The Politics of Gender (In-) Equality

DIGITALE LEHRVERANSTALTUNG

When Angela Merkel became German chancellor in 2005, she was the first female head of government. This makes her one of few women who managed to surpass the glass ceiling and get to the top of a political system. In the 21st century, the lion share of political officeholder is still male in most states around the globe. During this seminar, we will study the role of gender stereotypes for democratic decision-making. We will look at the role of women in different political institutions (executive and legislature) as well as the electorate. The participants will discuss questions such as: Why are women still less likely to participate in politics? Do male and female candidates have the same chances to win when running for office? Which barriers hinder gender-equal representation? And do large proportions of women in parliament cause change in the debates and policies?

The seminar will be organized around four substantial blocks: First, we study the role of women in the executive. We look at the small number of women who became either minister or head of government to identify barriers to women’s selection into executive office. Second, we look at women in the legislature. On the one hand, we study explanations for continuingly low proportions of women in parliaments worldwide. On the other hand, we look at the difference women make through presence in parliaments, both for politics and policies. In the third substantial block, we study women’s participation. Focusing mostly, but not exclusively, on electoral behavior, we identify the gender gap in voting and established explanations. Additional sessions are concerned with the gender gap in support for populist and extreme parties and the historical explanations for variation in the timing of the introduction of women’s suffrage. Fourth, a final block is concerned with students’ own research and a final reflection and discussion of avenues for future research.

Each session will be characterized by a mixture of descriptive statistics (does gender matter?), theoretical explanations for the phenomena (why does gender matter?), and the research design used in scholarly works to address related questions (how to find out?).