Shopping for a real candidate: aunty bedah and the women's candidacy initiative in the 2008 Malaysian general elections

Why study the nexus of gender, politics and democracy in Asia? What kind of democracy and political participation can we conceptualize and identify for this heterogeneous region? In the increasingly visible Asian context, which concepts, contexts, discourses and practices do we need to reflect upon most in order to understand the complex relationship between gender and democratic processes? The authors in this book engage with precisely these crucial questions, and do so by drawing on a variety of case studies covering India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia. In the process, they scrutinize women's roles, strategies, practices and discourses on political participation and gender-inclusive political reform in various arenas of political engagement. Contributions to this volume range from studies of political actors and institutions, public policy and gender mainstreaming, political theory and citizenship discourses, to the study of various women's movements