Women’s Representation Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Women’s representation explores the gendered aspects of representative or parliamentary democracy (as well as other less democratic regime types)—specifically, how the interests and aspirations of women qua women are reflected in patterns of public office holding or in public policy outcomes. One primary question within contemporary research concerns the connection between the numbers of women in office and the substance of politics: Does an increase in the number of women elected (or in the governing elite) lead to changes regarding the character of politics or the content of policy? Following in the path suggested by Hanna Pitkin’s The Concept of Representation (1967), the scholars who address these issues commonly distinguish between a descriptive (quantitative) aspect and a substantive (qualitative) aspect of the representation.

Descriptive Representation

The focus on women as a group must be understood from the historical context in which women were excluded at some time in the past from national politics on the basis of their sex. In most countries, women now are granted formal political rights; at the same time the world average for women serving in national parliaments is only 19 percent (whereas women make up about half of the world’s population). There is only one country in the world where the number of women in the national legislature surpasses the number of men; however, in some countries the gap between the sexes is almost closed. In Rwanda, the number of women in the national parliament is, as of late 2009, 56 percent, and in Sweden it is more than 47 percent. At the other end of the spectrum are well-established democracies like Ireland and the United States, which have rates as low as 13 percent and 17 percent respectively.

Empirical studies of descriptive representation have typically examined either changes in one country over time or variations across countries. A further strand of research has focused on variations across entities within the same political system, such as the number of women elected to powerful positions in different parties or in subnational governments. Previous models more or less regarded an increase in women’s representation as a “natural” consequence of changes in society like women’s expanded participation in the labor force or in higher education. A growing body of empirical findings challenges that older claim. The new findings suggest that targeted actions (for instance, quotas for women or some other promotion strategy) undertaken by central political actors like political parties are important catalysts for change in descriptive representation.

Substantive Representation

On the issue of substantive changes in political patter ns or outcomes, there is less consensus about the most fruitful approaches to the study of representation for women. Research on substantive representation is more difficult to operationalize and measure than descriptive research—if for no other reason than there is no monolithic definition of what policies or issues are exclusively “women’s issues.” Moreover, scholars realize the pitfalls of essentialism—the assumption that women officeholders bring a monolithic set of experiences, values, and ideological dispositions to office, and thus a common agenda. Other political identities (like race), ideologies (partisanship), or experiences may mitigate an affinity for pursuing such an agenda once in office. In addition, the way political power is wielded within institutional settings (the national legislature or the leadership structure of a political party) may dampen incentives to pursue such an agenda. Nonetheless, empirical research on women’s political representation demonstrates a clear link between office holding by women and action by these women to promote women’s interests, however broadly or narrowly these interests are defined.

This link between descriptive representation and substantive representation is complex. The notion that a critical mass of women in office will generate change in political outcomes for women is not universally supported by research. Recent studies in U.S. legislative settings show that a more complex set of factors beyond the head count affect the opportunities for women officeholders to effect change for women. More information is needed about the factors that may hinder women to act as representatives in the ways they might desire after they are elected, as well as the factors that can empower them to effect change.

One clear empirical result is that female members of parliament tend to prioritize issues that also generally are prioritized by female voters (e.g., issues of social policy, policy on the family, care of the elderly, and gender equality). On a more abstract level, these issues reflect policies that, in most contemporary societies, are of importance for securing the autonomy of women in their everyday life. Research in this area also has focused on gender differences regarding political stand-points. The different subfields are directed toward the question of which issues reach the political agenda and the status they are given, or toward the question of what solutions are favoured once an issue is on the table.

On a more abstract level, contemporary research emphasizes that gender is not a fixed category and therefore an analysis of women’s representation from a substantive perspective needs to be contextualized in time and space. Analysis of women’s representation and definitions of women’s interests must take into account that gender is interlinked with other social factors (like age and level of education) and political identities (like race and ethnicity).

Bibliography:

All figures are from www.ipu.org, the Web site of the Inter-parliamentary Union, October 2009.
Kittilson, Miki Caul. Challenging Parties, Changing Parliaments: Women and Elected Office in Contemporary Western Europe. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2006.
Krook, Mona Lena. Quotas for Women in Politics: Gender and Candidate
Selection Reform Worldwide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Phillips, Anne. The Politics of Presence. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Pitkin, Hanna. The Concept of Representation. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.
Reingold, Beth. “Women as Office Holders: Linking Descriptive and Substantive Representation.” In Political Women and American Democracy, edited by Christina Wolbrecht, Karen Beckwith, and Lisa Baldez, 128–147. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Wängnerud, Lena. “Women in Parliaments: Descriptive and Substantive Representation.” Annual Review of Political Science, 12 (2009): 51–69.

This example Women’s Representation Essay is published for educational and informational purposes only. If you need a custom essay or research paper on this topic please use our writing services. EssayEmpire.com offers reliable custom essay writing services that can help you to receive high grades and impress your professors with the quality of each essay or research paper you hand in.