This article by Sohela Nazneen features in the World Social Science Report 2016.
Women’s political inclusion is promoted as a strategy for creating inclusive political institutions and attaining gender justice. The number of women at all levels of government is rising around the world, because of affirmative action and the creation of participatory spaces. Nazneen arguers that easing women’s access into political spaces does not automatically lead to the promotion of gender-equity concerns in policy-making. She argues that the effective participation of women in politics is influenced by the terms on which women are included, by the interplay between formal and informal rules in the political system, and by the presence of autonomous women’s movement actors who have broad-based alliances with other state, social and political actors. How these factors play out in differing contexts and how they affect what women do once they enter politics and policy spaces require further analysis.