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Karen Beckwith, Ph.D. – Flora Stone Mather Professor of Political Science and Director of Curriculum Review<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Dear Colleagues:<\/p>\n If you look at Congress today, you would notice that most of the women are Democrats. You might conclude that after the electoral \u201cgender gap\u201d arose in the 1980 election, the Democrats became the party of female politicians as well as female voters. With the rather large difference that women remain drastically under-represented, relative to their share of the voters, in Congress.<\/p>\n Hence 20 of the 100 Senators and 77 of the 435 Representatives (17.7%) are women. 80% of female Senators (16) and over \u00be of female Representatives (58) are Democrats.<\/span>\u00a0(http:\/\/www.cawp.rutgers.edu\/fast_facts\/levels_of_office\/<\/span><\/a>)<\/p>\n The story, however, is not quite so simple. First, the difference among elected officials far exceeds the difference in party allegiance among the voters. Second, the difference between the parties in electing women is fairly new: the gap opened dramatically in the 1990 and 1992 elections.<\/p>\n Who parties elect does not simply reflect who votes for a party. It also depends on how candidates are selected, how frequently incumbents retire or are displaced, and other factors.<\/p>\n What, then, explains why there are so many more Democratic than Republican women in Congress? Is it likely to persist, and what does that mean for gender representation in the future? These are good questions to ask Karen Beckwith, our Flora Stone Mather Professor of Political Science. She studies election of women to legislatures and appointment to cabinet positions across the world, so can offer a broad comparative perspective on the pattern in the United States.<\/p>\n All best regards, About Our Guest…<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Karen Beckwith<\/strong>\u00a0joined our faculty as Flora Stone Mather Professor of Political Science in 2006. She received her B.A. from the University of Kentucky (1972) and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Syracuse University (1977, 1982). Teaching primarily in the areas of US politics, political movements, and women, gender, and politics, she has special interests in the United States and West Europe, particularly Britain and Italy.<\/p>\n Professor Beckwith has served as President of the American Political Science Association\u2019s Women and Politics Research Section. She became the founding editor, with Lisa Baldez (Dartmouth College), of\u00a0Politics & Gender<\/em>, the section’s journal; and has also been co-editor of the Gender and Politics Series of the Oxford University Press. Among her current research is an international project, funded by the European Consortium on Political Research, investigating Gender & Executive Leadership.<\/p>\n In October of 2007 she convened a research conference, funded by a CWRU Presidential Initiative Grant for Interdisciplinary Studies, that included scholars from Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The results of the conference were published as a ten-article symposium in Perspectives on Politics, 8 (1), March 2010<\/span>\u00a0(http:\/\/journals.cambridge.org\/action\/displayJournal?jid=PPS<\/span><\/a>). Professor Beckwith\u2019s article, \u201cComparative Politics and the Logics of a Comparative Politics of Gender,\u201d introduces the symposium.<\/p>\n\n Friday February 22, 2013
\n12:30-1:30 p.m.
\nDampeer Room
\nKelvin Smith Library
\nCase Western Reserve University<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\nJoe White
\nLuxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies<\/span><\/p>\n