Rainbow Murray

Professor of Politics, Queen Mary University of London
Prof. Rainbow Murray is an expert on gender politics, representation and political institutions, with particular expertise in French politics and secondary expertise in British and comparative politics. She has been at QMUL since 2007, during which time she has also held visiting fellowships at the London School of Economics, the Centre for Research on French Politics (CEVIPOF Paris), and the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris). She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Rainbow’s major publications include the books Parties, Gender Quotas and Candidate Selection in France (Palgrave) and Cracking the Highest Glass Ceiling: A Global Comparison of Women’s Campaigns for Executive Office (Praeger). She is close to completing a third book manuscript exploring the transformative effect of gender quotas on parliamentary representation. She has also published in journals such as the American Political Science Review, West European Politics, the Political Research Quarterly, Party Politics, and Politics & Gender. From 2011-15 she co-edited the European Journal of Political Research Political Data Yearbook. Her current projects include work on merit and quality in political representation, political renewal in the French parliament, the representation of minority men in politics, and the role of campaign finance in political gender gaps. Her research has been funded by the Leverhulme Trust, the Research Council of Norway, the British Academy and the City of Paris.
Rainbow loves talking about her research and sharing her expertise. She has provided expert consultancy to bodies such as the European Union, British Council and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and commentary to a variety of domestic and international print and broadcast media. She has given talks at conferences, university seminars and public events around the world and always relishes the opportunity to exchange ideas with others. She also greatly enjoys teaching, and was honoured to receive prestigious teaching awards from Queen Mary in 2010 and 2012. She tweets @rainbowmurray.