Containing the results of a cross-national research project on abortion politics in eleven democratic states (between the 1960s and 2000), this volume marks major progress in abortion research. It develops a comprehensive research design to examine whether or not women's policy agencies (institutional groups intended to improve the status of women) have functioned as necessary and effective allies of women's movements. It explores their efforts to gain access to power arenas and secure abortion laws that coincide with feminist goals. Indeed, these findings constitute a rigorous application of...

Containing the results of a cross-national research project on abortion politics in eleven democratic states (between the 1960s and 2000), this volume marks major progress in abortion research. It develops a comprehensive research design to examine whether or not women's policy agencies (institutional groups intended to improve the status of women) have functioned as necessary and effective allies of women's movements. It explores their efforts to gain access to power arenas and secure abortion laws that coincide with feminist goals. Indeed, these findings constitute a rigorous application of...

The cross-national trend in post-industrial societies of establishing state structures assigned to improve the status of women is studied in this book. The existence of a phenomenon called state feminism' has begun to be a focus of research in the past few years, although the phenomenon itself dates from the 1960s, thus there is a clear need for a comparative analysis. With contributions from renowned scholars, the book: describes and classifies the range and diversity of state structures charged with improving the status of women in post-industrial societies; analyzes their effect on the...