Women's Representation Flashcards
What is formal representation?
Formal representation is the institutional rules and procedures through which representatives are selected (ie: electoral systems, political parties, quotas)
It involves looking at factors in woman running for office and what factors are involved in women being elected.
What is descriptive representation?
Descriptive representation is the presence of individuals who share a certain characteristic (ie: the number of women elected to office)
What is substantive representation?
Substantive representation is when representatives act for the interests of a group (ie: ideas and actions; what women do in office)
What is symbolic representation?
Symbolic representation is the feelings and attitudes that representatives evoke among citizens (ie: women MPs as role models)
Describe Lawless and Fox’s concept of the leaky pipeline
Lawless and Fox’s leaky pipeline describes the many stages in which women may fall away from participating in politics:
- some women will decide to run
- some women will drop out/not be selected by a party
- some women will not be elected by the electorate
How does gender socialisation explain the concept of the ‘leaky pipeline’?
- women undervalue qualifications when deciding to run for office
- With 2 equally qualified individuals, one male and one female, women are likely to undervalue their own qualifications.
- Women may perceive the political environment as being more challenging for them than it is for men…
How does socialisation impact political ambition, having implications for the ‘leaky pipeline’?
- Women seeing themselves as less qualified, hence diminishing political ambition
- Less likely to be ENCOURAGED to run for office - by parties, activists, etc…
- Young women and girls are less likely to be encouraged to run for office by parents and adults around them. Less likely to be engaged with on political issues.
- Fewer role models to see - less inspiration for women to run.
How do resources explain the ‘leaky pipeline’
- Time: women are often more likely to hold the majority of caring/domestic responsibilities (second shift, work at home after completing paid employment). Women do not have time to complete a ‘third shift’
- Money: women spend more time fundraising for political campaigns than men
- Education/Civics skills: women have fewer opportunities to develop the skills needed to run for office
- Networks: women may lack access to political networks or ‘feeder’ careers that tend to lead to political careers (ie: law, business, etc.)
How can electoral systems explain the ‘leaky pipeline’?
- More women elected under proportional representation vs majoritarian systems because larger districts helps avoid a zero-sum choice for parties (ie: choosing between a man vs. woman)
- PR systems allow parties to run women alongside men; balance the ticket
- Majoritarian systems prioritise incumbency and name recognition: historical exclusion from representation means that male candidates are more likely to win than women.
How can political parties explain the ‘leaky pipeline’?
- Parties/leadership recruit candidates; parties on the left tend to recruit and elect higher numbers of women
- Women party leaders tend to select more women candidates
What are quotas?
Policies designed to fast-track women’s representation; require certain % of women to appear on candidate lists, in the legislature, or other positions of power
How can voters explain the ‘leaky pipeline’?
Gender attitudes and stereotypes may make certain voters unwilling to vote for women
How can the media explain the ‘leaky pipeline’?
The media tends to cover personal lives, appearance, family much more so than policy positions and credentials. It reinforces traditional stereotypes - men as competent, women as not.
How can the impact of women’s representation differ between authoritarian and democratic regimes?
In authoritarian regimes, the legislature has virtually no power, and thus women’s representation can lack impact on policy even if it can change perceptions of women in power. In democracies, it is much more likely that women can affect policy.
What difficulties are there in studying substantive representation?
Difficulties in defining women’s interests, a heavy focus on western feminist issues, difficulties in distinguishing opinions and preferences of an individual from a party as a whole.
What is the descriptive-substantive link? What evidence is there for/against this?
The descriptive-substantive link explores how women being seen in representative politics impacts the acting in the interests of a specific group.
It has been seen that women being in office leads to the formation of ‘women friendly policies’, and that there are differences in the conduct of politics when women are involved.
What explanations are there for why women in politics advocate for policies beneficial to women?
- Electoral reward?
- Linked-Fate: individual opportunities and outcomes linked to the whole group
- Gender socialisation: shared experiences may shape identities, interests, perspectives of women in ways that men are not.
What issues are there with the descriptive-substantive link?
Issues of essentialisation rise here… the idea that all women will hold identical views on women’s issues and act in the same way is just not serviceable.
What is the descriptive-symbolic link? What impact does this have?
The descriptive-symbolic link looks at how women’s representation impacts attitudes of citizens. This can be seen to have improved political knowledge for men and women, improved democratic satisfaction, improved trust in democracy and positively impact attitudes towards women.
What types of quotas are there?
Party quotas - those voluntarily adopted by parties to overcome structural barriers
Quota laws - those that require all parties in a country to nominate a % of women to ballot
Political reservations - requiring that a certain % of women are elected to legislature
How are quotas implemented through thresholds?
Thresholds require a % of women to appear on lists, or that a number of seats are reserved for women. It is believed that a 30% threshold creates substantive change.
How are quotas implemented through sanctions?
Quotas can be implemented through sanctions by enforcing consequences if a party does not follow a quota. It can include fines, or being barred from running candidates if not complying.
How can quotas be enforced through placement mandates?
Placement mandates require parties to position men and women in particular places on a party list… without these, women can be placed on a party list at the bottom, thus being unlikely to get elected.
What factors can influence the adoption of quotas?
Parties feeling they may be benefited electorally, the strength of a women’s movement, the diffusion of policies across regions and nations, international pressures, etc.
