Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T00:26:40.164Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Negotiating Gendered Institutions: Women's Parliamentary Friendships

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 May 2013

Sarah Childs
Sarah Childs*
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In 1997, an unprecedented number of female MPs—120—were elected to the UK House of Commons, doubling the numbers of female representatives overnight. Of these, 101 came from a single party: Labour. They entered a political institution that had hitherto been massively male-dominated (even in 1997, their number counted less than 20%) and famed for its historic traditions dominated by masculinized structures and norms (Lovenduski 2005; 2010). Many of the newly elected Labour women were known to each other, having already shared experiences of passing through their party's internal selection processes over the preceding years. Many broadly shared the same views of what the Labour party should stand for, ideologically speaking, and most were attitudinally feminist (Childs 2004). The mass media at the time of the general election, and thereafter, routinely constituted them as a collective entity—Blair's Babes—and the specifically right-wing media regularly subjected them to highly gendered criticism (Childs 2008, 140–165).

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , June 2013 , pp. 127 - 151
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2013 

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

Annesley, Claire, and Gains, Francesca. 2010. “The Core Executive: Gender Power and Change.” Political Studies 58 (5): 909–29.Google Scholar
Bashevkin, Sylvia. 2009. Women, Power, Politics. Ontario: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Beckwith, Karen. 2005. “The Concept of Gender.” Politics & Gender 1 (1): 128–37.Google Scholar
Bryson, Valerie. 1999. Feminist Debates. Basingstoke: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Caldeira, Gregory A., and Patterson, Samuel C.. 1987. “Political Friendship in the Legislature.” Journal of Politics 49: 953–75.Google Scholar
Chappell, Louise. 2010.“ Nested Newness and Institutional Innovation.” In Gender, Politics and Institutions, eds. Krook, Mona Lena and Mackay, Fiona. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 163–80.Google Scholar
Childs, Sarah. 2004. New Labour's Women MPs. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Childs, Sarah. 2008. Women and British Party Politics. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Childs, Sarah, and Krook, Mona Lena. 2006. “Should Feminists Give up on Critical Mass? A Contingent Yes.” Politics & Gender 2 (4): 522–30.Google Scholar
Childs, Sarah, and Krook, Mona Lena. 2012. “Labels and Mandates in the UK.” In The Impact of Gender Quotas, eds. Franceschet, Susan, Krook, Mona Lena, and Piscopo, Jennifer. New York: Oxford University Press, 89–102.Google Scholar
Childs, Sarah, and Webb, Paul. 2012. Sex Gender and the Conservative Party, From Iron Lady to Kitten Heels. Basingstoke: Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Childs, Sarah, and Withey, Julie. 2006. “The Substantive Representation of Women: Reducing the VAT on Sanitary Products in the UK.” Parliamentary Affairs 59 (1): 10–23.Google Scholar
Crawford, Mary, and Pini, Barbara. 2011. “The Australian Parliament, A Gendered Organization.” Parliamentary Affairs 64 (1): 82–105.Google Scholar
Crewe, Emma. 2005. Lords of Parliament: Manners, Rituals and Politics. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Crewe, Emma, and Muller, Marion, eds. 2006. Rituals in Parliaments. Oxford: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Dahlerup, Drude. 1988. “From a Small to a Large Minority: Women in Scandinavian Politics.” Scandinavian Political Studies 11 (4): 275–98.Google Scholar
Devere, Heather, and Curtin, Jennifer. 2009.“ Rethinking Political Connections: Women, Friendship and Politics in New Zealand.” In Rethinking Women and Politics, eds. McMillan, Kate, Leslie, John, and McLeay, Elizabeth. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 87–111.Google Scholar
Devere, Heather, and Smith, Graeme M.. 2010. “Friendship and Politics.” Political Studies Review 8 (3): 341–56.Google Scholar
Dodson, Debra. 2006. The Impact of Women in Congress. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Duerst-Lahti, Georga, and Kelly, Rita Mae, eds. 1995. Gender Power Leadership and Governance. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franceschet, Susan. 2010. “Gendered Institutions and Women's Substantive Representation.” In Gender, Politics and Institutions, eds. Krook, Mona Lena and Mackay, Fiona. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 58–78.Google Scholar
Grace, Joan. 2010. “Gender and Institutions of Multi-level Governance.” In Gender, Politics and Institutions, eds. Krook, Mona Lena and Mackay, Fiona. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 95–111.Google Scholar
Hawkesworth, Mary. 2003. “Congressional Enactments of Race-Gender: Toward a Theory of Raced-Gendered Institutions.” American Political Science Review 97 (4): 529–50.Google Scholar
Kanter, Rosabeth. 1977. Men and Women of the Corporation. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Kenny, Meryl. 2010. “Gender and Institutions of Political Recruitment.” In Gender, Politics and Institutions, eds. Krook, Mona Lena and Mackay, Fiona. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 21–41.Google Scholar
Kenny, Meryl, and Lowndes, Vivien. 2010. “Introduction: Gender, Politics and Institutions.” In Gender, Politics and Institutions, eds. Krook, Mona Lena and Mackay, Fiona. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 1–20.Google Scholar
Kenny, Meryl, and Lowndes, Vivien. 2011. “Rule-Making and Rule-Breaking.” Paper presented to the PSA Annual Conference, London.Google Scholar
Krook, Mona Lena, and Mackay, Fiona, eds. 2010. Gender, Politics and Institutions. Basingstoke: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Lovenduski, Joni. 1998. “Gendering Research in Political Science.” Annual Review of Political Science 1: 333–56.Google Scholar
Lovenduski, Joni. 2005. Feminizing Politics. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Lovenduski, Joni. 2010. “Foreword.” In Gender, Politics and Institutions, eds. Krook, Mona Lena and Mackay, Fiona. Basingstoke: Palgrave, vii–xiii.Google Scholar
Mackay, Fiona. 2010. “Conclusion: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism?” In Gender, Politics and Institutions, eds. Krook, Mona Lena and Mackay, Fiona. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 181–96.Google Scholar
Malley, Rosa. 2009. “Gendered Institutions.” Ph.D/M.Phil. upgrade paper University of Bristol.Google Scholar
Malley, Rosa. 2011. “The Institutionalization of Gendered Norms and the Substantive Representation of Women in Westminster and the Scottish Parliament.” Ph.D. diss. University of Bristol.Google Scholar
Puwar, Nirmal. 2004. Space Invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies out of Place. London: Berg.Google Scholar
Walker, Karen. 1994. “Men, Women and Friendship.” Gender and Society 8 (2): 246–65.Google Scholar
Waylen, Georgina. 2010. “Gendered Institutionalist Analysis.” In Gender, Politics and Institutions, eds. Krook, Mona Lena and Mackay, Fiona. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 147–62.Google Scholar
Yoder, Janice. 1991. “Rethinking Tokenism: Looking Beyond Numbers.” Gender and Society 5 (2): 178–92.Google Scholar
Young, Lisa. 1997. “Fulfilling the Mandate of Difference.” In In the Presence of Women, eds. Arscott, Jane and Trimble, Linda. Toronto: Harcourt Brace and Company, 86–103.Google Scholar