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BOOK REVIEWS 289
that are not receptive to women candidates? What are the perceptible cultural differences of women-friendly and women-unfriendly districts? Will rural southern districts ever be women friendly?
Overall, however, this is an excellent treatment of where we stand in the slow march toward gender parity for the U.S. Congress. It will be an invaluable resource in the gender politics subfield.
Women, Quotas, and Politics. Edited by Drude Dahlerup. London and New York: Routledge, 2006. 312 pp. $115.00.
DOI: 10.1017/S1743923X0700013X
Leslie A. Schwindt-Bayer
University of Mississippi
Over the past 15 years, gender quota debates have emerged in national politics all over the world. More than 40 countries have reformed their constitutions or passed new electoral laws requiring that women comprise certain percentages of aspirants, candidates, or legislative seats, while in many other countries, political parties have adopted quotas on their own. This phenomenon raises both normative and empirical questions, ranging from whether gender quotas are appropriate to why countries adopt them and how effective they have been. Drude Dahlerups edited book addresses these concerns with the first worldwide compilation of gender quota studies. The editor brings together a diverse group of authors who examine quotas in seven regions of the world, and she brackets their contributions with theoretical chapters on quota adoption and implementation. The result is the most comprehensive resource on gender quotas to date.
Dahlerups introduction provides a necessary framework for the authors to follow, outlining common terminology to describe different types of gender quotas and identifying major questions for the chapters to answer. Existing studies use a wide array of terms to...