Georgina Waylen

Georgina Waylen

WJM Mackenzie Chair in Government

Personal profile

Biography

Georgina Waylen is the WJM Mackenzie Chair of Government. She came to Manchester in 2012 as a Professor of Politics.  Prior to this she was a Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield and she previously taught at the Universities of Salford and East Anglia.  She is currently a visiting professor at King's College University of London and she has also held visiting positions at Harvard University, USA 2016/7, Simon Fraser University, Canada, 2005, the University of Witswatersrand, South Africa 2003, and Stanford University, USA 1996.  She is a co-director of the Feminsm and Institutionalism International Network (FIIN) and a member of the Academy of Social Sciences.

She currently holds a one year fellowship awarded by the Leverhulme Trust examining the UK Conservative Party. From June 2012 to May 2017 she was the PI for a five year European Research Council Advanced Grant 'Understanding Institutional Change: A Gender Perspective' (see https://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/politics/research/projects-and-networks/uic/ for more details of the research and its outputs).

In 2018 she was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy.

Research interests

Research Interests

My main research interests lie in the fields of comparative politics/political economy with a focus on gender and politics, international political economy, transitions to democracy, and governance and institutions.  

 

Current and Recent Research Projects 

For more than 20 years I conducted extensive research on democracy and democratization which culminated in a book Engendering Transitions: Women's Mobilization, Institutions and Gender Outcomes (Oxford University Press 2007) and was awarded the 2008 APSA Victoria Schuck prize for the best book published on women and politics.  For the last few years I have been working on two main themes.  First I was co-investigator for a Leverhulme programme on Gendered Ceremony and Ritual in Parliament (2007-11) with colleagues from Warwick, Bristol and Birkbeck.  Second, for more than a decade have been collaborating to develop feminist institutionalism as part of the Feminism and Institutionalism International Network (FIIN) with colleagues from Edinburgh and University of New South Wales, Australia.  From 2012-17 I was PI on a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant for a five year project entitled 'Understanding Institutional Change: A Gender Perspective' (2012-17).  See https://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/politics/research/projects-and-networks/uic/ for more details.  This research has continued since the formal end of the grant and myself and others have contiuned to produce many outputs.

I have recently returned to some of these themes in my current project funded by the Leverhulme Trust on the UK Conservative Party.  

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 5 - Gender Equality
  • SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
  • SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals

External positions

Visiting Professor, King's College London

1 Oct 202230 Sept 2025

Visiting Professor , London School of Economics & Political Science (University of London)

20172018

Visiting Fellow, Harvard University

20162017

Visiting Fellow (Centre for Global Political Economy), Simon Fraser University

2005

Visiting Fellow (Dept of Political Studies), University of Witswatersrand

2003

Research Beacons, Institutes and Platforms

  • Work and Equalities Institute

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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

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