ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by surveying the numbers of women in executive and legislative offices in all the countries of the world, mapping the contours of gender inequality in political leadership. It demonstrates the flaws in explanations that attribute the problem to women themselves while masking the operation of gender power. As an alternative to these defective accounts, the chapter examines the theory of gendered institutions, a view that suggests men have used the state to create and consolidate systems of male privilege and advantage. Indeed, men have used the law to ban women from political participation. The chapter identifies specific instances when men in many different nations passed laws prohibiting women from attending public meetings, participating in political demonstrations, belonging to political parties or clubs, voting, and holding public office. It examines the exclusion of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and the inhabitants of Africa and Asia, who were deemed unfit for self-governance.
