Research Overview

My research focuses on women in politics, global women's leadership, social movements and international norms. My dissertation, which I am currently turning into a book manuscript, focuses on the dynamics of gender quota adoption and non-adoption in Central and Eastern Europe. I ask why do certain countries in Central and Eastern Europe adopt gender quotas and why some do not. To answer this question I first gathered relevant information on 19 countries of interest in the region. I then focused on four of these countries for more in-depth explorations of quota adoption and non-adoption. Poland and Serbia are analyzed as in-depth case studies for quota adopters. Latvia and the Czech Republic are examples of non-adopters. 

My findings support previous research that links gender quota adoption to the advocacy of women's groups. Women's groups in many CEE countries actively and successfully lobbied for quota adoption. In turn, it is difficult to pass gender quotas in certain countries when there is significant resistance to quotas at the political elite level. Adoption is also difficult when the advocacy and mobilization for gender quotas by women's groups is not focused or persistent. 

In addition to my book manuscript, I am working on several research papers. One of these papers discusses gender quota non-adoption and the dynamics involved when international norms are rejected in certain settings. 

The other paper moves away from gender quotas on to women's executive leadership. This working paper focuses on women presidents and prime ministers. Since there have been several countries in the Central and Eastern European region with women executives, I examine why this is the case, given that other countries in the world have never had a woman executive.