Dr Camilla Reuterswärd is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). She is a political scientist focusing on gender and politics with emphasis on public policy in developing contexts. Her research is comparative, interdisciplinary and primarily qualitative. Focusing on three main areas—party politics, religious institutions, and social movements—it asks broad questions about when, why, and how policies that benefit marginalised groups, in particular women and LGBTQ+ communities, come about.
More specifically, Camilla’s research has centred on the politics of abortion and same-sex policy in Latin America and the factors that facilitate or obstruct liberalising change, for which she has carried out field research in Uruguay and various Mexican states. Her current projects focus conservative mobilisation and the dynamics of religious institutions’ impact on gender policy, including sexual education and transgender legislation. She is also broadly interested in topics related to gender-based violence, especially femicide and the causes and consequences of LGBTQ discrimination.
Her book project, Party Politics, the Catholic Church, and Social Movements: The Politics of Abortion and Same-Sex Marriage in Mexico, examines the puzzle of Mexico’s uneven subnational policy reforms in the area of moral gender policy. Departing from previous explanations of policy change, it suggests that two factors, party competition—the intensity of electoral competition and the types of competing parties—as well as the strength of the Catholic Church in a given context interact to create variation in policy outcome. Drawing on over one year of in-depth field research, the project contributes to literature in gender and politics, religion and politics, and party politics.
Camilla received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2019. Before coming to IDS, she held a postdoctoral position in the SCRIPTS Cluster of Excellence at the Freie Universität zu Berlin. Born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden, Camilla holds a Bachelor’s degree in Development Studies from the Department of Government, Uppsala University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Development and Change, Social Politics, and Latin American Politics and Society. She is also the author of a chapter in the edited volume Gender, Global Health and Violence (Rowman and Littlefield International 2019) as well as blog posts, policy reports, and articles in popular press focusing on gender politics and policy.