For and against women’s political representation
by Professor Joni Lovenduski Who opposes increases in women’s political representation? I can think of at least eight types of opponents. The uninterested who think it does not matter; the complacent,...
View ArticleOn women, political knowledge and Space Invaders
By Professor Phil Cowley Why aren’t more people angry about women’s political under-representation? That was the core question posed by Joni Lovenduski in a recent article in Political Quarterly,...
View ArticleIt’s a process
By Professor Joni Lovenduski This post responds to Professor Phil Cowley’s earlier post, here. Phil Cowley provides welcome empirical support for Puwar’s ‘amplification of numbers’ effect, whereby...
View ArticleJob-Shares for MPs: A Step on the Way to Resolving a Major Problem
By Dr Rosie Campbell and Professor Sarah Childs In a blog on Wednesday, Ruth Fox from the Hansard Society argued that job-shares for MPs are a marginal solution for a major problem. Dr Fox is right,...
View ArticleWomen on top – promotional patterns in the House of Commons
By Peter Allen This week saw the publication of the Counting Women In report ‘Sex and Power 2013’. As I have written elsewhere, with Philip Cowley, the media reacted by focusing on a the most troubling...
View ArticlePoor Women’s Representation –‘Shocking But Not Surprising’– Don’t Blame the...
By Dr Rosie Campbell and Professor Sarah Childs Women’s under representation in Parliament has well and truly hit the headlines: Samantha Cameron isn’t happy about it; job-shares are suggested as the...
View ArticleTime for All-Men Shortlists?
By Dr Rainbow Murray This post originally appeared on the PSA Political Insight Blog. It is now two decades since the Labour party introduced All-Women Shortlists (AWS) in an attempt to redress the...
View ArticleThis Ludicrous Obsession, Parents in Parliament: The Motherhood Trap
By Dr Rosie Campbell and Professor Sarah Childs Men’s over-representation and women’s under-representation in the UK Parliament is pretty well known, even if the public sometimes over-estimates just...
View ArticleCracks in the glass ceiling: mentoring programme evalution report
By Christine Megson, coordinator of the Fabian Women mentoring programme. This post originally appeared on the Fabian Women blog. Today the Fabian Women’s Network and Birbeck, University of London...
View ArticleMissing Women: It’s Time for Legislative Quotas in British Politics
By Rosie Campbell, Sarah Childs, and Meryl Kenny and the other members of the UK Political Studies Association (PSA) Women and Politics Specialist Group Originally posted on the PSA Women and Politics...
View ArticleFollowing the pink battle bus: where are the women voters in 2015?
By Dr Rosie Campbell, Reader in Politics, Department of Politics, Birkbeck On 11th February Harriet Harman launched the Labour party’s magenta battle bus intended to reach out to women voters. The bus...
View ArticleMaking a Good Parliament: Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow Visits...
by Dr Ben Worthy How can Parliament be reformed? The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, took time out from imposing order on MPs to tell a packed audience of Birkbeck students how he intends...
View ArticlePolitical Fiction: Summer Reading Recommendations by Birkbeck Academics
With London experiencing its first heat wave in recent memory, members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck write about their favourite summer fiction with a political theme. Recommendations range...
View ArticleFemale politicians and babies: a lose-lose situation?
(Image of Italian Member of the European Parliament Licia Ronzulli and her daughter Victoria courtesy of http://blog.gotomeeting.co.uk) From Theresa May to Nicola Sturgeon and Jacinda Adern, women...
View ArticleThe rise of the female politician: how gender equality is permeating parliament
In this episode of Birkbeck Voices, we’re joined by Sarah Childs, Professor of Politics and Gender at Birkbeck. Professor Childs discusses the benefits of equal gender opportunity in parliament, the...
View ArticleThe optics of a cabinet reshuffle: PR vs reality
Reshuffles are a chance to revive the fortunes of a Prime Minister by changing the faces of their Cabinet and Government. January’s offered much but delivered less; the occupants of key Cabinet...
View ArticleThis Girl Can – to Borrow a Phrase – Be In Politics
‘How do I become an MP?’ ‘Can I set up my own political party?’ ‘What qualifications do I need to work in Parliament?’ These were three of the questions Year 10 students from Fulham Cross Girls School...
View ArticleReview – Race, Gender, and Culture in International Relations
Race, Gender, and Culture in International Relations Edited by Randolph B. Persaud and Alina Sajed Routledge, 2018 Dr Lisa Tilley, Lecturer in Politics, Birkbeck In the present political epoch, it is...
View ArticleDisrupting communities: forced evictions and gender roles in postcolonial...
In this post, Dewi Tan of the Yale Environment Review, reports on Dr Lisa Tilley’s ongoing work on gender and communities. Kampungs in Jakarta, Indonesia, also known as “informal housing,” are...
View ArticleBirkbeck’s Parliamentary Studies class submit evidence to Parliament
Birkbeck’s Parliamentary studies class submitted evidence as a group to the Women and Equalities Committee inquiry into a Gender Sensitive Parliament. It was published as evidence here. The evidence...
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