Even though in most nations women are at least almost half of the population, in very few countries do they occupy a similar space in the formal institutions of political power. They are said to lack a key element for a successful career in public life: time. From this perspective, no one is worse off than women who are mothers. From another perspective, however, motherhood is thought to help politicize women, as this life-changing experience makes them aware of the limitations of some specific public policies (such as child-care, parental leave, gendered labor practices etc.) as well as more conscious of the centrality of more encompassing public policies, such as education, health care, and social assistance. This book explores the challenges, obstacles, opportunities and experiences of mothers who take part in political and/or public life.

Simone Bohn is Associate Professor of Political Science at York University, where she coordinates the Brazil Chair and the Brazilian Studies. Dr. Bohn’s research focuses on political parties in South America, gender and politics in Brazil, and the study of political tolerance and attitudes towards corruption in Latin America. She is currently working on a SSHRC-funded research project entitled “Evaluating strategic political partnerships: The case of the women’s movement and the state in contemporary Brazil”. Her articles have been published in scholarly journals, such as Politics and Government, Latin American Research Review, International Political Science Review, Journal of Latin American Politics, and Comparative Governance and Politics.

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Pınar Melis Yelsalı Parmaksız is an Associate Professor at Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences. Yelsalı Parmaksız received her PhD in Turkish Studies from Leiden University in 2009 with the thesis titled Modernization and Gender Regimes in Turkey. Her main area of interests are gender and modernization in Turkey, feminist methodology and memory studies. She published many articles on related subjects in journals and collected volumes. She also published the collected volume titled Neye Yarar Hatıralar? Türkiye’de Bellek ve Siyaset Çalışmaları [What Is the Use of Memories? Studies of Memory and Politics in Turkey] in 2013.

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