The alternative vote: Do changes in single-member voting systems affect descriptive representation of women and minorities?

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 90-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah John ◽  
Haley Smith ◽  
Elizabeth Zack
Keyword(s):  
Descriptive Representation ◽  
Voting Systems ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Alternative Vote

Who Does What Work in a Ministerial Office: Politically Appointed Staff and the Descriptive Representation of Women in Australian Political Offices, 1979–2010

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 463-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marija Taflaga ◽  
Matthew Kerby
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Career Paths ◽  
Descriptive Representation ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Systematic Data ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Policy Work ◽  
First Time

Women are underrepresented within political institutions, which can (negatively) impact policy outcomes. We examine women’s descriptive representation as politically appointed staff within ministerial offices. Politically appointed staff are now institutionalised into the policy process, so who they are is important. To date, collecting systematic data on political staff has proved impossible. However, for the first time we demonstrate how to build a systematic data set of this previously unobservable population. We use Australian Ministerial Directories (telephone records) from 1979 to 2010 (a method that can notionally be replicated in advanced democratic jurisdictions), to examine political advising careers in a similar manner as elected political elites. We find that work in political offices is divided on gender lines: men undertake more policy work, begin and end their careers in higher status roles and experience greater career progression than women. We find evidence that this negatively impacts women’s representation and their later career paths into parliament.

Gender Politics and Conservatism: The View from the British Conservative Party Grassroots

2012 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Webb ◽  
Sarah Childs
Keyword(s):  
Gender Issue ◽  
Gender Politics ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
Descriptive Representation ◽  
Substantive Representation ◽  
Selection Procedures ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
Party Members ◽  
Significant Support

AbstractCan conservatives be feminists? This article examines the issue by exploring the case of the British Conservative Party, drawing on a new survey of party members. Under David Cameron's leadership, reforms have been made to the party's parliamentary selection procedures and distinct women's policies developed, thus addressing both the descriptive and substantive representation of women. We examine party members' attitudes towards three types of gender issue: basic orientations towards gender roles and relations; specific policy measures relevant to the substantive representation of women; and the descriptive representation of women. Detailed empirical analysis reveals that there is significant support for progressive liberal feminist positions on each of these dimensions in the party, and that sex, age and basic ideological dispositions drive such attitudes to varying degrees. Even so, support for a liberal feminist position on the descriptive representation of women – that is, the aspect of gender politics where the leadership has been most active – remains on the whole quite limited.

Women's Substantive Representation in Decline: The Case of Democratic Failure in Hungary

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (02) ◽  
pp. 240-261
Author(s):  
Gabriella Ilonszki ◽  
Adrienn Vajda
Keyword(s):  
Extended Period ◽  
Descriptive Representation ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Substantive Representation ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Democratic Failure

AbstractThe substantive representation of women has attracted limited attention in cases in which women are present in politics in small numbers over an extended period of time. This article aims to fill this gap by focusing on two policy episodes in a postcommunist state where female descriptive representation has remained low and static and the regime's democratic backlash can also be observed. The two analytical questions refer to the agency and regime aspects of women's substantive representation under unfavorable conditions. Who is representing women under these conditions, and where and how is their representation taking place? How do the regime's characteristics explain the evolving representation patterns? The article will first argue that the same descriptive representation levels can imply different substantive representation patterns in terms of both actors and space. Second, by reconnecting descriptive representation and substantive representation, the article demonstrates that the decline of a regime's democratic credentials is detrimental to female substantive representation.

Mixed-member electoral systems, best loser rules, and the descriptive representation of women

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 153-162
Author(s):  
Yann P. Kerevel ◽  
Austin S. Matthews ◽  
Katsunori Seki
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Descriptive Representation ◽  
Representation Of Women

Identity in Campaign Finance and Elections: The Impact of Gender and Race on Money Raised in 2010–2018 U.S. House Elections

2021 ◽  
pp. 106591292110228
Author(s):  
Ashley Sorensen ◽  
Philip Chen
Keyword(s):  
Campaign Finance ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Descriptive Representation ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Gender And Race ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Unequal Access ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

Disproportionate rates of congressional representation based on gender and race are especially stark considering the symbolic and substantive meaning derived from descriptive representation (Mansbridge 1999). Using an original data set consisting of candidate demographics, district characteristics, and campaign finance reports, we analyze an understudied barrier to representation: unequal access to campaign receipts. We argue that it is the simultaneous gendering and racialization of the campaign finance system that produces gaps in campaign fundraising and representation (Crenshaw 1989). Our results underscore the limitations of unitary approaches which conclude that women no longer face a disadvantage in campaign fundraising. Unequal access to campaign receipts serve as a barrier to the descriptive representation of women of color. By analyzing the interaction of both race and gender on campaign receipt totals in U.S. House elections from 2010 to 2018, we assert the path to representation is not equal for all.

The Descriptive Representation of Women in Politics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magda Hinojosa
Keyword(s):  
Symbolic Representation ◽  
Descriptive Representation ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Citizen Attitudes ◽  
Significant Area ◽  
Political Office ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
National Legislature

Women remain strikingly underrepresented in politics: as of 2020, women hold only 25% of seats in the world’s national legislatures. Studies of women’s descriptive representation can be divided into two broad categories. The first category of scholarship seeks to understand when, why, and how women are elected to political office. Earlier academic work on the descriptive representation of women primarily analyzed social (educational levels, workforce participation rates) and cultural factors to understand women’s descriptive underrepresentation in politics. Institutional factors emerged as a significant area of scholarship, buoyed by the adoption and near immediate success of gender quotas. Scholarship has also centered on political parties and contextual factors (candidate selection and recruitment processes, the effects of crisis). A second category of work examines the effects of women’s descriptive representation on the substantive and symbolic representation of women, and increasingly whether women’s descriptive representation begets more women in office. The scholarship on the relationship between descriptive and substantive representation has found strong evidence that having women in office results in the representation of women’s interests. Establishing how the descriptive representation of women affects citizen attitudes—such as their interest in politics and trust in government institutions—has yielded more mixed results. Nonetheless, the scholarship on the effects of women’s descriptive representation largely confirms that having women in office matters for outcomes related to policy and citizen attitudes. The rich work that has been done to date on women’s descriptive representation could benefit from expanding the definition of the term. Although scholars have relied on a head count of women in positions of power—and notably often just in the national legislature—to assess descriptive representation, a more expansive approach to defining women’s descriptive representation is needed. Researchers ought to consider other ways in which representatives can descriptively represent constituents, for example, by calling attention to their role as women in their parliamentary speeches. Moreover, the study of women’s descriptive representation would benefit from greater attention to women’s descriptive representation at subnational levels; too often, the proportion of women in the national legislature is equated with women’s descriptive representation, leaving out how women can be descriptively represented at other levels of office, in particular, in local positions. Examining within-country variation in women’s officeholding could be particular fruitful in understanding the factors that affect women’s descriptive representation, including the pipelines to higher office. Furthermore, studying differences in descriptive representation for elected versus appointed positions could prove instructive. In addition, more scholarship is needed that takes an intersectional approach to studying both the factors that help or hinder women’s descriptive representation and the ways in which descriptive representation affects substantive and symbolic representation.

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