Britton, Hannah E. 1970–

PERSONAL:

Born August 11, 1970. Education: Wake Forest University, B.A., 1992; Syracuse University, M.A., 1995, Ph.D., 1999.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Political Science, University of Kansas, 1541 Lilac Lane, Rm. 504, Lawrence, KS 66044-3177; Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, University of Kansas, Bailey Hall, 1440 Jayhawk Blvd, Rm. 213, Lawrence, KS 66045-7574. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer and educator. Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC, assistant professor, 1999-2001; Mississippi State University, Starkville, assistant professor, 2001-05; University of Kansas, Lawrence, assistant professor, 2005-07, associate professor, 2007—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Named Political Science Professor of the Year, Department of Political Science, and University Honors Professor of the Year, University Honors Program, both Mississippi State University, both 2003. Honors faculty fellow, University Honors Program, University of Kansas, 2006-08; Ned N. Fleming Trust Award for Teaching Excellence, University of Kansas, 2007.

WRITINGS:

Women in the South African Parliament: From Resistance to Governance, University of Illinois Press (Urbana, IL), 2005.

(Editor, with Gretchen Bauer) Women in African Parliaments, Lynne Rienner Publishers (Boulder, CO), 2006.

Contributor of articles to scholarly journals, including Journal of South African Studies, Africa Today, International Feminist Journal of Politics, and International Politics.

SIDELIGHTS:

Hannah E. Britton is a professor of political science and women's studies. Her research interests include comparative politics, African politics, and women's studies. She blends these interests in a pair of books she has published, the 2005 Women in the South African Parliament: From Resistance to Governance and the 2006 Women in African Parliaments, the latter of which she edited with Gretchen Bauer.

In her first book, Britton examines the methods employed by South African women, working on their own and in groups, to change the legal framework and the institutions of their country in order to create a better life for South African women. Writing in the Political Science Quarterly, Michael Kevane called Britton's study a "modest book [that] describes the gendered transformation of the South African Parliament during the transition from apartheid in the 1990s." Britton gathered much of the information for her book through personal interviews with female members of the South African parliament. Kevane pointed out, however, that "the focus of the book is not on individual experiences, … but rather on how the new female parliamentarians reshaped Parliament, and how the exigencies of political life in Parliament in turn reshaped the parliamentarians."

Britton begins her work with an introductory chapter focusing on the struggle of women in South Africa to rid the country of apartheid. She follows this up with a look at the Women's National Coalition (WNC) in the second chapter. However, her failure to discuss in depth the controversy surrounding Winnie Mandela in this chapter was "an opportunity … wasted," in the opinion of Kevane. Further chapters examine the entrance and integration of women into parliament, a look at the blocks of women parliamentarians divided by political affiliation and socioeconomic groups, with a corresponding investigation of their specific talents and abilities, as well as a discussion of laws sponsored by and led through parliament by women. Kevane complained that while issues such as pornography and censorship were gone into in depth, "bread-and-butter issues are … largely absent from the book." Kevane did have positive comments for Women in the South African Parliament, however, finding it "a commendable introduction to the gender issues confronting women parliamentarians in South Africa."

With Women in African Parliaments, Britton engages in much the same sort of investigation, gathering essays by experts in the field to examine how women throughout Africa have gained prominent political positions at the national level, and to then look at their performance once in office as they attempt to change constitutional language and push for legal and legislative changes and reforms. The editors chose to focus on five African nations among the top in the world in the percentage of female members of legislative bodies. These five are Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda. A sixth country, Senegal, was also chosen as an example of a nation with a much underrepresented female population in political offices.

The book begins and ends with an overview of the topic of women's representation throughout the continent of Africa. Other chapters cover each of the selected nations, with a short history of women in that country, a look at the means women have taken to achieve political office, an analysis of the impact women have made in the legislature, a review of the challenges that women deal with when in office, and a consideration of future directions these politicians might take. Nicolas van de Walle, writing in Foreign Affairs, termed this work a "terrific collection of essays [that] probes the current paradox of a region in which women are relatively quite well represented in parliament even as their social status remains lamentable."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Africa Today, fall, 2007, Gretchen Bauer, review of Women in the South African Parliament: From Resistance to Governance.

African Studies Quarterly, fall, 2007, Chineze J. Onyejekwe, review of Women in African Parliaments.

Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, July, 2007, Louise Vincent, review of Women in African Parliaments, p. 396.

Foreign Affairs, November-December, 2006, Nicolas van de Walle, review of Women in African Parliaments.

International Social Science Review, fall-winter, 2007, Isaac Monari Ong'oa, review of Women in African Parliaments.

Political Science Quarterly, summer, 2006, Michael Kevane, review of Women in the South African Parliament, p. 355.

Politics and Gender, June, 2006, Brett O'Bannon, review of Women in the South African Parliament.

Reference & Research Book News, May, 2006, review of Women in African Parliaments.

ONLINE

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online,http://www.h-net.org/ (November, 2006), Sarah M. Mathis, review of Women in the South African Parliament.

Kansas University Political Science Department,http://www2.ku.edu/ (February 29, 2008), "Hannah E. Britton, Associate Professor."

Kansas University: Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies,http://www.womensstudies.ku.edu/ (February 29, 2008), "Women's Studies Faculty: Hannah E. Britton."

Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University,http://lsb.scu.edu/ (February 29, 2008), Michael Kevane, review of Women in the South African Parliament.