Kursinformation

Throughout the 20th century, modernization and the consequent shift in societal values led to decreasing political inequalities between men and women. Across the globe, increasing numbers of women entered parliaments and gradually shattered the glass ceiling, attaining powerful political offices. For a long time, the prevailing expectation was the process of modernization would inevitably lead to gender-equal democratic political systems, where men and women would occupy equal shares of positions in political parties, parliaments, and governments, with equivalent influence over policymaking. However, in practice, the progress towards gender equality in politics is facing significant internal and external challenges. Externally, progress has stagnated in many regions, with women’s political representation often remaining substantially below parity. Additionally, gender backlash movements have gained traction, particularly among radical and populist right political actors who actively mobilize against gender equality. Internally, the concept of gender equality itself is being challenged by increasingly diverse demands for inclusion. These include women with conservative political interests, intersectional identities, non-binary gender identities, and non-heteronormative sexual identities. Given these complexities, how can we understand gender (in-)equality in politics today? This seminar will explore the political involvement of women and other gender identity groups. In practice, we will speak a lot about women, as this group is best studied in the literature. Yet, we will look beyond where possible and explicitly consider transferability to other gender identity groups