Gender and Political Recruitment: Theorizing Institutional change (Gender and Politics)

This book explores the gendered dynamics of institutional innovation, continuity and change in candidate selection and recruitment. Drawing on the insights of feminist institutionalism, it extends the 'supply and demand model' of political recruitment via a micro-level case study of the candidate selection process in post-devolution Scotland. "Political parties can make or break women's attempts to stand for political office, yet there have been surprisingly few systematic studies into the 'secret garden' of political recruitment. This book investigates this under-researched area, bringing together insights from feminist and new institutional theory to explore and understand the gendered dynamics of institutional innovation and change in candidate selection and recruitment. Drawing on an original empirical case study of candidate selection in post-devolution Scotland, Gender and Political Recruitment highlights the complex and gendered dynamics of institutional design, continuity and change in the political recruitment process and illustrates the difficulties of reforming recruitment in the face of powerful institutional and gendered legacies"-- Provided by publisher Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction....Pages 1-12 Gender, Institutions and Political Recruitment....Pages 13-33 A Feminist Institutionalist Approach....Pages 34-62 Political Recruitment in Post-Devolution Scotland....Pages 63-84 Breaking with the Past? The Case of the Labour Party....Pages 85-109 The Story of a Selection....Pages 110-140 Applying a Feminist Institutionalist Lens....Pages 141-167 Rethinking Political Recruitment....Pages 168-184 Back Matter....Pages 185-215