Political Science
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Abstract
If the functions of feminist scholarship are to expand empirical knowledge, critique existing theory, and reconceptualize core concepts, as Kay Boals argued in the previous political science review essay for this journal,' then recent feminist scholarship in the field is alive and functioning, if not very well integrated among the three areas. There is interesting empirical work being done in the area of attitudes and participation, but little of it is concerned with the problem Boals raises: how theory must make us aware of the "political [i.e., the "contingent rather than inevitable"] nature of existing social arrangements" and thus further social change. Some recent theses I reviewed began with the intent to link the two but were much stronger in wrestling with the "pseudoparadigm" of the development of sex role stereotypes relevant to political participation than in linking what data they gathered to those insights. My intent here is to review some empirical work on attitudes and participation, questioning the degree to which sex roles should be taken