Collaborative Research: Comparative Study of Women's Policy Offices: 1970-2000

Washington State University, Pullman WA

Investigators

Abstract

This is a cross-national project to study government offices to improve the status of women and promote sex-based equality. Five US scholars, the PIs in this award, will work with approximately 30 researchers from 11 other countries in a project that has been underway since 1995 to study law making processes pertaining to abortion, prostitution, job training and democratic representation of women, as well as the status of women's concerns in immigration, economic restructuring and welfare reform. Using the comparative method of political research, three general hypotheses will be examined in this research project (1) whether or not the success of women's movements in achieving their goals is due to intervention by women's policy offices inside the government; (2) whether or not women's movement success or women's policy office effectiveness depends on the resources of the movement and an open policy environment or both; (3) whether or not women's movements can be as successful without intervention by policy offices. The PIs have established a detailed set of operational definitions and procedures that will guide the data collection by each researcher. This plan is designed to ensure the comparability of the findings and thus enhance the project's potential contribution to empirically tested theory of institutional effectiveness and social movement impact.