International Seminar Series in Sociology: "World Society and Liberalization of Abortion Policy since 1960". Speaker: Minzee Kim

On the 9th of June at International Seminar Series in Sociology Minzee Kim, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Ewha Women's University in South Korea will present her research "World Society and Liberalization of Abortion Policy since 1960".

Controversy sets abortion apart from other issues studied by world society theorists, who consider the tendency for policies institutionalized at the global level to diffuse across very different countries. We conduct an event history analysis of the spread (however limited) of abortion liberalization policies from 1960 to 2009. After identifying three dominant frames (a women's rights frame, a medical frame, and a religious, natura l family frame), we find that indicators of a scientific, medical frame show consistent association with liberalization of policies specifying acceptable grounds for abortion. Women’s leadership roles have a stronger and more consistent liberalizing effect than do countries' links to a global women's rights discourse. Somewhat different patterns emerge around the likelihood of adopting an additional policy, controlling for first policy adoption. As support for women’s autonomy has grown globally, as regards abortion, persistent, powerful frames compete at the global level, preventing robust policy diffusion.

The working language of the seminar is English. 

If you need a HSE pass, please email to ekonobeeva@hse.ru.

Seminar starts at 18.00