This volume brings together international experts to examine and compare women in local government and features case studies on the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Finland, Australia and New Zealand.

Barbara Pini is a Professor in the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy at Curtin University of Technology, Australia. She has an extensive publication record in the fields of gender studies, rural sociology, employment, public policy and politics. Recent papers have appeared in Gender, Work and Organisation, Policy and Politics, Work, Employment and Society, Journal of Rural Studies, Sociologia Ruralis, and Telecommunications Policy. Her first book, Masculinities and Management in Agri-political Organisations Worldwide was published by Ashgate in September 2007.

1. Introduction Barbara Pini and Paula McDonald Part 1: Women's Representation in Local Government: Facilitators and Constraints 2. Moving through the Pipeline: Women's Representation in Municipal Government in the New England Region of the United States Paige Ransford and Meryl Thomson 3. Women in Local Assemblies: Rare Guests or (Almost) Equal Partners? An Analysis of the Causes of Women's Underrepresentation in the German County Councils Raphael Magin Part 2: Strategies to Increase Women's Representation in Local Government 4. Women and Local Politics in Spain: Exploring Gender Regimes and Biased Party Candidate Selection Processes Tania Verge 5. Making it Happen in Practice: Organized Efforts to Recruit Rural Women for Local Government Leadership Louise Carbert 6. Missing from the Picture: Women's Initiatives in English Local Government Wendy Stokes Part 3: Making a Difference? The Descriptive and Substantive Representation of Women in Local Government 7. How Gender Shapes Local Party Politics: The Case of Belgium Petra Meier and Dries Verlet 8. Critical Acts and Critical Contexts: Understanding the Substantive Representation of Women at the Regional Level in France Katherine Opello 9. Transforming Local Politics? The Impact of Gender Quotas in Finland Anne Maria Holli Part 4: Gender and a Changing Local Government Sector 10. Gendering Local Government Amalgamations: An Australian Case Study Denise Conroy 11. Women in New Zealand Local Government: The Effect of Reform on Women's Presence in Leadership Marianne Tremaine and Jean Drage 12. New Public Management and Gender in Swedish Local Government Gun Hedlund