The Research Committee on Gender had its origins at the International Political Science Association meetings in Quebec, Canada in 2000. At that time, 29 IPSA members signed a petition requesting the creation of a new Research Committee on Globalization, Gender, and Democratization. In 2002, the IPSA Executive Committee approved the creation of a new Research Committee on Globalization, Gender, and Democratization (RC 52).

The subject for this committee is "Globalization, Gender, and Democratization." The literature on the topic of globalization has mushroomed recently (See David Held et al. Global Transformations Stanford 1999 for a good overview and bibliography); however, practically none of this literature deals with gender considerations or with democratization where democratization includes women. Yet globalization processes, whether understood as manifestations of free markets, of increased communications and technology, of neo-liberal ideology, of Western imperialism, or of some new kind of empire, are creating enormous changes in both global and domestic patterns of production, trade, employment, and finance. These changes have been likened in magnitude and signficance to those of the industrial revolution in their impact on institutions, ideas, human relationships, and ways of life.

Several specific themes will define the work of the new research committee. One will be a comparison of the various understandings of globalization in different parts of the world and the differential impact that these processes have on women in different contexts. For example, the impact of globalization for many women in Europe involves the demise of the welfare state. For those in Africa and many parts of Asia, globalization processes appear as an extension of western imperialism. A second theme will concern identifying the changes in gender relationships created by economic globalization processes. Migration, changing patterns of production and modes of production, privatization, deregulation, structural adjustment policies, trade agreements, the rampant growth of sex trafficking, transnational organizations, all involve changes in gender relationships which this research committee proposes to study. A third theme concerns the impact of globalization processes on the prospects for democratization in the world, especially a kind of democratization that includes women. Most definitions of democracy may call for citizen participation; however, they usually ignore the fact that most societies generate and maintain many obstacles to prevent women from participating equally with men in political processes.