Gender and Politics: The Great Divide

by Kristen Schmitt

Navigating the current political climate can be tricky, especially as a female politician.

Enter Professor Christina Xydias, who researches the intersection of gender and politics from a global perspective.

“I’m interested in the enduring political significance of gender and sex,” says Xydias. “There have been improvements, obviously, in women’s access to positions of political influence over the last 60 years, but progress has been relatively slow. In some countries, including the U.S., the progress has stalled. I want to know why.”

Currently, she’s focused on Germany. Her research dives into differences among political parties, particularly their use of gender quotas to increase women’s involvement in political office. These quota rules are very different from the kinds of strategies that get traction in current U.S. politics.

Xydias is currently working on a book, The Conservative Woman, that centers on the phenomenon of right-leaning political parties and their promotion of women’s rights and interests. The book will focus mainly on Germany, complemented by a cross-national analysis that includes a look at the U.S. She hopes that her book will not only raise awareness about women’s political advancement, but also illustrate that there are more advocates for women than are often widely publicized.

Xydias’ passion for this topic infiltrates the classroom in two of the international politics courses she teaches regularly. Sex, Gender and Power addresses women’s participation in politics, and Close and Contested Elections focuses on how political culture interacts with political rules.

“You can’t understand what you don’t see,” says Xydias. “And you can’t change what you don’t understand. I hope to open students’ eyes to the wider political world and the role that gender plays in how people experience that world.”

Prof. Christina Xydias

To sift through thousands of political documents, Prof. Xydias has had help from Clarkson students Karleene Diaz ’16 and Dallas Blowers ’18. The two assisted Xydias in developing automated (computer) tools for analyzing political texts, such as party platforms and transcripts of legislative speeches. Their work has been instrumental to Xydias’ book.