The Gender of Democracy: Citizenship and Gendered Subjectivity. By Maro Pantelidou Maloutas. London and New York: Routledge. 2006. 208 pp. $130.00.

In this theoretically provocative (and action-inspiring) study of the relationship between gender and democracy, Maro Pantelidou Maloutas makes an important contribution to both feminist theory and democratic theory. She emphasizes that democracy's emancipatory potential is substantially inhibited by the existing system of dichotomous gender relations. The requisite for us is to deconstruct rather than simply to modernize gender roles (whether through quotas or parity) which is tantamount to a “modernization of oppression” (p. 55).