The Gender of Democracy

Citizenship and Gendered Subjectivity

Maro Pantelidou Maloutas

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9780415382960
• eBook ISBN: 9781134177271
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Democracy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

As developments in the European Union and elsewhere make the re-examination of citizenship a pressing issue, this book reflects on the persisting "masculine" character of contemporary democracy and the measures taken in the EU to combat it.

Combining a theoretical approach with a specific critique of EU gender policy, The Gender of Democracy argues that substantial democracy as a social project cannot co-exist with the existing system of gender relations, which are inherently dichotomous and thus demarcate social categories of superior and inferior status. Drawing on utopian thought, Maro Pantelidou Maloutas proposes a re-examination of the notion of the gendered subject and a revision of the dominant perceptions of the relations between sex, sexuality and gender.

The book contains a critique of specific EU gender policies and shows how in seeking to do away with gender inequality, simply formulating policies that are pro-women is not enough. In order to approach democracy's emancipatory component, far-reaching policies which deconstruct rather than modernize gender relations are needed.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Abstract
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1 The correlation between democracy and gender
• 2 Restricted women’s presence in political decision-making: theoretical issues and policies
• 3 The gendered subject as citizen
• 4 Gender, democracy, utopia
• 5 Concluding Remarks
• Notes
• Bibliography