Speech as a Form of Participation: Floor Time and Perceived Influence
This chapter asks whether critics are correct that women participate less than men during deliberation and thus have less perceived influence in it. Advocates and critics of deliberative democracy posit equal meaningful participation as a necessary requirement of deliberation. Results show how far actual discussion deviates from that ideal standard, where women speak substantially less than men in most mixed-gender combinations. Further, speech is a crucial form of participation that meaningfully shapes perceptions of authority. As critics of deliberation contend, deliberation can produce inequalities of participation that affect deliberators' influence. Even if men and women enter deliberation with the same preferences and equal formal rights, the disproportionate exercise of these rights by men erodes the political and civic standing of women, a group not yet equal in society.