Women and Representation in Local Government: An International Comparative Study

Women and Representation in Local Government opens up an opportunity to critique and move beyond suppositions and labels in relation to women in local government.

Presenting a wealth of new empirical material, this book brings together international experts to examine and compare the presence of women at this level and features case studies on the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Finland, Uganda, China, Australia and New Zealand. Divided into four main sections, each explores a key theme related to the subject of women and representation in local government and engages with contemporary gender theory and the broader literature on women and politics. The contributors explore local government as a gendered environment; critiquing strategies to address the limited number of elected female members in local government and examine the impact of significant recent changes on local government through a gender lens.

Addressing key questions of how gender equality can be achieved in this sector, it will be of strong interest to students and academics working in the fields of gender studies, local government and international politics.

Barbara Pini is a Professor in the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy at Curtin University of Technology, Australia. She has an extensive publication record in the fields of gender studies, rural sociology, employment, public policy and politics. Recent papers have appeared in Gender, Work and Organisation, Policy and Politics, Work, Employment and Society, Journal of Rural Studies, Sociologia Ruralis, and Telecommunications Policy. Her first book, Masculinities and Management in Agri-political Organisations Worldwide was published by Ashgate in September 2007.