WOMEN IN LOUISIANA POLITICS

Submissions are invited for a reader on women in Louisiana politics. Essays should cover the political activity of women, broadly defined, in Louisiana. Essays emphasizing formal political participation may focus on the executive, judicial or legislative branch of government or the role of women as voters and candidates in local, state or national elections. Essays emphasizing non-traditional political participation may cover a range of topics and/or issues that Louisiana women have organized around. Articles may be theoretical, historical, or empirical in approach. However, all essays should foreground gender as a category of analysis and seek to explain its intersection with race and/or class.

Possible topics for consideration include, but are not limited to:

• the political activity of women before 1920 or in light of the suffrage movement
• Louisiana women as organizers, leaders and participants in the Civil Rights Movement
• women as voters, candidates, elected officials, or appointed officials in city, state or federal offices
• women as organizers, social activists, coalition builders, lobbyists, founders and leaders or local and state organizations
• an examination of the political attitudes of women mediated by class and race
• an examination of women as political consultants, campaign advisors, and political party delegates and their influence on agenda-setting and policy-formation
• a discussion of the strategies that facilitate or the barriers that prohibit entry into the political realm
• a critical examination of the intersection of race and gender in “Southern Politics” in general and Louisiana in particular
• media representation of women in the public sphere
• the role or confluence of “culture,” “language,” or music (e.g. creole, Cajun, zydeco) and politics with gender and race

Essays focusing on individual women and the politics of a specific city (New Orleans, Shreveport, Baton Rouge), or region (Acadiana, Bayou Region, “North Louisiana”) are also welcome.

Submissions should be 15-20 pages in length, double-spaced, with one inch margins and conform to the Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition 1993. Each submission must also contain an abstract of no more than 200 words and the full contact information of the author(s).

Please submit two hard copies and one disk copy in Microsoft Word format by July 31, 2003.