Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

The Gender of Informal Politics pp 1–26Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Introduction: Informal Politics and the Gender Equality Paradox

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

  • 442 Accesses

Part of the book series: Gender and Politics ((GAP))

Abstract

Johnson synthesizes the current state of feminist political science as pointing to a worldwide gender equality paradox, a bait and switch in which gender equality is promised but not realized. Drawing together feminist institutionalism and the study of post-Soviet regime dynamics, the chapter argues that, just as women have broken into formal politics, power has been informalized. In other words, power has shifted to informal institutions, enforced through unwritten rules by male-dominated informal elite networks. This chapter lays out a blueprint for collecting data on and analyzing such gendered informal politics and then applies it to a most different systems comparison of Russia and Iceland from the 1990s through 2016.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alvarez, Sonia E. 1999. The Latin American Feminist NGO ‘Boom’. International Feminist Journal of Politics 1 (2): 181–209.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2009. Beyond NGO-ization?: Reflections from Latin America. Development 52 (2): 175–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anckar, Carsten. 2008. On the Applicability of the Most Similar Systems Design and the Most Different Systems Design in Comparative Research. International Journal of Social Research Methodology 11 (5): 389–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Azari, Julia R., and Jennifer K. Smith. 2012. Unwritten Rules: Informal Institutions in Established Democracies. Perspectives on Politics 10 (1): 37–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banaszak, Lee Ann, Karen Beckwith, and Dieter Rucht. 2003. Women’s Movements Facing the Reconfigured State. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Banaszak, Lee Ann, and S. Laurel Weldon. 2011. Informal Institutions, Protest, and Change in Gendered Federal Systems. Politics & Gender 7 (2): 262–273.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bjarnegård, Elin. 2013. Gender, Informal Institutions and Political Recruitment: Explaining Male Dominance in Parliamentary Representation. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Blofield, Merike, and Liesl Haas. 2013. Policy outputs. In The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Politics, ed. Georgina Waylen, Karen Celis, Johanna Kantola, and S. Laurel Weldon, 703–726. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruhn, Kathleen. 2003. Whores and lesbians: Political activism, party strategies, and gender quotas in Mexico. Electoral Studies 22 (1): 101–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chandler, Andrea M. 2013. Democracy, Gender, and Social Policy in Russia: A Wayward Society. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Chappell, Louise. 2010. Comparative Gender and Institutions: Directions for Research. Perspectives on Politics 8 (1): 183–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chappell, Louise, and Georgina Waylen. 2013. Gender and the Hidden Life of Institutions. Public Administration 91 (3): 599–615.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheng, Christine, and Margit Tavits. 2011. Informal Influences in Selecting Female Political Candidates. Political Research Quarterly 64 (2): 460–471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colton, Timothy J., and Henry E. Hale. 2009. The Putin Vote: Presidential Electorates in a Hybrid Regime. Slavic Review 68 (3): 473–503.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connell, R.W., and James W. Messerschmidt. 2005. Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept. Gender & Society 19 (6): 829–859.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crawford, Sue, and Elinor Ostrom. 1995. A Grammar of Institutions. American Political Science Review 89: 582–600.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dahlerup, Drude, and Monique Leyenaar, eds. 2013. Breaking Male Dominance in Old Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawisha, Karen. 2014. Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia? New York: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Disch, Lisa, and Mary Jo Kane. 1996, Winter. When a Looker is Really a Bitch: Lisa Olson, Sport, and the Heterosexual Matrix. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 21 (2): 278–308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dovi, Suzanne. 2007. Theorizing Women’s Representation in the United States. Politics & Gender 3 (3): 297–319.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ehrenreich, Barbara. 2005. Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream. New York: Metropolitan Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisenstein, Hester. 2009. Feminism Seduced: How Global Elites Use Women’s Labor and Ideas to Exploit the World. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Franceschet, Susan, and Jennifer M. Piscopo. 2008. Gender Quotas and Women’s Substantive Representation: Lessons from Argentina. Politics & Gender 4 (3): 393–425.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, Nancy. 2013. Fortunes of Feminism: From State-Managed Capitalism to Neoliberal Crisis. London: Verso Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gabriel, Karen. 2014. Formulating Patriarchal Homosociality: Notes from India. NORMA: International Journal for Masculinity Studies 9 (1): 45–59.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gel’man, Vladimir. 2004. The Unrule of Law in the Making: The Politics of Informal Institution Building in Russia. Europe-Asia Studies 56 (7): 1021–1040.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goetz, Anne Marie. 2007. Political Cleaners: Women as the New Anti-Corruption Force? Development and Change 38 (1): 87–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grzymala-Busse, Anna. 2010. The Best Laid Plans: The Impact of Informal Rules on Formal Institutions in Transitional Regimes. Studies in Comparative International Development 45 (3): 311–333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hale, Henry E. 2015. Patronal Politics: Eurasian Regime Dynamics in Comparative Perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkesworth, M.E. 2012. Political Worlds of Women: Activism, Advocacy, and Governance in the Twenty-First Century. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hedfeldt, Mona, and Gun Hedlund. 2011. A Clash between the Business and Political Climates in Sweden: Gender in the European Structural Fund Partnerships. European Spatial Research and Policy 18 (1): 53–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Helmke, Gretchen, and Steven Levitsky. 2004. Informal institutions and comparative politics: A research agenda. Perspectives on Politics 2 (4): 725–740.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2006. Informal Institutions and Democracy: Lessons from Latin America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Htun, Mala, and S. Laurel Weldon. 2010. When do Governments Promote Women’s Rights? A Framework for the Comparative Analysis of Sex Equality Policy. Perspectives on Politics 8 (1): 207–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iceland. 1999. Constitution of the Republic of Iceland. http://www.government.is/constitution/. Accessed 16 Nov 2016.

  • Iceland Ministry of Welfare. 2015. Act on Equal Status and Equal Rights of Women and Men no. 10/2008, as Amended by Act no. 162/2010, no. 126/2011, no. 62/2014 and no. 79/2015. https://eng.velferdarraduneyti.is/media/acrobat-enskar_sidur/Act-on-equal-status-and-equal-rights-of-women-and-men-no-10-2008-as-amended-16.pdf. Accessed 16 Nov 2016.

  • ———. 2016. Gender Equality. https://eng.velferdarraduneyti.is/departments/gender-equality/. Accessed 16 Nov 2016.

  • Inter-Parliamentary Union. 2016. Women in National Parliaments. http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm. Accessed 15 Dec 2016.

  • Johannesson, Gudni Thorlacius. 2013. The History of Iceland. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, Janet Elise. 2009a. Gender Violence in Russia: The Politics of Feminist Intervention. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2009b. Unwilling Participant Observation among Russian Siloviki and the Good-Enough Field Researcher. PS: Political Science & Politics 42 (2): 321–324.

    Google Scholar 

  • Josephson, Jyl, Þorgerður Einarsdóttir, and Svandís Anna Sigurðardóttir. 2016. Queering the Trans: Gender and Sexuality Binaries in Icelandic Trans, Queer, and Feminist Communities. European Journal of Women’s Studies(January): 1–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Konnikova, Maria. 2016. The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It … Every Time. New York: Viking.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kristjánsson, Svanur. 2004. Iceland: Searching for Democracy along Three Dimensions of Citizen Control. Scandinavian Political Studies 27 (2): 153–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krook, Mona Lena, and Fiona Mackay. 2011. Introduction: Gender, Politics, and institutions. In Gender, Politics and Institutions: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism, ed. Fiona Mackay and Mona Lena Krook, 1–20. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • LeBlanc, Robin M. 2010. The Art of the Gut: Manhood, Power, and Ethics in Japanese Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ledeneva, Alena. 2011. Open secrets and knowing smiles. East European Politics and Societies 25 (4): 720–736.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ledeneva, Alena V. 2013. Can Russia Modernise?: Sistema, Power Networks, and Informal Governance. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lister, Ruth. 2009. A Nordic Nirvana? Gender, Citizenship, and Social Justice in the Nordic Welfare States. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 16 (2): 242–277.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loftsdóttir, Kristín. 2012. Whiteness is from Another World: Gender, Icelandic International Development and Multiculturalism. European Journal of Women’s Studies 19 (1): 41–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lowndes, Vivien. 2014. How are Things Done around Here?: Uncovering Institutional Rules and their Gendered Effects. Politics & Gender 10 (4): 685–691.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mackay, Fiona. 2014. Nested Newness, Institutional Innovation, and the Gendered Limits of Change. Politics & Gender 10 (4): 549–571.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mackay, Fiona, and Mona Lena Krook. 2011. Gender, Politics and Institutions: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mackay, Fiona, Surya Monro, and Georgina Waylen. 2009. The Feminist Potential of Sociological Institutionalism. Politics & Gender 5 (2): 253–262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mahoney, James, and Kathleen Ann Thelen. 2010. Explaining Institutional Change Ambiguity, Agency, and Power. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McBride, Dorothy E., Amy Mazur, and Joni Lovenduski. 2010. The Politics of State Feminism: Innovation in Comparative Research. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mertus, Julie. 2004. Bait and Switch: Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Democratic Institute. 2016. #NotTheCost: Stopping Violence against Women in Politics. Washington, DC: National Democratic Institution. https://www.ndi.org/not-the-cost. Accessed 18 Nov 2016.

  • Nechemias, Carol. 2014. Women in the Russian Labor Force: A Retreat from Equality? Unpublished manuscript.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pateman, Carole. 1988. The Sexual Contract. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Polenina, S.V. 2003. “Uchastie zhenshchin v obshchestvennoi i gosudarstvennoi zhizni (1980-e gody)” [The participation of women in social and government life (the 1980s)]. In Gendernaia rekonstruktsiia politicheskikh sistem [The gendered reconstruction of the political system], ed. N.M. Stepanova, M.M. Kirichenko, and E.V. Kochkina. Saint Petersburg: ISPG-Aletiia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Przeworski, Adam, and Henry Teune. 1970. The Logic of Comparative Social Inquiry. New York: Wiley-Interscience.

    Google Scholar 

  • Radnitz, Scott. 2011. Review Article: Informal Politics and the State. Comparative Politics 43 (3): 351–371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Russian Federation. 1993. The Constitution of the Russian Federation.. http://www.constitution.ru/en/10003000-01.htm. Accessed 9 Nov 2016.

  • Sakwa, Richard. 2011. The Crisis of Russian Democracy: The Dual State, Factionalism, and the Medvedev Succession. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Semenova, Elena. 2015. Russia: Cabinet Formation and Careers in a Super-Presidential System. In The Selection of Ministers around the World, ed. Keith Dowding and Patrick Dumont. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharafutdinova, Gulnaz. 2010. Political Consequences of Crony Capitalism inside Russia. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siim, Birte, and Hege Skjeie. 2008. Tracks, Intersections and Dead Ends Multicultural Challenges to State Feminism in Denmark and Norway. Ethnicities 8 (3): 322–344.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sperling, Valerie. 2015. Sex, Politics, and Putin: Political Legitimacy in Russia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suchland, Jennifer. 2015. Economies of Violence: Transnational Feminism, Postsocialism, and the Politics of Sex Trafficking. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tripp, Aili Mari. 2006. Why So Slow? The Challenges of Gendering Comparative Politics. Politics & Gender 2 (2): 249–263.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2010. Toward a Comparative Politics of Gender Research in Which Women Matter. Perspectives on Politics 8 (1): 191–197.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • True, Jacqui. 2014. The Global Governance of Gender. In Handbook of the International Political Economy of Governance, ed. Anthony Payne and Nicola Phillips, 329–343. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wade, Robert H., and Silla Sigurgeirsdottir. 2012. Iceland’s Rise, Fall, Stabilisation and Beyond. Cambridge Journal of Economics 36 (1): 127–144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waylen, Georgina. 2007. Engendering Transitions: Women’s Mobilization, Institutions, and Gender Outcomes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2010. A Comparative Politics of Gender: Limits and Possibilities. Perspectives on Politics 8 (1): 223–231.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wedel, Janine R. 2009. Shadow Elite: How the World’s New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, and the Free Market. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wedel, Janine. 2014. Unaccountable: How Elite Power Brokers Corrupt Our Finances, Freedom, and Security. New York: Pegasus Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weldon, S. Laurel. 2006. Inclusion, Solidarity, and Social Movements: The Global Movement against Gender Violence. Perspectives on Politics 4 (1): 55–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2011. When Protest Makes Policy: How Social Movements Represent Disadvantaged Groups. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • World Economic Forum. 2016. Top 10: The Global Gender Gap Report 2016. http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2016/top-ten/. Accessed 17 Nov 2016.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brooklyn College, City University of New York, Brooklyn, New York, USA

    Janet Elise Johnson

Authors
  1. Janet Elise Johnson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Johnson, J.E. (2018). Introduction: Informal Politics and the Gender Equality Paradox. In: The Gender of Informal Politics. Gender and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60279-0_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation