Who is afraid of ‘Gender’? Gender and Politics research between institutionalization and contestation in Italy

Abstract

Gender and politics scholarship has challenged conventional political science with new political questions and research issues and enriched the discipline both theoretically and methodologically. However, gender-based analysis of political phenomena is confronted with the resistance of political science – a traditionally male-dominated discipline. In Italy, gender research is still a weakly institutionalized academic field compared with other European countries. This contribution reflects on the state of gender within Italian political science and discusses the present situation at the crossroads between slow academic institutionalization and strong political contestation.