Professor Karen Beckwith’s work focuses on the comparative politics of gender in the US and West Europe, including women and elections, political parties and participation, and social movements. Her research concerns how citizens participate in politics through social movement activism, and engagement with political parties and interest groups. She is particularly interested in how political institutions shape political opportunities and disadvantages along gender lines, and how women – and men – mobilise to assert their policy preferences.  Her most recent work concerns the gendered processes of party leadership selection in parliamentary systems and how gender, race, and ethnicity shape cabinet formation in the US and West Europe.

Read more from Professor Karen Beckwith: 

Beckwith, Karen and Susan Franceschet. 2022. “Gendering Cabinet Reshuffles in France and Spain,” Government & Opposition, 2022, 1-22, doi:10.1017/gov.2022.31.

Beckwith, Karen. 2022. “Becoming Prime Minister: Women and Executive Power in EU Member States,” in Women and Leadership in the European Union, eds. Henriette Müller and Ingeborg Tömmel. Oxford University Press.

Beckwith, Karen. 2021. “Review Essay: Democracy with and without Women: Inclusion, Exclusion, and Violence,” Perspectives on Politics, 19 (3), September.

Beckwith, Karen. 2022. “Tools and Numbers: Movement Strategy and Women’s Inclusion in Political Institutions,” paper presented at the Midwest Political Science Association meetings, Chicago, IL, April 7-10.