Square Pegs and Round Holes: Challenges of Fitting Individual-Level Analysis to a Theory of Politicized Context of Gender

Political Action, ” Nancy Burns makes the compelling argument to inte-grate individual- and aggregate-level perspectives in the study of gen-dered political action. She issues a call for action for the two to assess similarities and differences in approaches, identify unique contributions and weaknesses, and move forward to better understand gender and po-litical action. Beyond this general goal is an ambitious effort to build a theory of politicized context around gender in order to stake out a posi-tion for political science to contribute to our understanding of women in action. In this regard, her ambitions are to identify mechanisms that work to strengthen normative goals of enhancing equality and dignity in women’s lives, and in politics more generally. Burns argues for a dynamic account of gender and political action, suggesting a course of study that can capture the interaction of individual-level mechanisms with theorized political contexts. She surveys the literature, summarizing the small but persistent differences found in po