IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/poango/v12y2024a8045.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gender Sensitizing Parliaments: Reflections on Becoming a Feminist Academic Critical Actor

Author

Listed:
  • Sarah Childs

    (School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, UK)

Abstract

Informed by my secondment to the UK Parliament in 2015–2016, and the production and reception of The Good Parliament report—which offered a blueprint for a diversity-sensitive House of Commons—this article reflects on my experiences becoming a feminist academic critical actor. This new type of critical actor extends the conceptualization first developed by Childs and Krook (2006, 2008). A distinctiveness vis. Chappell and Mackay’s (2021) concept of the “feminist critical friend” is also drawn: In addition to researching institutional change and supporting others in their reform work, the feminist academic critical actor is essential to instigate and institute institutional change. In this, the feminist academic critical actor is engaged in quotidian persuasion work and is both the agent as well as the analyst of research, critically reflecting on the dynamics and actors of institutional status, change, and resistance, including their own acts, in situ and after. In making the case for the feminist academic critical actor, the academic is recognized as doing something different, begging important questions of responsibility and accountability, and the opportunities and costs of engaging in such acts, particularly for minoritized and/or precarious academics. In the latter part of the article, I sketch out some of the dilemmas located in the questioning of my authority and legitimacy, and concerning the harm that I faced as a relatively privileged aspirant feminist academic critical actor, acting to rework the highly masculinized institution that is the UK House of Commons.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah Childs, 2024. "Gender Sensitizing Parliaments: Reflections on Becoming a Feminist Academic Critical Actor," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 12.
  • Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8045
    DOI: 10.17645/pag.8045
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8045
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/pag.8045?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rosie Campbell & Sarah Childs, 2013. "The Impact Imperative: Here Come the Women :-)," Political Studies Review, Political Studies Association, vol. 11(2), pages 182-189, May.
    2. Sarah Childs & Sonia Palmieri, 2023. "Gender-sensitive parliaments: feminising formal political institutions," Chapters, in: Marian Sawer & Lee A. Banaszak & Jacqui True & Johanna Kantola (ed.), Handbook of Feminist Governance, chapter 14, pages 174-188, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Debra E. Meyerson & Maureen A. Scully, 1995. "Crossroads Tempered Radicalism and the Politics of Ambivalence and Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 6(5), pages 585-600, October.
    4. Gerry Stoker, 2013. "Designing Politics: A Neglected Justification for Political Science," Political Studies Review, Political Studies Association, vol. 11(2), pages 174-181, May.
    5. Mansbridge, Jane, 2003. "Rethinking Representation," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 97(4), pages 515-528, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Petra Ahrens & Sonia Palmieri, 2024. "Gender Equality Reforms in Parliaments," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 12.
    2. Petra Ahrens & Silvia Erzeel & Merel Fieremans, 2024. "Methodological Reflections on Studying Gender‐Sensitive Parliaments Cross‐Nationally: A “Most Significant Change” Approach," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 12.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heß, Moritz & Scheve, Christian von & Schupp, Jürgen & Wagner, Aiko & Wagner, Gert G., 2018. "Are Political Representatives More Risk-Loving Than the Electorate? Evidence from German Federal and State Parliaments," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 4, pages 1-7.
    2. Muzanenhamo, Penelope & Power, Sean Bradley, 2024. "ChatGPT and accounting in African contexts: Amplifying epistemic injustice," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    3. Ovtchinnikov, Alexei V. & Pantaleoni, Eva, 2012. "Individual political contributions and firm performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(2), pages 367-392.
    4. Chatterjee, Ira & Cornelissen, Joep & Wincent, Joakim, 2021. "Social entrepreneurship and values work: The role of practices in shaping values and negotiating change," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(1).
    5. Sally Sargeson & Tamara Jacka, 2018. "Improving Women's Substantive Representation in Community Government: Evidence from Chinese Villages," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 49(5), pages 1166-1194, September.
    6. Thomas Braendle & Alois Stutzer, 2010. "Public servants in parliament: theory and evidence on its determinants in Germany," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 223-252, October.
    7. Le Anh Nguyen Long, 2016. "Does Social Capital Affect Immigrant Political Participation? Lessons from a Small-N Study of Migrant Political Participation in Rome," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 819-837, August.
    8. Camilla Mariotto, 2022. "The Implementation of Economic Rules: From the Stability and Growth Pact to the European Semester," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 40-57, January.
    9. Kathryn L. Heinze & Klaus Weber, 2016. "Toward Organizational Pluralism: Institutional Intrapreneurship in Integrative Medicine," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(1), pages 157-172, February.
    10. Niveen Mazen Alsayyed & Julian Randall, 2023. "Feminist Emergence in a Traditionally Male Industry: Case from Jordan—The Jordanian Banking Industry," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-22, January.
    11. Elisa Alt & Justin B. Craig, 2016. "Selling Issues with Solutions: Igniting Social Intrapreneurship in for-Profit Organizations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(5), pages 794-820, July.
    12. André Blais & Eric Guntermann & Vincent Arel-Bundock & Ruth Dassonneville & Jean-François Laslier & Gabrielle Péloquin-Skulski, 2020. "Party preference representation," Post-Print halshs-03230127, HAL.
    13. Anne-marie Greene & Gill Kirton, 2024. "“Doing the Right Thing” and “Making a Difference”: The Role of Personal Ethical Values in Diversity and Inclusion Consulting," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 193(1), pages 179-191, August.
    14. Egan, Matthew & Voss, Barbara de Lima, 2023. "Redressing the Big 4’s male, pale and stale image, through LGBTIQ+ ethical praxis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    15. Geradts, Thijs H.J. & Alt, Elisa, 2022. "Social entrepreneurial action in established organizations: Developing the concept of social intrapreneurship," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 197-206.
    16. Aileen Corley & Ann Thorne, 2006. "Action learning: avoiding conflict or enabling action," Action Learning: Research and Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(01), pages 31-44.
    17. Petra Guasti & Brigitte Geissel, 2019. "Saward’s Concept of the Representative Claim Revisited: An Empirical Perspective," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(3), pages 98-111.
    18. Magnusdottir Gunnhildur Lily, 2016. "Immigrant Representation in the Swedish Parliament: Towards Homogeneity or United Diversity?," Social Change Review, Sciendo, vol. 14(2), pages 97-120, December.
    19. Matthieß, Theres, 2020. "Retrospective pledge voting: A comparative study of the electoral consequences of government parties’ pledge fulfilment," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 59(4), pages 774-796.
    20. Slavova, Mira & Metiu , Anca, 2015. "Ritualization and the Process of Knowledge Transfer," ESSEC Working Papers WP1511, ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8045. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.