Section 16 - American Political Science Association (APSA)

Women and Politics Research Section Award Recipients

More on the Women, Gender and Politics Research section

Best Dissertation Prize
Best Paper Award
The Okin-Young Award in Feminist Political Theory
Best Paper on Race and Intersectionality
Public Engagement Award
Best Article Published in Politics & Gender

Best Dissertation Prize

The Best Dissertation Prize for the best dissertation on women and politics completed and accepted in the previous year.

2025	Apekshya Prasai, Brown University “Gendered Processes of Rebellion: Understanding Strategies for Organizing Violence.” Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2024.
2024	Anirvan Chowdhury, University of California, Berkeley “Religiously Conservative Parties and Women’s Political Mobilization: Gender Norms, Party Activism, and Democratization in India.”
2023	Bhumi Purohit, University of California, Berkeley “Laments of Getting Things Done: Bureaucratic Resistance Against Female Politicians in India.” University of California, Berkeley, 2022.
2023	Honorable Mention Sara Hassani, New School for Social Research “Cloistered Infernos: The Politics of Self-Immolation in the Persian Belt.” The New School, 2022.
2022	Elizabeth Corredor, Rutgers University “Gender Justice, Resistance, and the Politics of Peace in Colombia: A Gender Analysis of Colombia’s 2010-2016 Peace Negotiations and Final Agreement.”
2022	Tutku Ayhan Ergin, University of Central Florida “Trauma, Resilience, and Empowerment: Post-Genocide Experiences of Yezidi Women”
2021	Kelly Kaitlin-Thompson, Purdue University “There is Power in a Plaza: Social Movements, Democracy, and Spatial Politics”
2020	Isabel Castillo, Northwestern University “Explaining Female Suffrage Reform in Latin America: Motivation Alignment, Cleavages, and Timing of Reform”
2020	Cathy Wineinger, Western Washington University “Gendering the GOP: Rhetoric, Representation, and Republican Congresswomen as Party Messengers”
2019	Hind Ahmed Zaki, University of Washington “In the Shadow of the State: Gender Contestation and Legal Mobilization in the Context of the Arab Spring in Egypt and Tunisia.”
2018	Jennifer Jones, University of California, Irvine “Talk ‘Like a Man’: Feminine Style in the Pursuit of Political Power.”
2017	Catherine Reyes-Householder, Cornell Unviersity “Presidentas, Power, and Pro-Women Change.”
2016	Dawn Teele, Yale University (Ph.D); University of Pennsylvania (assistant professor) “The Logic of Women’s Enfranchisement: A Comparative Study of the United States, France, and the United Kingdom.” Yale University, 2015
2016	Honorable Mention Hürcan Asli Aksoy, University of Tübingen “Engendering Democracy in Turkey: Participation and Inclusion of Women’s Civil Society Organizations under AKP Rule.” University of Tübingen, 2015
2015	Mona Tajali, Concordia University “Demanding a Seat at the Table: Iranian and Turkish Women’s Organizing for Political Representation”
2015	Honorable Mention Shauna Lani Shames, Harvard University “The Rational Non-Candidate: A Theory of (Uneven) Candidate Deterrence”
2014	Cheryl O’Brien, Purdue University “Beyond the National: Transnational Influences on (Subnational) State Policy Responsiveness to an International Norm on Violence Against Women”
2013	Diana O’Brien, University of Southern California “When Women Matter: The Relationship Between Women’s Numeric and Policy Representation in Western European States”
2012	Jennifer Piscopo, Salem College Do Women Represent Women? Gender and Policy in Argentina and Mexico (completed at the University of California, San Diego; advised by Peter H. Smith)
2012	Honorable Mention Valerie Hennings, Iowa State University Civic Selves: Gender, Candidate Training Programs, and Envisioning Political Participation
2011	Dara Cohen, University of Minnesota “Explaining Sexual Violence During Civil War”
2011	Rosanne Kennedy, Union Institute and University of Cincinnati Ohio “Rousseau and the Perversion of Gender”
2010	Samantha Majic, John Jay College “Protect By Other Means? Sex Workers, Social Movement Evolution, and the Political Possibilities of Nonprofit Service Provision
2009	Melanie Hughes, University of Pittsburgh “Politics at the Intersection: A Cross-National Analysis of Minority Women’s Legislative Representation”
2006	Kate Bedford, Rutgers University “The World Bank’s Employment Programs in Ecuador and Beyond: Empowering Women, Domesticating Men, and Resolving the Social Reproduction Dilemma”
2006	Honorable Mention Mona Lena Krook, Columbia University “Politicizing Representation: Campaigns for Candidate Gender Quotas Worldwide”
2005	Carisa Showden, University of North Carolina-Greensboro “Mythologies of Choice: The Politics of Domestic Violence and Alternative Reproduction”
2004	Leslie Schwindt-Bayer, University of Arizona “Legislative Representation in Latin America: A Comparative Study of Descriptive, Substantive, and Symbolic Representation of Women” (Supervisor: Brian F. Crisp)
2004	Sarah Song, Yale University “Culture, Gender, and Equality” (Supervisor: Rogers M. Smith)
2003	Jennifer Disney, Winthrop University The Theories and Practices of Women’s Organizing: Marxism, Feminism, Democratization and Civil Society in Mozambique and Nicaragua.
2002	Wendy Smooth, University of Nebraska at Lincoln “African American Women State Legislators: The Impact of Gender and Race on Legislative Influence.”
2001	Kimberly Morgan, Princeton University “Whose Hand Rocks the Cradle? The Politics of Child Care Policy in Advanced Industrialized States”
2000	Mala Htun, Harvard University “Private Lives, Public Policies: Divorce, Abortion, and Family Equality in Latin America.”
1999	Michele Berger, University of Nevada, Las Vegas “Workable Sisterhood: A Study of the Political Participation of Stigmatized Women with HIV/AIDS”
1997	Lorraine Bayard de Volo, Whitman College “Heroes, Martyrs, and Mothers: Maternity Identity Politics in Revolutionary Nicaragua”
1996	Anna Harvey, Princeton University “The Legacy of Disenfranchisement: Women in Electoral Politics, 1917 – 1932”
1996	Cindy Rosenthal, University of Oklahoma “Women’s Ways of Political Leadership: A Cross-Jurisdictional Study of State Legislative Committee Chairs”
1995	Robin LeBlanc, Oglethorpe University “Homeless as Citizens: The Political World of the Japanese Housewife”
1994	Joanna Goven, University of California, Berkeley “The Gendered Foundations of Hungarian Socialism: State, Society and the Anti-Politics of Anti-Feminism, 1948-1990” (University of California, Berkeley)
1993	Beth Reingold, Emory University “Representing Women Gender Difference among Arizona and California State Legislators” (University of California, Berkeley)

Best Paper Award

The Best Paper Award presented for the best paper presented at the previous year’s annual meeting in the field of women and politics.

2025	Elizabeth Sperber, University of Denver Gwyneth McClendon, New York University O’Brien Kaaba, University of Zambia “Threading the Needle Between Stasis and Backlash: An Experiment in Reducing Gender Gaps in Youth Political Participation in Zambia.”
2024	Noah Zucker, London School of Economics “Breadwinner Backlash: The Gendered Effects of Industrial Decline.”
2024	Roza Khoban, University of Zurich “Breadwinner Backlash: The Gendered Effects of Industrial Decline.”
2024	Richard Clark, Cornell University “Breadwinner Backlash: The Gendered Effects of Industrial Decline.”
2023	Ana Catalano Weeks, University of Bath “The Political Consequences of the Mental Load”
2022	Rebekka Friedman, King’s College London “Violations of the Heart: Parental Harm in Contexts of Mass Violence.” Paper presented at the 2021 APSA Annual Meeting.
2022	Hanna Ketola, King’s College London “Violations of the Heart: Parental Harm in Contexts of Mass Violence.” Paper presented at the 2021 APSA Annual Meeting.
2021	Rebecca Sanders, University of Cincinnati “Control, Alt, Delete: Patriarchal Populist Attacks on International Women’s Rights.”
2021	Laura Dudley Jenkins, University of Cincinnati “Control, Alt, Delete: Patriarchal Populist Attacks on International Women’s Rights.”
2020	Elena Gambino, Bates College “Politics as Sinister Wisdom: Reparation and Responsibility in Lesbian Feminism.”
2020	Honorable Mention Julia Marin Hellwege, University of South Dakota “Representing Families and Children: Parenthood and Policymaking.”
2020	Honorable Mention Lisa A. Bryant, Fresno State University “Representing Families and Children: Parenthood and Policymaking.”
2019	Nicholas J. G. Winter, University of Virginia “Ambivalent Sexism and Election 2016.”
2018	Egor Laserov, Columbia University “Laws in Conflict: Legacies of War, Gender, and Legal Pluralism in Chechnya.”
2017	Mona Morgan-Collins, University of Pennsylvania “After the Vote: Programmatic Preferences and Women’s Loyalty”
2017	Dawn Teele, Univesity of Pennsylvania “After the Vote: Programmatic Preferences and Women’s Loyalty”
2016	Sarah Bush, Temple University “How Gender Stereotypes Can Increase Engagement with Female Officeholders: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Tunisia”
2016	Lauren Prather, University of California, San Diego “How Gender Stereotypes Can Increase Engagement with Female Officeholders: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Tunisia”
2016	Honorable Mention Abigail S. Post, University of Virginia “A Woman in a Man’s World: A Gendered Understanding of Crisis Bargaining”
2016	Honorable Mention Paromita Sen, University of Virginia “A Woman in a Man’s World: A Gendered Understanding of Crisis Bargaining”
2015	Mona Lena Krook, Rutgers University “Mapping Violence Against Women in Politics: Aggression, Harassment, and Discrimination Against Female Politicians”
2015	Juliana Sanin, Rutgers University “Mapping Violence Against Women in Politics: Aggression, Harassment, and Discrimination Against Female Politicians”
2014	Thomas McAndrew, Miami University “Power, Conflict, and Community: How Gendered Views of Political Power Influence Women’s Political Ambition.”
2014	Amanda Diekman, Miami University “Power, Conflict, and Community: How Gendered Views of Political Power Influence Women’s Political Ambition.”
2014	Mirya Holman, Florida Atlantic University “Power, Conflict, and Community: How Gendered Views of Political Power Influence Women’s Political Ambition.”
2014	Monica Schneider, Miami University “Power, Conflict, and Community: How Gendered Views of Political Power Influence Women’s Political Ambition.”
2014	Eline Severs, Vrije Universiteit Brussel “Determining the Quality of Women’s Substantive Representation: A Study of Muslem Women’s Voice and Influence in the Belgian Headscarf Debate.”
2014	Petra Meier, University of Antwerp “Determining the Quality of Women’s Substantive Representation: A Study of Muslem Women’s Voice and Influence in the Belgian Headscarf Debate.”
2014	Karen Celis, Vrije Universiteit Brussel “Determining the Quality of Women’s Substantive Representation: A Study of Muslem Women’s Voice and Influence in the Belgian Headscarf Debate.”
2013	Beth Reingold, Emory University “Representing Women’s Interests and Intersections of Gender, Race and Ethnicity in U.S. State Legislatures“
2013	Kerry Haynie, Duke University “Representing Women’s Interests and Intersections of Gender, Race and Ethnicity in U.S. State Legislatures”
2013	Honorable Mention Rainbow Murray, Queen Mary, University of London Quotas for Men? Reframing Gender Quotas as a Means of Quality Control
2012	Eléonore Lépinard, University of Montreal Doing Intersectionality: Varieties of Feminist Practices in France and Canada
2010	Celia Valiente, Universidad Carlos II de Madrid, Spain “Political Regimes Matter in ‘Abeyance’ Times: Feminist Organizing in Franco’s Spain (1930-1975)”
2007	Mala Htun, New School for Social Research “When and Why Do Governments Promote Women’s Rights?: Toward a Comparative Politics of States and Sex Equality”
2007	S. Laurel Weldon, Purdue University “When and Why Do Governments Promote Women’s Rights?: Toward a Comparative Politics of States and Sex Equality”
2006	Laura Sjoberg, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University “Gendering the Power of Immunity: Empathetic War-Fighting and Jus in Bellow”
2005	S. Laurel Weldon, Purdue University Inclusion, Solidarity and Transnational Social Movements: The Global Movement Against Gender Violence
2005	Liesl Haas, California State University, Long Beach Intergovernmental relations and feminist policy makings: A case study of domestic violence in Chile
2004	Marie Brichner, University of Washington, Seattle “Paid Work, Family and the State: Congressional Proposals to Regulate the Relationship between Home and Work, 1945-1990”
2004	Ann Towns, University of Minnesota “Women Governing for Modernity: International Hierarchy and Legislature Sex Quotas” (Presented at the 2003 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association)
2003	J. Shoshanna Ehrlich, University of Massachusetts, Boston “Grounded in the Reality of their Lives”
2003	Carol Hardy-Fanta, University of Massachusetts, Boston “Grounded in the Reality of their Lives”
2002	Eileen McDonagh, Northeastern University “Political Citizenship and Democratization: The Gender Paradox.”
2001	Kimberly Morgan, Princeton University “Women and the Two-Tiered Politics of Social and Political Citizenship in Europe”
2000	Margaret Moore, University of Waterloo “The Ethics of Care and Justice,” in Women and Politics 20(2): 1-16 (April 1999)
1999	Leonie Huddy, University at Stony Brook “The Social Nature of Political Identity: Feminist Image and Feminist Identity”
1998	Gretchen Ritter, University of Texas, Austin “Regendering Citizenship after the Second World War.”
1997	Elisabeth Friedman, Stanford University “Paradoxes of Party Politics: The Impact of Gendered Institutions on Women’s Incorporation in Latin American Democratization”
1996	Anna Harvey, New York University “Women, Party and Policy: A Rational Choice Approach”
1995	Mary Dietz, University of Minnesota “Feminist Receptions of Hanna Arendt or how the Analytical Category of Gender Does Injustice to the Theory of Politics”
1995	Carole Kennedy, University of California, Riverside “Participation and Leadership in Committee Decision-Making: An Experimental Approach to Exploring Gender Differences”
1995	Lisa Young, University of Calgary “Social Movements and Political Parties: A Comparison of the Canadian and American Women’s Movements, 1970-1993”
1994	Eileen McDonagh, Northeastern University “Abortion Rights Alchemy and the U.S. Supreme Court”
1993	Paul Burstein, University of Washington “Paid Work, Family and the State: Congressional Proposals to Regulate the Relationship Between Home and Work, 1945-1990”
1993	Rachel Einwohner, University of Washington “Paid Work, Family and the State: Congressional Proposals to Regulate the Relationship Between Home and Work, 1945-1990“
1993	Aili Tripp, University of Wisconsin, Madison “Gender, Political Participation, and the Transformation of Associational Life in Uganda and Tanzania”
1992	Janet Boles, Marquette University “Local Elected Women and Policy Making: Movement Delegates or Feminist Trustees”
1992	Sonia Kruks, Oberlin College “Gender and Subjectivity: Simone de Beauvoir and Contemporary Feminism”
1991	Christine Di Stefano, University of Washington “Rethinking Autonomy”
1990	Susan Welch, University of Nebraska “Multimember Districts and the Representation of Women”

The Okin-Young Award in Feminist Political Theory

The Okin-Young Award in Feminist Political Theory, co-sponsored by Women and Politics, Foundations of Political Theory, and the Women’s Caucus for Political Science, commemorates the scholarly, mentoring, and professional contributions of Susan Moller Okin and Iris Marion Young to the development of the field of feminist political theory. This annual award recognizes the best paper on feminist political theory published in an English language academic journal during the previous calendar year.

2025	Rose Owen, The New School for Social Research “‘A New Kind of Death’, Rape, Sex, and Pornography as Violence in Andrea Dworkin’s Thought.” Political Theory 52(5): 754-781. 2024.
2024	Elena Gambino, Rutgers University “Red Roots of Solidarity: Paula Gunn Allen and the Queer Audiences of Intellectual Sovereignty.” Journal of Women in Culture and Society 48(2): 635–658. 2023.
2024	Robyn Marasco, CUNY Graduate Center and Hunter College “The Real Possibility of Physical Killing: A Feminist Critique of Carl Schmitt.” American Journal of Political Science 67(4): 1067-1079. 2023.
2023	Danielle Hanley, Clark University “Choreographing Affective Solidarity: The Choral Politics of Responding to Loss.” Theory and Event, 2022.
2023	Katrina Forrester, Harvard University “Feminist Demands and the Problem of Housework.” American Political Science Review, 2022
2022	Kimberly Hutchings, Queen Mary University of London “Women Thinkers and the Canon of International Thought: Recovery, Rejection, and Reconstitution.” American Political Science Review vol. 115, no. 2 (2021), pp. 347 – 359.
2022	Patricia Owens, University of Oxford “Women Thinkers and the Canon of International Thought: Recovery, Rejection, and Reconstitution.” American Political Science Review vol. 115, no. 2 (2021), pp. 347 – 359.
2021	Jemina Repo,Newcastle University “Feminist Commodity Activism: The New Political Economy of Feminist Protest”
2020	Menaka Philips, Tulane University “Feminist Preoccupations: Liberalism as Method in Debates concerning Gender and Culture.” Signs vol. 44, no. 4 (2019).
2019	Heath Fogg Davis, Temple University “Why the ‘transgender’ bathroom controversy should make us rethink sex-segregated public bathrooms.” Politics, Groups, and Identities 6(2): 199-216.
2019	Honorable Mention Ashleigh Campi, Loyola Marymount University “The Unstable Alliance for School Choice: Social Movements and American Neoliberalism.” Polity 50(3): 398-427.
2018	Nina Hagel, Bates College Alternative Authenticities: Thinking Transgender Without Essence. Theory & Event. 20(3): 599–628. 2017.
2017	Lorna Bracewell, University of Nebraska at Kearney “Beyond Barnard: Liberalism, Antipornography Feminism, and the Sex Wars.” Signs
2016	Jakeet Singh, Illinois State University “Religious Agency and the Limits of Intersectionality.” Hypatia, Volume 30, Issue 4, pages 657–674, Fall 2015
2015	Shatema Threadcraft, Dartmouth College “Intimate Injustice, Political Obligation, and the Dark Ghetto.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 39(3) Spring 2014: 735-760
2014	Eileen Botting, University of Notre Dame “Making an American Feminist Icon: Mary Wollstonecraft’s Reception in U.S. Newspapers, 1800-1869” (History of Political Thought, 2013)
2013	Lori Marso, Union College “Simone de Beauvoir and Hannah Arendt: Judgments in Dark Times” Political Theory 40(2): 165-193
2012	Bonnie Honig, Northwestern University Ismene’s Forced Choice: Sacrifice and Sorority in Sophocles’ Antigone (Arethusa. 44(1))
2011	Jennifer Einspahr, Kalamazoo College “Structural Domination and Structural Freedom: A Feminist Perspective,”
2010	Ann Towns, University of Delaware “The Status of Women as a Standard of “Civilization”
2009	Kathy Ferguson, University of Hawaii “Discourses of Danger: Locating Emma Goldman” Political Theory 36 (5) 735-761″
2009	C. Heike Schotten, University of Massachusetts, Boston “Nietzche/Pentheus: The Last Disciple of Dionysus and Queer Fear o the Feminine.” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 19 (3) 90-125
2007	Stephen Leonard, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill “The Genders of Citizenship” (American Political Science Review)
2007	Joan Tronto, CUNY, Hunter College “The Genders of Citizenship” (American Political Science Review)
2007	Tamara Metz, Reed College “The Liberal Case for Disestablishing Marriage” (Contemporary Political Theory)

Best Paper on Race and Intersectionality

Best paper addressing intersectionality presented at the previous year’s annual meeting. The scope of the award recognizes the roots of intersectional analysis in a critical analysis of Black women’s lived experiences, while also allowing for a more expansive reading of identity politics that takes into account multiple subjectivities and experiences, both within and outside the United States.

2025	Aditi Malik, College of the Holy Cross “Mobilizing Mass Protests against Sexual Violence: Cross-Regional Insights from India and South Africa.”
2025	Christine M. Slaughter, Boston University Kennia L. Coronado, Texas Women’s University Camille Burge-Hicks, Villanova University Nadia E. Brown, Georgetown University “All Emotions Aren’t the Same: Intersectional Analysis of Women’s Political Action Based on Emotive Responses.”
2024	Danielle Thomen, University of California, Irvine “Self-Rising Candidates: Racial and Gender Disparities in Self-Finance.”
2024	Savannah Plaskon, University of California, Irvine “Self-Rising Candidates: Racial and Gender Disparities in Self-Finance.”
2022	Margaret Brower, Harvard University “Intersectional Advocacy: Reconfiguring the Violence Against Women Act.” Presented at APSA Annual Meeting 2021
2021	Sally Nuamah, Northwestern University “Public Perceptions of Black Girls and their Punitive Consequences”
2020	Kenicia Wright, University of Central Florida “Importance of the Health Care Provider: An Application of the Theory of Representative Bureaucracy in the Health Care Context.”

Public Engagement Award

Public engagement award: An annual award to recognize the exemplary public-facing work of political scientists in the field of Women, Gender, and Politics. This award seeks to recognize significant efforts to serve a local community/do outreach on women, gender and politics, or efforts to diffuse knowledge beyond the classroom, and to make a social/political difference.

2025	Lara-Zuzan Golesorkhi, University of Portland
2023	Julie Novkov, The State University of New York at Albany
2022	Julieta Suárez–Cao, Instituto de Ciencia Política at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
2021	Karen L. Owen, University of West Georgia

Best Article Published in Politics & Gender

Best article published in Politics & Gender: An annual award to recognize the best article published in our section journal, Politics & Gender, during the previous year.

2025	Anne Louise Schotel, University of Amsterdam Liza Mügge, University of Amsterdam “Politics without Presence? The Symbolic Representation of Trans People in Germany and the Netherlands.” Politics & Gender 20(4): 788-813. 2024.
2024	Nicholas J.G. Winter, University of Virginia “Hostile Sexism, Benevolent Sexism and American Elections.” Politics & Gender 19(2): 427-456. 2023. Honorable Mention Young-Im Lee, California State University, Sacramento “A Trailblazer or a Barrier? Dynastic Politics and Symbolic Representation.” Politics & Gender 19(3): 756-780. 2023.
2023	Daniel E. Agbiboa, Harvard University “Out of the Shadows: The Women Countering Insurgency in Nigeria.” Politics and Gender, 2022.
2022	Melissa Deckman, Washington College “Gendered Nationalism and the 2016 US Presidential Election: How Party, Class, and Beliefs about Masculinity Shaped Voting Behavior.” Politics & Gender, vol. 17, no. 2(2021), 277-300. Erin Cassese, University of Delaware “Gendered Nationalism and the 2016 US Presidential Election: How Party, Class, and Beliefs about Masculinity Shaped Voting Behavior.” Politics & Gender, vol. 17, no. 2(2021), 277-300. Marie E. Berry, University of Denver “Implementing Inclusion: Gender Quotas, Inequality, and Backlash in Kenya.” Politics & Gender, vol. 17, no.4(2021), 640-664. Yolande Bouke, Queen’s University “Implementing Inclusion: Gender Quotas, Inequality, and Backlash in Kenya.” Politics & Gender, vol. 17, no.4(2021), 640-664. Marilyn Muthoni Kamuru, Independent Consultant “Implementing Inclusion: Gender Quotas, Inequality, and Backlash in Kenya.” Politics & Gender, vol. 17, no.4(2021), 640-664.
2021	Jennifer Shore, University of Mannheim “Singled Out or Drawn In? Social Policies and Lone Mothers’ Political Engagement.”