State Power and Women s Interests. How politics matter for gender equality in everday life
It is a consistent finding in research that women are more anxious than men. In particular, this applies to sociotropic anxiety which relates to risks and threats to society at large such as terrorism, environmental degradation and increased inequalities. Why this gender difference appears is still a conundrum. Feminist scholars tend to emphasize processes of socialization; that becoming a woman also entails learning to be “on guard” and to naturalize the fear of victimization.
The aim of this book is to provide a different answer to the question why there are gender differences in sociotropic anxiety. My argument is that we need to shift focus and analyze the role of the state for gender equality processes. In sum, the analyzes in this book demonstrate that women care more about developments in society at large because they are, for their self-determination, more dependent than men on various societal institutions. Thus, women’s higher levels of anxiety regarding developments in society at large should be interpreted as an emotional reaction to developments threatening their interests. The book synthesizes three areas of research: the role of parliaments in people’s everyday lives, detrimental effects of corruption, and the role of emotions in opinion-formation processes.
Final report
My RJ Sabbatical has involved working on a book that synthesizes and further develops my previous research. A manuscript is being completed and contacts have been made with a number of prominent international publishers. The book is written in English.
Preliminary title and table of contents:
State Power, Gender Equality, and Corruption in Contemporary Europe
Chapter 1. Risks, Threats, and Corruption. The call for research on state power and gender equality
Chapter 2. The Character of the State and the Capacity of the State. Towards a definition of state power
Chapter 3. What is Gender Equality? Theory and trends in Europe from a global perspective
Chapter 4. The Long-term Trajectories. Alternative explanations
Chapter 5. Design and Methodology
Chapter 6. Educational Attainment and Gender Equality Developments
Chapter 7. Labor Force Participation and Gender Equality Developments
Chapter 8. Gender Equality and Corruption. Evidence from sub-national analyses
Chapter 9. Taking Non-linear Developments in Gender Equality Seriously
Chapter 10. The Power of the State. Conclusions and directions for future research
During the fall 2021 and spring 2022, i.e., when international research stays became possible again after the pandemic, I have been a guest scholar and made presentations at the Department of Political Science, University of Barcelona, the Faculty of Law, University of Seville, and the Department of Political Science, University of Perugia. All these stays have contributed to the development of the book. The stay in Perugia led to participation in a special issue on the theme of gender and corruption in the journal Etica Pubblica where my contribution is entitled "Why Women in Elected Assemblies Reduce Levels of Corruption: The Indirect Approach," Etica Pubblica 2022(1):13–28. The stay in Perugia has also led to a collaboration within the Erasmus exchange program that includes both student and teacher exchanges.
The theme of the book is an analysis of variations in Europe from around 1990 to today in terms of gender equality in women's and men's everyday lives. More precisely, the book examines two dimensions of a well-functioning state where one dimension refers to the state's capacity to implement change and the other dimension to its willingness to change in the area of gender equality. The point made in the book is that both of these aspects of a well-functioning state must be examined simultaneously, but when it comes to the analyses of Europe, the dimension that includes the state's capacity (which for example include the level of corruption in a country) is often missing. Instead, the focus in international research is usually on the state's willingness to change, as expressed, for example, in various legislative proposals and budget investments relating to equality between women and men. Focus is also directed to analyzes of women's political participation.
The empirical analyzes in the book focus on EU member states, but all analyzes are carried out against the background of developments on a global level. The choice to focus on the EU member states is based on (i) the principle of being a "tough case" for the assumption that state capacity contributes to explaining variations in gender equality in Europe today and (ii) data availability. In a comparative perspective, all EU member states are rather well-functioning. Interestingly, the analyzes indicate that various measures of state capacity and state content/willingness yield significant results in the models where they are interacted rather than included separately in regressions. An example of conclusion is that the interplay between government spending on family policy and corruption in the state's executive power together has a significant impact on the level of female labor force participation in the EU, i.e., the results show that as spending on family policies increases, the negative effects of corruption in the executive power of the state become weaker.
Preliminary title and table of contents:
State Power, Gender Equality, and Corruption in Contemporary Europe
Chapter 1. Risks, Threats, and Corruption. The call for research on state power and gender equality
Chapter 2. The Character of the State and the Capacity of the State. Towards a definition of state power
Chapter 3. What is Gender Equality? Theory and trends in Europe from a global perspective
Chapter 4. The Long-term Trajectories. Alternative explanations
Chapter 5. Design and Methodology
Chapter 6. Educational Attainment and Gender Equality Developments
Chapter 7. Labor Force Participation and Gender Equality Developments
Chapter 8. Gender Equality and Corruption. Evidence from sub-national analyses
Chapter 9. Taking Non-linear Developments in Gender Equality Seriously
Chapter 10. The Power of the State. Conclusions and directions for future research
During the fall 2021 and spring 2022, i.e., when international research stays became possible again after the pandemic, I have been a guest scholar and made presentations at the Department of Political Science, University of Barcelona, the Faculty of Law, University of Seville, and the Department of Political Science, University of Perugia. All these stays have contributed to the development of the book. The stay in Perugia led to participation in a special issue on the theme of gender and corruption in the journal Etica Pubblica where my contribution is entitled "Why Women in Elected Assemblies Reduce Levels of Corruption: The Indirect Approach," Etica Pubblica 2022(1):13–28. The stay in Perugia has also led to a collaboration within the Erasmus exchange program that includes both student and teacher exchanges.
The theme of the book is an analysis of variations in Europe from around 1990 to today in terms of gender equality in women's and men's everyday lives. More precisely, the book examines two dimensions of a well-functioning state where one dimension refers to the state's capacity to implement change and the other dimension to its willingness to change in the area of gender equality. The point made in the book is that both of these aspects of a well-functioning state must be examined simultaneously, but when it comes to the analyses of Europe, the dimension that includes the state's capacity (which for example include the level of corruption in a country) is often missing. Instead, the focus in international research is usually on the state's willingness to change, as expressed, for example, in various legislative proposals and budget investments relating to equality between women and men. Focus is also directed to analyzes of women's political participation.
The empirical analyzes in the book focus on EU member states, but all analyzes are carried out against the background of developments on a global level. The choice to focus on the EU member states is based on (i) the principle of being a "tough case" for the assumption that state capacity contributes to explaining variations in gender equality in Europe today and (ii) data availability. In a comparative perspective, all EU member states are rather well-functioning. Interestingly, the analyzes indicate that various measures of state capacity and state content/willingness yield significant results in the models where they are interacted rather than included separately in regressions. An example of conclusion is that the interplay between government spending on family policy and corruption in the state's executive power together has a significant impact on the level of female labor force participation in the EU, i.e., the results show that as spending on family policies increases, the negative effects of corruption in the executive power of the state become weaker.