Governing Women: Women's Political Effectiveness in Contexts of Democratization and Governance Reform

Though the proportion of women in national assemblies still barely scrapes 16% on average, the striking outliers-Rwanda with 49% of its assembly female, Argentina with 35%, Liberia and Chile with new women presidents this year-have raised expectations that there is an upward trend in women's representation from which we may expect big changes in the quality of governance. But getting into public office is just the first step in the challenge of creating governance and accountability systems that respond to women's needs and protect the rights.
Using case studies from around the world, the essays in this volume, edited by Anne Marie Goetz, consider the conditions for effective connections between women in civil society and women in politics, for the evolution of political party platforms responsive to women's interests, for local government arrangements that enable women to engage effectively, and for accountability mechanisms that answer to women. The book's argument is that good governance from a gender perspective requires more than women in politics. It requires fundamental incentive changes to orient public action and policy to support gender equality.

Table of contents:

1- Governing Women: Will New Public Space for Some Women Make a Difference for All Women?, A.M. Goetz
2- Crossing the Lines: Women's Social Mobilization in Latin America, V.M. Bouvier
3- Consequences of Political Liberalization and Sociocultural Mobilization for Women in Algeria, Egypt and Jordan, M. Lazreg
4- Transnational Feminism and Women's Human Rights: Successes and Challenges of a Political Strategy, B.A. Ackerly and B. D'Costa
5- Women, Political Parties and Social Movements in South Asia, A. Basu
6- Women and Political Engagement in East-Central Europe, E. Fodor
7- From Political Sidecars to Legislatures: Women and Party Politics in Southern Africa, O.D. Selolwane
8- Political Parties and Gender in Latin America: An Overview of Conditions and Responsiveness, T. Sacchet
9- Decentralizing Government and De-centering Gender: Lessons from Local Government Reform in South Africa, J. Beall
10- Women in Local Government in India, J. Everett
11- Who Speaks for Whom?: Women and the Politics of Presence in Uganda's Local Governance, J. Ahikire
12- Governing Women or Enabling Women to Govern: Gender and the Good Governance Agenda, A.M. Goetz
13- Public Administration Reform and Women in Decision Making in China, J. Du
14- Ruling Out Gender Equality?: The Post-Cold War Rule of Law Agenda in Sub-Saharan Africa, C.N. Musembi