Power, Gender and Democracy. From Domination to Gender Equality

Abstract. When examining literature of gender and democracy, one realizes that the majority of the works on these subjects revolve around two related structural justifications. The first emphasizes on the subjugation of women, reasoning that follows Pateman’s ideas on the sexual contract. These approximations preponderantly scrutinize the patterns and practices of domination that victimize women. The second trend of thought targets women’s equality or, more concretely, inequality. It pays special attention to the marginalization of women from positions of power and to their exclusion from the public arena. With the commitment of opening a third front, the present article proposes a different approach to the study of gender and democracy. Though it recognizes the validity of both of these lines of advocacy, it takes one step away from the dichotomous logic that places women in one side and men on the other. Namely, it analyses gender relations, as an interdependent and dual social construction that differentiates and singularizes gender dynamics.