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The cross-national trend in post-industrial societies of establishing state structures assigned to improve the status of women is studied in this book. The existence of a phenomenon called `state feminism' has begun to be a focus of research in the past few years, although the phenomenon itself dates from the 1960s, thus there is a clear need for a comparative analysis. With contributions from renowned scholars, the book: describes and classifies the range and diversity of state structures charged with improving the status of women in post-industrial societies; analyzes their effect on the status of women on achieving feminist goals; and explains the variations among post-industrial societies in the establishment, elaboration and effectiveness of such state structures.
List of contents
Introduction - Dorothy McBride Stetson and Amy Mazur
`Femocrats in Glass Towers¿ - Marian Sawer
The Office of the Status of Women in Australia
Feminism and State Institutions in Canada - Linda Geller-Schwartz
A Political Niche - Anette Borchorst
Denmark¿s Equal Status Council
Strong State and Symbolic Reform - Amy Mazur
The
Ministère des Droits de la Femme in France
Making Equality - Myra Marx Ferree
The Women¿s Affairs Offices in the Federal Republic of Germany
The Equal Opportunities Commission in Great Britain - Joni Lovenduski
Ireland¿s Policy Machinery - Evelyn Mahon
The Ministry of State for Women¿s Affairs and Joint Oireachtas Committees for Women¿s Rights
The Late-Comers - Marila Guadagnini
Italy¿s Equal Status and Equal Opportunity Agencies
Administrative Accommodation in the Netherlands - Joyce Outshoorn
The Department for the Coordination of Equality Policy
Women¿s Equality Machinery in Norway - Jill Bystydzienski
The Equal Status Council
Women, the State and the Need for Civil Society - Jean Robinson
The
Liga Kobiet in Poland
The Power of Persuasion - Ceila Valiente
The
Instituto de la Mujer in Spain
The State¿s Equality for Women - Amy Elman
Sweden¿s Equality Ombudsman
The Oldest Women¿s Policy Agency - Dorothy McBride Stetson
The Women¿s Bureau in the U S
Conclusion - Amy Mazur and Dorothy McBride Stetson
The Case for State Feminism
About the author
Amy G. Mazur is a C.O. Johnson Distinguished Professor in the Department of Political Science at Washington State University.
Her research and teaching interests focus on comparative methodology and comparative gender and policy issues with a particular emphasis on France. She is co editor of Political Research Quarterly. Her books include: Comparative State Feminism (Sage, 1995) (editor with Dorothy McBride); Gender Bias and the State: Symbolic Reform at Work in Fifth Republic France (Pittsburgh University Press, 1995); State Feminism, Women′s Movement, and Job Training: Making Democracies Work in the Global Economy (Routledge, 2001) (editor); Theorizing Feminist Policy (Oxford, 2002); Politics, Gender and Concepts (editor with Gary Goertz, Cambridge University Press 2008); The French Fifth Republic at Fifty: Beyond Stereoytpes (editor with Sylvain Brouard and Andrew Appleton, Palgrave, 2008). She has published articles in Comparative European Politics, Revue Française de Science Politique, Politics and Gender, Political Research Quarterly, French Politics and Society, Policy Studies Journal, West European Politics, and European Journal of Political Research, European Political Science, Review of Policy Research, Contemporary French Civilization, French Politics, Travail Genre et Société and Espace-Temps. She is co-convener of the Research Network on Gender Politics and the State and of the French Politics Group of the APSA. In 2007-08, she was a visiting professor at Sciences Po- Paris and in Fall 2001 was the Marie-Jahoda Professor of International Feminist Studies at Ruhr University, Bochum. In 2005-06 she was an expert for the United Nations for the Expert Group Meeting on Equal Participation of Women and Men in Decision-making Processes and rapporteur of the final meeting report. She has also been consulted by the European Union and the Obama Administration. She has received research grants from the National Science Foundation, the European Science Foundation, and the French Ministry of Social Affairs.
