Current Projects

 

Gender equality in public adminsitration

We know surprisingly little about the extent to which women confront barriers to advancement in public administrations around the world. The chief obstacle to social science research in this area is a lack of systematic cross-national data. Our long-term goal is to create the Gender Parity in Civil Service (Gen-PaCS) Database – a publicly available and centralized source for information on gender equality in decision-making positions in public administration worldwide. Version 1 of the dataset, which included gender-disaggregated data on employment overall and by ministry was released in November 2022. Gen-PaCS has been the first major initiative of the Gender Inequality Research Lab (GIRL) at the University of Pittsburgh.

Collaborators: Müge Finkel, United Nations Development Programme

Funding:

  • United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

  • University of Pittsburgh (Chancellor’s Seed Project Award, Integrative Social Sciences Research Initiative, Central Research Development Fund Grant, Jean Monnet Center of Excellence Faculty Research on the European Union Grant)

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Transnational Networks Amid Global Crisis and Change

In this project, we map populations of transnational organizations, including inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), and transnational social movement organizations (TSMOs). This project uses network analysis to explore changes in network relations among IGOs, INGOs and TSMOs over the last thirty years. A key contribution of this study will the production of new data, including: 1) an updated biennial dataset on the population of TSMOs (adding the years 2005-2013) and 2) a new Inter-Organizational Networks Database of INGO, TSMO, and IGO connections, constructed decennially from 1983 to 2013. A secondary goal of this study is to bridge data and research on INGOs and TSMOs, allowing world polity and social movement scholars to understand if, when, and how social-change orientations of organizations matter. 

Collaborators: Jackie Smith, Samantha Plummer, Brittany Duncan, and Başak Gemici

Funding:

  • National Science Foundation (SES-1323130)

  • University of Pittsburgh (Global Studies Center, World History Center, Year of Pitt Global, Research in Diversity Grant)

 
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Explaining the Persistent Over-representation of Majority Men in Politics

Over time, politicians elected to national office have become increasingly diverse. Nevertheless, men from majority groups continue to dominate national politics in most democratic countries. In this book currently in progress, I explore ways the status quo of majority men's political overrepresentation is maintained. This study offers a new take on why--even in the face of intensifying pressure for change--majority men remain overrepresented in democratic politics worldwide.