Engendering Democracy in an Age of Anxiety

doi:10.1017/9781108879170.005

5 - Engendering Democracy in an Age of Anxiety

from Part I - People

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 August 2021

Alice Kessler-Harris

Edited by

Frances McCall Rosenbluth and

Margaret Weir

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Frances McCall Rosenbluth: Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
Margaret Weir: Affiliation:
Brown University, Rhode Island

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Summary

This chapter notes the challenge of maintaining and building a democratic politics in the face of increasing inequality and the power of capital over the political process. It argues that among the main proponents of democracy, organized women have been increasingly effective in achieving inclusion in the polity. Historically, they have done so by advocating solidaristic goals rooted in the social good, rather than by focusing on individual success. While the advent of free market economics in the 1970s created divisions among them, there is evidence that in the early twenty-first century, women may once again be unifying around an egalitarian politics that will help to sustain a rising democracy.

Keywords

liberty egalitarianism individual rights social good women’s movement

Type: Chapter
Information: Who Gets What?
The New Politics of Insecurity
, pp. 103 - 126

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108879170.005 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2021

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