The Gender of Democracy: Citizenship and Gendered Subjectivity: 12 (Routledge Research in Gender and Society)

As developments in the European Union and elsewhere make the re-examination of citizenship a pressing issue, this book reflects on the persisting "masculine" character of contemporary democracy and the measures taken in the EU to combat it.

Combining a theoretical approach with a specific critique of EU gender policy, The Gender of Democracy argues that substantial democracy as a social project cannot co-exist with the existing system of gender relations ,which are inherently dichotomous and thus demarcate social categories of superior and inferior status. Drawing on utopian thought, Maro Pantelidou Maloutas proposes a re-examination of the notion of the gendered subject and a revision of the dominant perceptions of the relations between sex, sexuality and gender.

The book contains a critique of specific EU gender policies and shows how in seeking to do away with gender inequality, simply formulating policies that are pro-women is not enough. In order to approach democracy’s emancipatory component, far-reaching policies which deconstruct rather than modernize gender relations are needed.

Maro Pantelidou Maloutas is Professor of Political Sciences at the Department of Political Science at the University of Athens. She specialises in issues concerning democracy, citizenship and the cultural aspects of politics.