title: Women, Politics, and Power: A Global Perspective (Sociology for a New Century Series)
author: Pamela M. (Marie) Paxton
description: "Paxton and Hughes have put together a brilliant and detailed account of the current status of women's position in politics and women's political representation across diverse countries and regions of the world." (Padmini Swaminathan <i>The Hindu</i> 20080814)<br /><br />"Paxton and Hughes provide the most comprehensive coverage yet attempted of women's increasing role in electoral politics across the globe. <em>Women, Politics, and Power </em>should be a a valuable contribution to course in political sociology and globalization as well as gendered courses in politics. (Carol Mueller <i>American Journal of Sociology</i> 20090422)
zlib_text: Women and States
  Momentous changes in the relation between women and the state have
  advanced women’s status around the globe. Women were barred from
  public affairs a century ago, yet almost every state now recognizes equal
  voting rights and exhibits a national policy bureau for the advancement of
  women. Sex quotas for national legislatures are increasingly common. Ann
  E. Towns explains these changes by providing a novel account of how
  norms work in international society. She argues that norms don’t just
  provide standards for states, they rank them, providing comparative judg-
  ments which place states in hierarchical social orders. This focus on the link
  between norms and ranking hierarchies helps to account better for how a
  new policy, such as equality for women in public life, is spread around the
  world. Women and States thus offers a new view of the relationship
  between women and the state, and of the inﬂuence of norms in international
  politics.
  Ann E. Towns is Assistant Professor of