Women, Politics, and Power by Pamela Paxton

Women, Politics, and Power by Pamela Paxton

Women, Politics, and Power provides a clear and detailed introduction to women’s political participation and representation across all branches of government and a wide range of countries and regions. Using broad statistical overviews and detailed case-study accounts, authors Pamela Paxton, Melanie M. Hughes, and Tiffany D. Barnes document both historical trends and the contemporary state of women’s political strength across diverse countries.

The text considers experiences of women from a range of marginalized groups, including racial, ethnic, and religious minorities; indigenous peoples; and those that face discrimination based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. Readers will learn about cultural, structural, political, and international influences on women’s access to political power, about the old and new barriers women continue to face like violence, and about the difference women make once in political office. Dedicated chapters on six geographic regions highlight distinct influences and patterns in different parts of the world. There is simply no other book that offers such a thorough and multidisciplinary synthesis of research on women’s political power around the world.

The fifth edition includes the latest information available on women in politics around the world, including current events as they have unfolded across the globe. The newest thinking in the field is presented, including on violence against women in politics and intersectional approaches.

Women, Politics, and Power is my go-to course book for undergraduate courses and an essential resource for graduate students and scholars working on gender and politicsIt expertly reviews the most cutting-edge research and puts it all in conversation with where the discipline is heading.

This is the book you want your students to read before class; accessible and comprehensive; engaging and pacy; combining conceptual clarity alongside illustrative empirical examples; and introductory and yet extensively illustrated, substantiated, and evidenced. Women, Politics, and Power is a critical resource too for the lecturer, with its focus in the first section on historical patterns, theories of representation, and intersectionality and difference, followed by a second section that provides global coverage via a deeper regional overview. Its in-text referencing and extensive bibliography enables all readers to thereafter follow their own interests in politics and gender yet further.

Pamela Paxton is the Linda K. George and John Wilson Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in economics and sociology and her PhD in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has consulted for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Academies. She has intersecting research interests in prosocial behavior, politics, gender, and methodology. She is the author of articles and books on women in politics, nonprofits, and quantitative methodology. Her research has appeared in a variety of journals, including American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Comparative Politics, International Studies Quarterly, and Legislative Studies Quarterly. She is also an author of Nonrecursive Models: Endogeneity, Reciprocal Relationships, and Feedback Loops (2011).
Melanie M. Hughes is a professor of sociology, has a secondary appointment in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, and is a codirector of the Gender Inequality Research Lab (GIRL) at the University of Pittsburgh. She holds a BA in government and sociology from the University of Texas and an MA and PhD in sociology from the Ohio State University. Her research considers how gender intersects with other forces of marginalization to influence women’s political power. She has published numerous articles on women’s legislative representation cross-nationally in journals such as American Political Science Review, American Sociological Review, European Journal of Political Research, and Politics & Gender. Currently, she is consulting with the United Nations Development Programme to increase the availability of data on women in decision-making positions in public administration. She is also writing a book on the political dominance of men from majority racial, ethnic, and religious groups worldwide.
Tiffany D. Barnes is professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. She received a BA in political science from Southwestern University and her PhD in political science from Rice University. Her research focuses on gender and politics, Latin America, and comparative political institutions. Her first book Gendering Legislative Behavior (Cambridge University Press 2016) won the Alan Rosenthal Prize in 2017. Her newest book, Working Class Inclusion (Cambridge University Press 2023) won the Richard F. Fenno Jr. Prize (2024). Her other research appears in journals such as the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, and Politics & Gender. She was awarded the Emerging Scholar Award from the Legislative Studies Section of the APSA and the Early Career Award from the Midwest Women’s Caucus for Political Science. She formerly served as the president for the Midwest Women’s Caucus, editor of Legislative Studies Quarterly, and associate editor at Research & Politics. She is currently an executive editor at the British Journal of Political Science and a series editor for Cambridge Elements in Gender & Politics Series.