Gender Politics and Electoral Authoritarianism

This research project investigates gender politics in electoral authoritarian states. Electoral authoritarian states are hybrid regimes that have democratic institutions in place, but where the playing field is severely skewed in favor of the ruling party. During the past 20 years, electoral authoritarian states have significantly increased their representation of women through the adoption of quotas. This project investigates the reasons for and the impact of such gender politics reforms in electoral authoritarian states.

By combining insights from two literatures – democratization literature and gender and representation literature – and by employing different types of methods – statistical analysis and medium-n analyses – this project seeks to advance our knowledge about the opportunities and challenges for gender equality politics on an unequal playing field.

 – We really want this project to be of relevance for two different fields, says Elin Bjarnegård, Project leader. We want to demonstrate how important it is that those studying democratization start taking gender equality reforms into account, but also that gender and politics scholars need to consider in what type of regimes reforms are taking place.

The results of the project will be presented in articles and in a monograph.

---

Principal Investigator: Elin Bjarnegård (Department of Government)

Period: 2016–2021

Funding: SEK 4 100 000 from the Swedish Research Council