Has Liberalism Failed Women?

This book comes out of a conference in April of 1999 at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University on the topic of "Gender Parity and the Liberal Tradition: Proposals and Debates in Europe and the United States." The essays are divided into three sections, each of which approaches from a different angle the central question of whether liberalism has failed women. The first section aims to frame the discussion by outlining the theoretical arguments for the amendments or revisions implied by the proponents of the Parity Movement in Europe and for the concerns raised by critics. The second describes recent changes in party rules, European legal framework, and national constitutions, as well as the gains made by women in response to rule change. The third section provides American perspectives on the lessons that parity advocates might draw from affirmative action policies and speculations about how parity rules would work in the American context.

Jytte Klausen is Associate Professor of Comparative Politics at Brandeis University and author of War and Welfare: Europe and the United States, 1945 to the Present.

Charles S. Maier is The Krupp Foundation Professor of European Studies at Harvard University and author of Disillusion: The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany.