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Abstract
This
comparative research project based on a case study concerns seven
countries of the European Union - Belgium, France, Finland, Greece,
Italy, Portugal, and Sweden.
Its purpose is to locate the possibilities of change resulting from
women's increased participation in local government. It intends
to bring out the effects of the gendered composition of elected
political bodies and women's dynamic contribution to the fate of
the community. In order to do this it will examine:
1) what is women's current place in decision making and the reasons
for sex inequality in political representation;
2) the impact of the informal political sphere (NGOs etc.) on the
decisions of elected representatives as well as women's role in
this type of activity;
3) the effects of shifts in the forms of government (weight of inter-communal
bodies, interaction between local and EU level) and the way in which
these influence gender relations.
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