Breaking Male Dominance in Old Democracies

Around 100 years after women's suffrage was gained and in spite of much effort gender balance in politics is still far from achieved in most countries. Women's average representation in the world's parliaments was around 20 per cent in 2012. This book studies historical processes of breaking male dominance in politics. It discusses how women have gained access to, or have remained excluded from, political influence in party leadership, in elected assemblies andin government. It focuses on Old Democracies, that is counties or states which share a long tradition of democratic practices, highly developed socio-economic structures and where women's suffrage was established at the beginning of the 20th century.