Christina Ewig

Christina Ewig

Professor of Public Affairs and Director of the Center on Women, Gender and Public Policy, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

About Christina

Ewig’s research focuses on inequalities gender and race in Latin America, both in political representation and social benefits. Her current book project examines whether the rising numbers women and indigenous peoples into political office have transformed Latin American policy agendas. Earlier research includes the impact of Latin American health reforms on gender and racial inequalities. Reproductive health policies, including the forced sterilizations in Peru in the 1990s and a survey of abortion policy reforms in the new millennium, have formed part of this research agenda. Ewig directs the Center on Women, Gender and Public Policy.

Contributions

Populism's Threat to Reproductive Rights – Lessons from Latin America

  • Merike Blofield

In the News

Opinion: "Female Presidents Don’t Always Help Women While in Office, Study in Latin America Finds," Christina Ewig (with Merike Blofield and Jennifer M. Piscopo), The Conversation, March 8, 2018.
Opinion: "Prospects for Reproductive Rights Dim with End of “Left-Turn”," Christina Ewig (with Merike Blofield), AULA Blog, January 18, 2018.
Opinion: "Esterilizaciones Forzadas: Una Verdad y Dos Mentiras, por Christina Ewig," Christina Ewig, El Comercio, August 17, 2017.
Opinion: "This is Why Tenure Matters," Christina Ewig, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, November 29, 2015.

Publications

"Latin America’s Left-Turn and the Political Empowerment of Indigenous Women" (with Stéphanie Rousseau). Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 24, no. 1 (2017): 425-451.

Assesses whether the left turn led to the political empowerment of indigenous women by comparing the center-right government of Peru with the left-wing governments of Bolivia and Ecuador. Finds that left governments perform better, but among the left, type of left party matters.

"Second-Wave Neoliberalism" (Penn State University Press, 2010).

Concludes that neoliberal health reforms have brought greater social stratification and, in many ways, have increased gender, racial, and class inequality based on extensive quantitative and qualitative research on Peru's health reforms. But the story is complex, with real progress in some areas and surprising paradoxes in others.

"The Reactive Left: Gender Equality and the Latin American Pink Tide" (with Merike Blofield and Jennifer M. Piscopo). Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 24, no. 4 (2017): 345-369.

Assesses the effects of Latin America’s pink tide on gender equality in the region. Finds that left governments and left competition provide an opportunity for advancing gender equality. However, the dominant pattern during Latin America’s pink tide was one of a reactive left.

"The Left Turn and Abortion Politics in Latin America" (with Merike Blofield). Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 24, no. 4 (2017): 481-510.

Asks why some left governments in Latin America sought to liberalize access to abortion, while others sought to prohibit it. Shows that type of left matters, with the institutionalized lefts of countries like Chile and Uruguay being more likely to pursue liberalization while populist lefts in countries such as Nicaragua and Ecuador have prevented, or even reversed liberalization efforts.

"Reform and Electoral Competition" Comparative Political Studies 49, no. 2 (2016): 184-218.

Develops a novel measure for measuring equity cross-nationally, and finds that the divergent health reforms of Brazil, Chile, and Colombia have all converged toward greater equity. Identifies electoral competition as the key factor that spurred these equity-inducing reforms.