Gender Power and Politics: An Alternative Perspective

Gender Power and Politics: An Alternative Perspective addressed the question: why are Parliaments in Western liberal democracies, and many new nations practicing democratic governance, predominantly male after all women have had the right to vote for over 70 years and constitute at least 50 percent of electorates? The position taken is that to unravel this conundrum is it necessary to go beyond empirical data and reconceptualize gender and patriarchy and their relation to power and politics.

Accordingly, this Chapter does the following:

• Review relevant studies done by a spectrum of scholars
• Offer alternative definitions of both patriarchy and gender
• Trace the ethnic origins of nation-states

Describes the transformation of patriarchy in modern societies through two main processes: a partnership between men and women of ethnic groups holding an advantage in their competition with other groups in nations and the exclusion of most men of groups that are disadvantaged from material advancement with the effect of reversing patriarchal norms in those groups.

Discusses the interaction between gender and other axes of inequality in society drawing examples from manhood suffrage in the United States in the 19^th century as well as woman suffrage between Seneca Falls and 1919, and the gender composition of Soviets of the Soviet Union compared to the gender composition of elected bodies after the transformation of Russia to a market economy and multi-party politics.

Concludes with a general discussion of the question initially posed considering the alternative perspectives that were presented and argued.