Week 4 Readings

Women = underrepresented in politics
Gender inequality in politics involves: * Voting, campaigning, leading * Political knowledge, socialization, attitudes, women’s place in political theory * Cultural barriers to women’s use of their political rights: family resistance + illiteracy * Underrepresentation as political leaders
Supply and demand for women * Supply-side factors: increase the number of women with the will and experience to compete against men for political office * Determined by gender socialization → women’s interests, knowledge, ambition * Women are less encouraged to run for office * Less time, less education, employment opportunities * Demand-side factors * Democracy: women are less well represented in democratic systems * Electoral system: PR systems = women do better
Culture: beliefs + attitudes influence the supply and demand for female candidates * Facing prejudice as leaders * Religions
Gender quotas: legislation of party rules that require a certain percentage of candidates to be women
Critical mass: when women reach a certain percentage of a legislature, they will be better able to pursue their policy priorities
4 recommendations for future research: * Globalizing theory and research * Expanding data collection * Remembering alternative forms of women’s agency * Addressing intersectionality

Foreign government + foreign missionaries = wanted to transform Aboriginal Peoples into Euro-Canadian prototypes * State: provided legal authority * Missionaries: provided the moral and ideological rationale
The status and autonomy of First Nations women were attacked * This attack was later institutionalized by the Canadian government * Indian Act * Lost autonomy in the areas of membership, marriage, divorce, sexuality, land and family property, political decision-making * Goal = reduce women to a condition of dependency on their male relatives
First Nations women resisted this oppression and retained much of their traditional knowledge and roles

→ Colonialist transformations were not entirely successful

Michels
Oligarchy: the control of a society or an organization by those at the top
Democracy + large scale organization = incompatible
Increased bureaucracy = concentration of power at the top + less power for members
Incompetence of the masses: less education, general sophistication, less time to participate in party/union meetings
Leaders = power elites
Socialist party leaders placed the needs of organizational survival over adherence to doctrine
Over-deterministic: saw only the restrictive side of bureaucracy
Charismatic leaders: they can break through the inherent conservatism of organization and excite the masses to support great things
Power: capacity to mobilize resources of the society for the attainment of goals for which a general public commitment has been made
Democracy: conflict of organized groups competing for support