Theorizing Gender and Power

While gendered relations have long been analyzed in terms of women's (structural) oppression and men's domination - where women are described as merely passive objects of power -, more recently power literature has brought into the debate a number of notions aimed at describing or even normatively promoting women's power. On the one hand, the notions of 'power to' and 'power with' have been opposed to the traditional understanding of power as 'power over'; on the other hand, positive instances of 'power over' have been identified in terms of 'transformative power'.
Fewer studies, however, have concentrated on discussing the material basis of power, namely power resources, and their role in the gendered distribution of power. Is the classical tripartition of power resources (economic, of violence, and symbolic) apt at describing the basis for the gendered distribution of power? Should we consider, in addition, other basis of power? Lastly, even fewer studies have investigated the role of women themselves - either consciously or unconciously - on the reproduction of gendered power relations and the exercise of power on other women.
This panel aims at gathering together sociologists, political theorists and political scientists working on the relation between gender and power with the goal of shedding new light on the theorizing and understanding of gendered power relations and their persistence in nowadays societies.