents important insights into theories of women's political representation, showing that the relationship between women's descriptive and substantive representation is complicated, that party and gender identities are crucial, that women's differences must be acknowledged and that it might not always be possible for women representatives to act for women even if they want to. Including a key section on women's selection for parliament; whether women MPs act as role models; why it is important that women should be present in politics; as well as exploring in depth the subject of women's substantive representation, New Labour's Women MPs is essential reading for all those interested in women and politics, legislative studies, political behaviour and representation.

New Labour's Women MPs: Women Representing Women

Taylor and Francis

Women and British Party Politics (Routledge Advances in European Politics)

Women and British Party Politics examines the characteristics of women’s participation at the mass and elite level in contemporary British politics; as voters, party members and elected representatives respectively. It explores what this means for ideas about, and the practice of, descriptive, substantive and symbolic representation. The main focus is on the feminization of British party politics - the integration of women into formal political institutions and the integration of women’s concerns and perspectives into political debate and policy - in the post-1997 period.   Not only specifically designed to bring together cutting-edge conceptual developments in the sub-discipline of gender and politics, with robust British empirical research, this book also presents reflections on how best to study gender and politics. The empirical findings which are presented through the extensive use of case studies derive from a range of research projects which were undertaken over a period of ten years, and which make use of a variety of research methods and techniques.   This book will appeal to all those with an interest in British Politics, Feminism and European Studies; and will provide the reader with an overview of the complex relationship between sex, gender and politics in a conceptually sophisticated fashion.

Women and British Party Politics: Descriptive, Substantive and Symbolic Representation (Routledge Advances in European Politics)

Women's Studies

Routledge

It was not long after the election of a record number of women to the House of Commons in 1997 that the backlash began. The criticism was all-encompassing: they wore the wrong clothes, they voted the wrong way and they were concerned with the wrong issues. Above all, they were accused of failing to make difference, to have failed women, and were dismissed by some as ‘Blair’s Babes’.   Drawing on in-depth interviews with more than half of the new Labour women MPs, Sarah Childs reveals how these women actually experienced being MPs, and explores whether they acted for and like women – in their constituencies, in parliament and in government. She presents important insights into theories of women’s political representation, showing that the relationship between women’s descriptive and substantive representation is complicated, that party and gender identities are crucial, that women’s differences must be acknowledged and that it might not always be possible for women representatives to act for women even if they want to.  Including a key section on women’s selection for parliament; whether women MPs act as role models; why it is important that women should be present in politics; as well as exploring in depth the subject of women’s substantive representation, New Labour’s Women MPs is essential reading for all those interested in women and politics, legislative studies, political behaviour and representation.

Drawing on interviews with over half of new Labour women MPs, Sarah Childs reveals how the women experienced being MPs, and explores whether they acted for and like women - in constituencies, in Parliament and in government.

Women and British Party Politics: Descriptive, Substantive and Symbolic Representation

New Labour's Women Mps: Women Representing Women

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Childs, Sarah. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Childs, Sarah

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Childs, Sarah. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Feminist Democratic Representation

New Labour's Women MPs: Women Representing Women

Women and British Party Politics: Descriptive, Substantive and Symbolic Representation (Routledge Advances in European Politics)

Women and British Party Politics (Routledge Advances in European Politics)

New Labour's Women MPs: Women Representing Women

New Labour's Women MPs: Women Representing Women

Women and British Party Politics: Descriptive, Substantive and Symbolic Representation

New Labour's Women Mps: Women Representing Women