ERC Starting Grant: How Women Have Shaped Politics – and Their Own Rights
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded Dr. Keonhi Son, a political scientist at the University of Mannheim, one of its highly coveted Starting Grants. She will receive just under 1.5 million euros to investigate the role that female parliamentarians played in the emergence of women’s social and labor rights in advanced capitalist countries.
Press release from 3 September 2026
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This text was translated from German by DeepL.
In her ERC-funded project, Dr. Keonhi Son examines how female parliamentarians shaped the development of women’s rights in 18 countries over nearly a century from 1883 to 1980. In doing so, she considers both her direct influence, in the form of parliamentary participation, and her indirect influence through political parties. The history of social citizenship will be systematically examined for the first time from a women-centered perspective.
The researcher, who conducts research at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), defines women’s social citizenship as their economic independence from both the market and their husbands, for instance the right to sign employment contracts without permission of husbands or the right to social security. The funded project is titled “SheCitizen: She as Citizen: Female Parliamentarians and the Emergence of Social Citizenship.”
“In research on the history of the welfare state, the prevailing view is still that women were treated like children—that is, merely as recipients of welfare benefits,” says the postdoctoral researcher. “However, I am familiar with many case studies that show this is not true. There were numerous female politicians and women’s movements that drove the emergence of social rights for women. That is why I decided to investigate this more systematically.”
Methodologically, she aims to compile and analyze extensive data on women’s social and labor rights, as well as biographical information about female members of parliament. The focus is on 18 advanced capitalist countries—including the U.S., Japan, and New Zealand, as well as European countries such as Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
Son sees history as the key to understanding contemporary labor market inequalities: “Gender institutions provide a prime example of institutional layering. If we do not understand how these institutions have developed over time, it is difficult to explain why they differ across contemporary societies and, in turn, why gendered labor market outcomes vary—for example, why the gender gap is significantly larger in some countries than in others,” she explains.
“With her ERC-funded project, Keonhi Son brings a new perspective to research on the welfare state development. The fact that such an innovative research project is based at the MZES underscores the University of Mannheim’s strength in the social sciences,” says the President of the University of Mannheim, Prof. Dr. Thomas Fetzer.
About Dr. Keonhi Son
Keonhi Son studied political science at Korea University in Seoul and at Heidelberg University. After earning her Ph.D. from the University of Bremen, she conducted research at SOCIUM at the University of Bremen and served as a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and at Sciences Po in Paris. Since 2024, she has been working as a research fellow at the MZES at the University of Mannheim. Among other things, she leads a project on labor and family policy funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
About the ERC
Through the ERC Starting Grant, the ERC supports researchers of all nationalities with two to seven years of experience since completing their doctorate. Applicants must demonstrate a promising scientific track record and submit an outstanding project proposal on behalf of their host institution. Only about 12 to 15 percent of all proposals for an ERC Starting Grant are successful and receive funding. The grant typically runs for five years with funding of up to 1.5 million euros.
In this round, a total of 705 million euros was awarded to 421 top researchers from 25 countries.
Further information: https://erc.europa.eu/apply-grant/starting-grant
ERC press release: https://erc.europa.eu/news-events/news/erc-2026-starting-grants-results
A press photo can be downloaded here: http://www.uni-mannheim.de/newsroom/presse/pressefotos
Contact:
Dr. Keonhi Son (available for interviews in English)
Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES)
University of Mannheim
Phone: +49 621 181-2849
E-mail: son@uni-mannheim.de
Luisa Gebhardt
Press Officer
University of Mannheim
E-mail: luisa.gebhardtuni-mannheim.de