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Gender & Politics
The Gender & Politics group highlight research and teaching with a gender perspective across the Department of Political Science’s core research groups of international relations, public policy, Danish and comparative politics, and political theory. Hence, the research and classes that we conduct are within various subfields of Political Science, and a broad array of methodological approaches to the study of gender and politics is applied by the researchers within the group.

Group members are involved in courses across the BA and MA in Political Science, Social Studies and Security Risk Management.
Food for Thought: Towards a Democratic Theory of Radical Ecofeminism
In her PhD-project, Anne-Sofie Dichman combines ethnography with political theory in the study of gender, democracy, and ecology. More specifically, Anne-Sofie examines the gendered aspects of politics by showing how democratic engagement is experienced in different ways. Anne-Sofie has conducted a one-year long immersive fieldwork with women in the gilets jaunes movement (the Yellow Jackets movement) in France and from this ethnographic study, she discusses the democratic lessons we, as political scientists, can learn from contemporary social movements more broadly understood.
Anne-Sofie Dichman is a PhD fellow at UCPH with political theory, democratic theory, feminist theory, French politics, and contemporary social movements, including the gilets jaunes (the Yellow Jackets movement), as primary fields of research. In her Ph.D.-project, Anne-Sofie combines ethnography with political theory in the study of gender,- democratic,- and ecological issues in contemporary western societies. More concretely, Anne-Sofie examines the gendered aspects of democracy by studying how democratic engagement is experienced in different ways. Anne-Sofie has conducted a one-year long immersive fieldwork with the gilets jaunes movement in France and from this ethnographic study, she discusses the democratic lessons we, as political scientists, can learn from contemporary social movements.
Bodies as Battleground: Gender Images and International Security
The research project “Bodies as Battleground: Gender Images and International Security” is devoted to furthering our knowledge of how gender, images and security are connected. It provides theory and analysis of how images represent threats and danger by showing humans in specific and gendered ways. It studies if an increase in the level of violence has implications for gender roles. The research project is identifying and examining iconic representations of masculinity and femininity during times of war.
- Principal Investigator: Professor Lene Hansen
- Read more about the project
Gendered Political Recruitment
A record share of women stood for election to Folketinget in 2019, but even though left of center parties with a larger share of women on their lists did well, the share of women in parliament did not exceed 40 percent. It never has. Since 1990 the share of women in the Danish parliament has been stable below this ‘glass ceiling’. The stability has made Denmark rattle down the world rankings from the top to a 19th place. At the municipal level, the gender inequality is even larger with only one in three a women after the 2017 election. This is particularly intriguing in the Danish case with a high level of welfare and gender equality, hence, the research question: How is the gender imbalance in Danish politics explained? In this Karina Kosiara-Pedersen collaborate with national and international colleagues. Publications include Ulrik Kjær & Karina Kosiara-Pedersen (2019) 'The hourglass pattern of women’s representation', Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties 29(3): 299-317. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457289.2018.1530678.
Offered in fall 2021:
Gender & Politics
In what ways are politics and policy gendered and gendering? What does it mean to carry out political and policy analysis from a gender perspective? What does feminist and queer theory bring to the study of politics and policy? In tackling these questions, this course provides a critical introduction to feminism and its implications for politics, and aims to familiarise students with the study of politics, public policy, and international relations from a gender perspective. This includes consideration of the major contributions of feminist theories to the analysis of politics and public policy in general, as well as to political representation, political behavior, and gender equality policies in particular. The course surveys central topics in the study of gender and politics from both empirical and theoretical perspectives, covering issues such as women’s representation and participation in politics and social movements; policymaking for gender equality; gender and international governance; and gender in international relations and security studies. The course also introduces students to pluralistic methods and analytical approaches to feminist, gender, and intersectional studies of politics and policy. It is possible to stop halfway and take this as a 7,5 ECTS course or follow the whole for 15 ECTS.
- Organized by Emily St Denny, mail: ed@ifs.ku.dk and Karina Kosiara-Pedersen, mail: kp@ifs.ku.dk, lectures from the Gender & Politics group
Gender and International Relation
In the MSc elective “Gender and International Relations” students learn why and how gender matters in the conduct and study of world politics. The course introduces students to theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of gender in International Relations and Security Studies. Taking its starting point in the early feminist debates, the course turns to themes such as war, conflict, militarism, counterinsurgency and security. Students learn to analyze the state as well as the role of bodies and their complex intersecting identities to understand how gender is intertwined with categories such as race, class and sexuality. They leave the course with a better theoretical and methodological understanding of the study of gender in Security Studies and its interactions with the larger fields of International Relations and Political Science.
- Lecturer: Matthias Humer, mail: mth@ifs.ku.dk
Feminist theory: gender, democracy, and ecology
Why is gender inequality still a political issue in contemporary democracies? How can we think about gender and sexuality in more pluralistic ways? And how are these questions related to theories of ecology and new materialism? Feminist theory: gender, democracy, and ecology is a political theory course that addresses these complex questions. The course offers an in-depth introduction to contemporary feminist theory taking the works of Judith Butler as point of departure. The overall aim of the course is to read, understand, and discuss feminist theory but also to learn to see contemporary gender-political issues from new angles and multiple perspectives.
- Lecturer: Anne-Sofie Dichman, mail: anne-sofie.dichman@ifs.ku.dk
28 September 2021 from 17:00 - 19:00:
Gendered Political Socialization
Professor Mirya Holman will present the article ‘This One’s for the Boys: How Gendered Political Socialization Limits Girls’ Political Ambition and Interest’, authored by Angela L. Bos, Jill S. Greenlee, Mirya R. Holman, Zoe M. Oxley, and J. Celeste Lay, and accepted for publication at the American Political Science Review. The paper develops and tests a new theoretical framework, gendered political socialization, which offers important insights into how children perceive gender in politics, and the consequences of these perceptions on sex differences in political interest and ambition. Based on data from 1,604 children who live in four different regions across the United States, we find that children not only perceive politics to be a male-dominated space, but with age, girls increasingly see political leadership as a “man’s world.” Simultaneously, as children grow older, they internalize gendered expectations, which direct their interests toward professions that embody the gendered traits that fit with their own sex. One result of this mismatch between women and politics is that girls express lower levels of interest and ambition in politics than do boys.
Researchers
Name | Title | Phone | |
---|---|---|---|
Denman, Derek Scott | Postdoc | +4535320839 | |
Dichman, Anne-Sofie | PhD Fellow | +4535331656 | |
Eggeling, Kristin Anabel | Assistant Professor | +4535335798 | |
Gagnon, Terese Virginia | Postdoc | +4535323737 | |
Golovchenko, Yevgeniy | Assistant Professor - Tenure Track | +4535333418 | |
Græger, Nina | Head of Department, Professor | +4535337662 | |
Hansen, Lene | Professor | +4535323432 | |
Hermansen, Silje Synnøve Lyder | Assistant Professor - Tenure Track | +4535323732 | |
Hjorth, Frederik Georg | Associate Professor | +4535324104 | |
Humer, Matthias | PhD Fellow | +4535331013 | |
Jensen, Hanne Nexø | Associate Professor | +4535323415 | |
Kosiara-Pedersen, Karina | Associate Professor | +4535323416 | |
Lee, Myunghee | Postdoc | +4535323096 | |
Rapp, Carolin Hjort | Associate Professor | +4535336586 | |
St Denny, Emily Flore | Assistant Professor - Tenure Track | +4535331908 |
Contact
Coordinator:
Associate Professor
Karina Kosiara-Pedersen
Mail: kp@ifs.ku.dk
Phone: +45 35 32 34 16
University of Copenhagen
Øster Farimagsgade 5
DK-1353 Copenhagen K
EAN no.: 5798000421530