Cecilia Josefsson

I am an Associate Professor (Docent) in the Department of Government at Uppsala University in Sweden. My book, Defending the Status Quo: On Adaptive Resistance to Electoral Gender Quotas, was published in November 2024 at Oxford University Press. It received the 2025 Victoria Schuck Award, presented by the American Political Science Association (APSA) to honor the best book published on women and politics. The book develops the concept of adaptive resistance to analyze how men political elites in Uruguay strategically responded to repeated attempts to adopt gender quota laws.

My research focuses on political institutions and representation from a gender perspective in a wide variety of contexts, including sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Scandinavia. I have published articles in journals such as Comparative Political Studies, Perspectives on Politics, Politics & Gender, International Political Science Review, Parliamentary Affairs, Representation, and Politics, Groups, and Identities. 

I received my PhD from the Department of Government at Uppsala University in November 2020. My dissertation, "Adaptive Resistance: Power Struggles over Gender Quotas in Uruguay" was awarded the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) Joni Lovenduski PhD Prize in Gender and Politics in 2023. 

Currently, I am researching gendered political leadership in Sweden, resistance to gender-equitable institutional change, and political representation in sub-Saharan Africa in the aftermath of crises.

You can find my CV here.