CAMBRIDGE, MA | January 2, 2020 — One hundred years ago, the United States ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, granting women the right to vote. The publication of the Winter 2020 issue of Dædalus “Women & Equality,” guest edited by Nannerl O. Keohane (Academy Member; Princeton University; Stanford University) and Frances McCall Rosenbluth (Academy Member; Yale University), at the centennial is a celebration of this victory for women’s rights. Yet while the inclusion of women in the electorate was a momentous occasion, it notably left behind most Black women, and while women have made incredible strides toward equality since, there is still a long way to go. This collection of essays, which is only the third to explore this topic in Dædalus’s sixty-five-year history, therefore is not only a celebration of the accomplishments of women around the world toward equality, it is also an invitation to further reflection and a call to action, assessing remaining obstacles and pointing a way toward workable solutions.
The authors of the 2020 issue, the majority of whom are female academics, journalists, lawyers, and practitioners, present a kaleidoscopic picture of the complexities of the battle for equality today, in particular addressing four themes: political participation, economic equality, changing social norms, and the path forward.
Yet feminists have long wrestled with how best to dismantle patriarchal oppression and build new structures. The authors consider three factors that must come together to make such a venture possible: a clearer understanding of what “equality” means in this context; determining the best way to approach the goal, including alliances with sympathetic men; and female leadership and the deliberate use of power to attain our goals.
All essays of this volume are freely available online. For questions and more information, please contact daedalus@amacad.org.
The Winter 2020 issue of Dædalus on “Women & Equality” features the following essays:
Introduction
Nannerl O. Keohane (Academy Member; Princeton University; Stanford University) & Frances McCall Rosenbluth (Academy Member; Yale University)
Women & the Vote
Dawn Langan Teele (University of Pennsylvania)
Women’s Underrepresentation in the U.S. Congress
Kira Sanbonmatsu (Rutgers University)
Another Progressive’s Dilemma: Immigration, the Radical Right & Threats to Gender Equality
Rafaela Dancygier (Princeton University)
Donald Trump’s Gift to Feminism: The Resistance
Susan Chira (The Marshall Project)
The Dilemma of Gender Equality: How Labor Market Regulation Divides Women by Class
Torben Iversen (Academy Member; Harvard University), Frances McCall Rosenbluth & Øyvind Skorge (Institute for Social Research, Norway)
What’s Policy Got to Do with It? Race, Gender & Economic Inequality in the United States
Jamila Michener (Cornell University) & Margaret Teresa Brower (University of Chicago)
Kinship Structure & Women: Evidence from Economics
Sara Lowes (Stanford King Center on Global Development; CIFAR; Centre for Economic Policy Research)
Gender Lens to the Future of Work
Anita I. Jivani (Avanade Northeast; NYC Innovation Center)
Fighting Violence Against Women: Laws, Norms & Challenges Ahead
Mala Htun (University of New Mexico) & Francesca R. Jensenius (University of Oslo; Norwegian Institute of International Affairs)
The New Competition in Multilateral Norm-Setting: Transnational Feminists & the Illiberal Backlash
Anne Marie Goetz (New York University)
Sexual Harassment of Women Leaders
Olle Folke (Uppsala University; Yale University), Johanna Rickne (Stockholm University; Yale University), Seiki Tanaka (University of Groningen) & Yasuka Tateishi (World Bank)
Cooperation & Conflict in the Patriarchal Labyrinth
Nancy Folbre (University of Massachusetts-Amherst)
Equality
Catharine A. MacKinnon (Academy Member; University of Michigan Law School; Harvard Law School)
Good Fellows: Men’s Role & Reason in the Fight for Gender Equality
Debora L. Spar (Academy Member; Harvard Business School; Barnard College)
Women, Power & Leadership
Nannerl O. Keohane