Palgrave Measuring Women’s Political Empowerment across the Globe: Strategies, Challenges and Future Research (Gender and Politics)

This volume brings together leading gender and politics scholars to assess how women’s political empowerment can best be conceptualized and measured on a global scale. It argues that women’s political empowerment is a fundamental process of transformation for benchmarking and understanding all political empowerment gains across the globe. Chapters improve our global understanding of women's political empowerment through cross-national comparisons, a synthesis of methodological approaches across varied levels of politics, and attention to the ways gender intersects with myriad factors in shaping women’s political empowerment. This book is an indispensable resource for scholars of politics and gender, as well as being relevant to a global scholarly and policy community. Review “In this remarkable volume, Alexander, Bolzendahl and Jalazai have collected insights from an interdisciplinary team of leading scholars and practitioners to interrogate the concept, “women’s political empowerment.” What is it? Why does it matter for politics, governance, and women’s lives?  And how should it be analyzed?  The resulting comprehensive collection moves well beyond the usual offering of pithy development goals or simplistic measures to critically question variations in how empowerment is articulated, understood and enacted on the ground.  It further investigates women’s participation in multiple areas of governance―including ministries, judicial systems, and diplomatic missions.  Without doubt, this is the book that all scholars of gender, politics, and empowerment must have on their shelves.” (Professor Jocelyn Viterna, Harvard University, USA) From the Back Cover This volume brings together leading gender and politics scholars to assess how women’s political empowerment can best be conceptualized and measured on a global scale. It argues that women’s political empowerment is a fundamental process of transformation for benchmarking and understanding all political empowerment gains across the globe. Chapters improve our global understanding of women's political empowerment through cross-national comparisons, a synthesis of methodological approaches across varied levels of politics, and attention to the ways gender intersects with myriad factors in shaping women’s political empowerment. This book is an indispensable resource for scholars of politics and gender, as well as being relevant to a global scholarly and policy community. About the Author Amy C. Alexander is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Research Fellow with the Quality of Government Institute.  Catherine Bolzendahl is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine, USA.  Farida Jalalzai is the Hannah Atkins Endowed Chair and Professor of Political Science at Oklahoma State University, USA.