The 2017 edition of the research magazine Women Talking Politics has now been published. Please check it out here.

About the 2017 issue

From the Editors Dr Priya Kurian and Dr Gauri Nandedkar:

We believe Women Talking Politics continues to offer a vital space for women’s voices in the Political Science discipline in Aotearoa. This year’s issue once again offers critical feminist scholarly engagement with a range of diverse topics, spanning the local to the global. 

• Curtin, the outgoing president of the NZPSA, reflects on the significance of women’s political representation evident in this year’s national election in New Zealand and the hopes for achieving substantive gender equality. 
  
• Moderating that message of hope is a critical reflection from Rahman, a former candidate in both national and local elections and a prominent feminist activist with local and national women’s organisations, on the absence of diversity during the national election. She argues that ethnic representation as currently practised by most political parties is meaningless, and points to the vital need for the amplification and engagement of ethnic voices in public discourse. 
  
• Also on elections, but at the local level, is a piece by Drage, who sees the cost of standing for election, increased competition for powerful positions and higher workloads as part of the explanation for why the percentage of women elected to local authorities has remained static. 
  
• Rogers-Mott discusses the failure of a range of policies to address income poverty and material hardship that leads to increasing levels of child poverty in New Zealand. 
  
• Venturing further afield, Bogado examines the issue of sex-trafficking, in the context of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (the Palermo Protocol). She argues that the criminalisation of the demand for prostitution – a policy measure adopted by many countries – is unlikely to succeed given its failure to address structural causes such as a patriarchal culture. 
  
• Jolly grapples with the complexities of gender-based violence and the devastating effects on women in areas of conflict. 
  
• Van Noort deploys a three-step narrativist framework of analysis to examine the narrative components of the BRICS group [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa]. 
  
• Finally, Devere and Standish explore the position of women in the discipline of Peace and Conflict Studies, tracing the evolution of the field of study, the challenges of gender inequality that women face, and the synergies with women in Political Science. 
  

This year’s reflections and research briefs offer an exciting overview of work being undertaken by women political scientists. 

Snyder thoughtfully considers the efficacy of non-violence in a post-truth era, while Tawhai reflects on her attendance at the 8th University Scholars Leadership Symposium (USLS) run by the United Nations in Bangkok on the theme of “building life, giving hope”. An overview of their current work is offered by MacArthur and Berka on local ownership of energy assets in New Zealand; and by Bebell on Russian foreign policy. We also feature some of the recent publications by women political scientists, namely, Spencer’s Toleration in Comparative Perspective; Rupar’s Themes and Critical Debates in Contemporary Journalism; and Kurian’s (with Bhavnani, Foran and Munshi) Feminist Futures: Reimagining Women, Culture and Development (2nd edition). 

We are pleased to continue to feature work by undergraduate and postgraduate students in political science, including book and film reviews, reflections and creative writing. Townshend reviews the US Television mini-series The Handmaid’s Tale; Kahan reviews a recent film, 20th Century Women; and Nevin contributes a poem Vote, Vote Against the Buying of the Fight. These pieces, along with the longer articles, reflections and research briefs, give us a glimpse into the range and richness of issues that animate and engage women in political science in Aotearoa.

More information about WTP and back issues are available on our site here.