This essay reviews four texts that analyze women in political institutions in order to develop a more general theory of gendered institutions. Scholarship on women in political institutions will be advanced by continuing to look beyond the confines of the traditional subfields of political science, drawing on interdisciplinary work in feminist theory, critical race theory, and the sociology of work. Gender should be theorized, not as a word that is interchangeable with sex, but as a continuous, variable, and tenacious process that, while usually leading to women’s disadvantage, is challenged, negotiated, subverted, and resisted. Such scholarship should explore how masculinity, work, and politics are intertwined.
