Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T12:26:36.995Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Can There Be a Feminist Rational Choice Institutionalism?1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 June 2009

Amanda Driscoll  and
Mona Lena Krook
Amanda Driscoll
Affiliation:
Washington University in St. Louis
Mona Lena Krook
Affiliation:
Washington University in St. Louis
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Gender and politics scholars have long recognized the importance of political institutions (Lovenduski 1998). Most of this work focuses on formal institutions (Chappell 2006; Kenney 1996), but several studies discuss gendered practices and norms in ways that can be seen as consistent with definitions of informal institutions (Duerst-Lahti and Kelly 1995; Kenny 2007). Despite these shared concerns, few feminists frame their research in relation to institutionalism. To the degree that they do, they tend to view the most promising point of intersections to be with historical, sociological, and discursive versions. In contrast, they seem more wary of rational choice, arguing that this brand of institutionalism is unhelpful to, if not fundamentally incompatible with, the objectives of feminist research (cf. Kenny and Paantjens 2006).

Type
Critical Perspectives on Gender and Politics
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , June 2009 , pp. 238 - 245
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anderson, Elizabeth. 2001. “Should Feminists Reject Rational Choice Theory?” In A Mind of One's Own: Feminist Essays on Reason and Objectivity, ed. Antony, Louise M. and Witt, Charlotte. Boulder, CO: Westview, 369–97.Google Scholar
Calvert, Randall. 2002. “Identity, Expression, and Rational-Choice Theory.” In Political Science: State of the Discipline, ed. Katznelson, Ira and Milner, Helen V.. New York: W. W. Norton, 568–96.Google Scholar
Chappell, Louise. 2006. “Comparing Political Institutions: Revealing the Gendered ‘Logic of Appropriateness.’” Politics & Gender 2 (June): 223–35.Google Scholar
Cudd, Ann E. 2001. “Rational Choice Theory and the Lessons of Feminism.” In A Mind of One's Own: Feminist Essays on Reason and Objectivity, ed. Antony, Louise M. and Witt, Charlotte. Boulder, CO: Westview, 398–417.Google Scholar
Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Duerst-Lahti, Georgia, and Kelly, Rita Mae, eds. 1995. Gender Power, Leadership, and Governance. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elshtain, Jean Bethke. 1981. Public Man, Private Woman: Women in Social and Political Thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
England, Paula. 1989. “A Feminist Critique of Rational-Choice Theories: Implications for Sociology.” American Sociologist 20 (1): 14–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferber, Marianne A., and Nelson, Julie A., eds. 1993. Beyond Economic Man: Feminist Theory and Economics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferejohn, John. 2002. “Rational Choice Theory and Social Explanation.” Economics and Philosophy 18 (2): 211–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gatens, Moira. 1998. “Institutions, Embodiment and Sexual Difference.” In Gender and Institutions: Welfare, Work and Citizenship, ed. Gatens, Moira and Mackinnon, Alison. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1–15.Google Scholar
Hawkesworth, Mary. 2006. “Gender as an Analytic Category.” In Feminist Inquiry: From Political Conviction to Methodological Innovation. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 145–75.Google Scholar
Hesse-Biber, Sharlene Nagy, and Leavy, Patricia Lina. 2007. Feminist Research Practice: A Primer. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inter-Parliamentary Union. 2009. “Women in National Parliaments: Situation as of 28 February 2009.” Online at: http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm (accessed March 27, 2009).Google Scholar
Kenney, Sally. 1996. “New Research on Gendered Political Institutions.” Political Research Quarterly 49 (2): 445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenny, Meryl. 2007. “Gender, Institutions, and Power: A Critical Review.” Politics 27 (2): 91–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenny, Meryl, and Paantjens, Marjolein. 2006. “Towards a Feminist Institutionalism: Connecting Gender, Power, and Change.” Paper presented at the First Workshop of the Feminism and Institutionalism International Network, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Knight, Jack. 1992. Institutions and Social Conflict. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krook, Mona Lena. 2009. Quotas for Women in Politics: Gender and Candidate Selection Reform Worldwide. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levi, Margaret. 1997. “A Model, a Method, and a Map: Rational Choice in Comparative and Historical Analysis.” In Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure, ed. Lichbach, Mark Irving and Zuckerman, Alan S.. New York: Cambridge University Press, 19–41.Google Scholar
Lovenduski, Joni. 1998. “Gendering Research in Political Science.” Annual Review of Political Science 1: 333–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luker, Kristin. 1975. Taking Chances: Abortion and the Decision Not to Contracept. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackie, Gerry. 1996. “Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account.” American Sociological Review 61 (6): 999–1017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moe, Terry. 2005. “Power and Political Institutions.” Perspectives on Politics 3 (2): 215–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okin, Susan Moller. 1979. Women in Western Political Thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Scott, Joan Wallach. 1988. “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis.” In Gender and the Politics of History. New York: Columbia University Press, 28–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thalos, Mariam. 2005. “What Is a Feminist to Do with Rational Choice?” In A Companion to Rationalism, ed. Nelson, Alan. New York: Blackwell, 450–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thelen, Kathleen. 1999. “Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Politics.” Annual Review of Political Science 2: 369–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weingast, Barry R. 2002. “Rational-Choice Institutionalism.” In Political Science: State of the Discipline, ed. Katznelson, Ira and Milner, Helen V.. New York: W. W. Norton, 660–92.Google Scholar