‘Woman-Centred Politics’: A Concept for Exploring Women’s Political Perceptions

The last decade has seen a growth in social science literature explaining women’s experiences as social actors. Alongside this development, disciplines such as sociology have also witnessed a rethinking of key concepts, such as class, to take into account the significance of gender. It is, therefore, surprising that within political science there exists only a small literature on women and politics and little attempt has been made to redefine concepts and underlying assumptions to take account of the experiences of women. Political studies has traditionally had little to say about women’s involvement in politics. As a result, either women have been rendered invisible or their political behaviour has been portrayed as a deviation from the male norm. Female scholars within the discipline have recognised this but, I would argue, have so far been unable to develop a satisfactory alternative.