Transitions to democracy are often assumed to expand opportunities for citizens to participate in political life, with the granting of civil and political rights and the creation of new political institutions. Research by gender and politics scholars, however, challenges this association, noting that traditional definitions of “democracy” and “democratization” tend to overlook women's contributions and exclude women as citizens (Pamela Paxton, “Women's Suffrage in the Measurement of Democracy,” Studies in Comparative International Development 35 [Fall 2000]: 92–111). Indeed, this work has found that the number of women in politics—and attention to women's policy concerns—often decreases following democratic transitions. Recognizing important variations in outcomes across countries, however, this important new book by Denise Walsh builds on a comparative line of inquiry pursued by scholars like Georgina Waylen, whose Engendering Transitions: Women's Mobilization, Institutions, and Gender Outcomes (2007) seeks to ascertain the variables shaping the gender-equality outcomes of democratic transitions. Using paired comparisons of select time periods in democratizing Poland, Chile, and South Africa, Walsh proposes a new factor, “debate conditions,” affecting prospects for women's participation, with crucial implications for gender justice in democratizing regimes.

Offering an original synthesis of political theory and comparative political analysis, Women's Rights in Democratizing States draws on theories of deliberative democracy to provide an empirical operationalization of the “quality of democracy,” which could be applied equally to the study of long-established democracies as to newly democratizing regimes. Walsh argues, in short, that when debate conditions—which can vary significantly across countries and over time—are more open and inclusive, state support for gender justice is greater. Three criteria that she outlines for assessing debate conditions at any particular moment include access, referring to the numbers, diversity, and rank of women able to participate in public debates; voice, capturing the degree to which all women in the public sphere can speak, using a variety of different speech styles, and be heard and listened to with respect; and capacity for contestation, reflecting the ability of women in various institutions of the public sphere to challenge the “rules of the game” by creating women's “counterpublics,” or spaces where women can discover, develop, and pursue strategies for promoting their collective interests. This framework advances prior research in two crucial ways: It goes beyond women's mere presence in politics (the focus of extensive research since Anne Phillips's pathbreaking book on The Politics of Presence, 1995), and it expands the focus to multiple arenas of public debate.

More specifically, Walsh argues that legislatures constitute only one arena of public discourse and contestation. Other spaces influencing the exchange of ideas, and thus contributing to discussions over public policy, include civi-society organizations and the media. Debate conditions may vary across these different arenas, leading to policy outcomes that are favorable—or not—to advancing women's rights. Each of these spaces, importantly, may support the participation of advocates and opponents of gender justice—at the same time that the capacities of particular actors (churches, trade unions, and political parties, among others) to dominate debates may vary in significant ways across cases. To distinguish between outcomes, Walsh theorizes four levels of gender justice reflected in the policy gains achieved: limited, involving legislation that sustains inequalities by treating women as a group to be protected rather than empowered; moderate, providing equal opportunities through legal rights; good, promoting equal results through improvements to women's autonomy and well-being; and excellent, leading to the fundamental transformation of structures, institutions, and behaviors that produce and reproduce unequal power relations. Theorizing outcomes in this way gives substance to normative claims for justice, classifying in a concrete manner how outcomes compare to one another—and thus providing guidance for advocates on the ground seeking to improve the lives of women.

The empirical analysis focuses on three countries—Poland, Chile, and South Africa—which are selected in part due to regional variations in gender justice outcomes. Poland and Chile epitomize the outcomes witnessed in Central and Eastern Europe, which have been limited, and Latin America, which have generally been moderate. In contrast, South Africa stands out as a global outlier, as a case of major advances in women's rights in the immediate aftermath of democratic transition. To test the “just debate hypothesis,” Walsh undertakes three paired comparisons, combining within- and cross-case analysis.

The first comparison examines Poland before and after democratic transition. At first glance, this case appears to disprove her argument, given that the transition conferred new civil and political rights on all citizens, but also led to major setbacks in women's rights. Walsh finds, however, that expanding the public sphere per se does not necessarily enhance debate conditions. Rather, the two civil-society organizations that came to dominate the emerging public sphere, the Catholic Church and the Solidarity movement, were heavily male dominated and restricted women's participation—and consequently exerted pressure on the state to undermine women's access to abortion and entrench their secondary status in the workforce.

The second set of case studies compares debate conditions in authoritarian Chile and apartheid South Africa. Walsh observes that as these regimes began to break down, outcomes for women in Chile were moderate, due to partisan divisions among women's groups, trade union tactics that reinforced women's roles as mothers, and male-dominated political parties that marginalized female members. In contrast, women made important advances in South Africa, where they engaged in extensive cross-partisan organizing and where women's participation and women's issues were on the agenda of trade unions and political parties, leading both the African National Congress (ANC) and the apartheid government to respond with policy initiatives enhancing women's status.

The final comparison seeks to explain the rise and subsequent stall of gender justice, juxtaposing debate conditions during the liberal moment (1994–99) and consolidation period (1999–2004) in post-apartheid South Africa. Walsh argues that during the first period, the ANC helped to expand debate conditions in parliament and civil society at a time when women were able to create vibrant counterpublics, resulting in extensive policy gains combating gender-based violence and improving women's status as workers. During the second period, however, these commitments began to erode, as the ANC drew on its electoral dominance to control and co-opt the public sphere, centralizing power in the executive branch, reducing internal party debate, and using state funding to restrict critiques in civil society and the media. The result was a shift away from efforts to enhance women's autonomy toward the treatment of women more as victims in need of protection.

Written in an engaging and compelling manner, Women's Rights in Democratizing States offers an original and substantial contribution to the literature on democratization through the lens of gender. Responding to the literature on deliberative democracy, one of the most striking lessons of the book is that the expansion of civil society is not always beneficial to justice—indeed, some associations can do crucial damage to the public sphere in democratizing states, as seen in the case of Poland—at the same time that state actors can expand the public sphere and improve debate conditions, as observed during the liberal moment in South Africa. The book also presents important insights for the growing body of research on electoral gender quotas, one of the major reforms sweeping the globe in recent decades, by observing how—during the consolidation period in South Africa—women's increased political presence via a 50% ANC gender quota was conflated with the achievement of gender equality. By highlighting the need for access, voice, and capacity for contestation, Walsh reveals how and why quotas might fail to promote democracy and empower women—as well as how quotas might be engineered toward more positive outcomes in both respects.