Women in Parliaments

ANRV377-PL12-04 ARI 13 April 2009 12:41
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Lena Wangnerud
Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden;
email: lena.wangnerud@pol.gu.se
Annu. Rev. Polit. Sci. 2009. 12:5169 Key Words

The Annual Review of Political Science is online at womens interests, gender equality, established democracies, feminist
polisci.annualreviews.org
awareness
This articles doi:
10.1146/annurev.polisci.11.053106.123839 Abstract
Copyright c 2009 by Annual Reviews. This essay reviews two research programs. The rst focuses on varia-
All rights reserved
tions in the number of women elected to national parliaments in the
1094-2939/09/0615-0051$20.00 world (descriptive representation), and the second focuses on effects
of womens presence in parliament (substantive representation). The
theory of the politics of presence (Phillips 1995) provides reasons for
expecting a link between descriptive and substantive representation.
The safest position would be to say that results are mixed when it
comes to empirical support for the theory of the politics of presence.
However, when a large number of studies covering a wide set of in-
dicators on the importance of gender in the parliamentary process are
piled together, the picture that emerges shows that female politicians
contribute to strengthening the position of womens interests.
51
ANRV377-PL12-04 ARI 13 April 2009 12:41
INTRODUCTION female politicians, at least to some extent, share

the experiences of other women. Few deny that
The number of women in parliaments is cur-
gender-related differences exist in contempo-
rently increasing throughout the world. Ten
rary societies; however, the connection to the
years ago the average proportion of women
political sphere is disputed. Phillips herself used
in national parliaments was 11.7%; today it is
the expression a shot in the dark (1995, p. 83)
18.3% (an increase of 6.6 percentage points).
in reference to expectations for female politi-
The trend is perhaps even clearer if, instead
cians to affect politics in any specic ways.
of comparing world averages, we compare the
Her doubt stemmed from her knowledge about
number of countries where women make up
rigidity in political institutions; parliaments do
>30% of members in the national parlia-
not change easily.

ment. Ten years ago there was only one such
This essay on women in parliaments is orga-
countrySweden; now, as of September 30,
nized around the distinction between descrip-
2008, there are 22 (gures from the Inter-
tive and substantive representation. I show that

Parliamentary Union website http://www.
even though the two research programs are
ipu.org).
interconnected, they constitute distinct tracks
There is a growing body of literature that
with their own sets of theoretical reasoning and
seeks to explain the increases in the numbers
tools for doing empirical research. Research fo-
of women elected. It is apparent that changes
cusing on descriptive representation represents
do not happen automatically. Conscious acts by
a more mature research eld. This is partly be-
actors such as political parties, with the specic
cause of the longer history of this tradition; as
aim of getting more women elected, are an im-
early as the 1950s, Duverger (1955) highlighted
portant factor behind the increases. However,
the role of electoral systems in determining the
parties do not exist in a vacuum. The literature
number of women elected. It is equally impor-
reveals an interplay between parties and interest
tant to note that in research on descriptive rep-
groups such as womens organizations, and also
resentation there is a distinct, easily calculated,
between these kinds of actors and structures of
dependent variable: What is to be explained
society. The type of electoral system matters for
is the numerical distribution of seats between
the number of women elected, as does the type
women and men. Comparisons are made across
of welfare state.
countries and across time. Comparisons are also
In research on women in parliaments, there
made between subnational units, such as be-
is a much-used distinction between descriptive
tween different parties or local legislatures.
and substantive representation. This distinction
Research on substantive representation is
roughly corresponds with whether the focus is
less mature. This is partly because there used
on the number of women elected or on the
to be very few countries with any substantial
effects of womens presence in parliament. In
number of women elected. There are, as al-
1995 the inuential book The Politics of Pres-
ready hinted, additional complexities that, for
ence was published (Phillips 1995). The theory
example, relate to the way parliaments func-
of the politics of presence suggests that female
tion as institutions. Some ndings reveal that,
politicians are best equipped to represent the
once elected, female politicians meet certain
interests of women; thus, the theory predicts a
obstacles. A fourth reason is that, in compar-
link between descriptive and substantive rep-
ison to research on descriptive representation,
resentation. Phillipss argument is built upon
the dependent variable is more diffuse or multi-
differences between women and men in their
faceted. It is not self-evident what an increased
everyday lives, such as differences relating to
number of women in parliament will most af-
child-rearing, education and occupations, divi-
fect: Internal working procedures? Policy out-
sions of paid and unpaid labor, exposure to vi-
comes? Trust in government? Or something
olence and sexual harassment, and the fact that
52 Wangnerud
ANRV377-PL12-04 ARI 13 April 2009 12:41
else? However, the body of literature in this is dominated by men. However, the concept of
strand of research is growing, and recent empir- womens interests is contested. Contemporary
ical results demonstrate that an increased pro- debates concern features of elitism in gender
portion of women in parliament is more reliable researchthat is, a tendency to ascribe inter-
than a shot in the dark: Societies that elect large ests to women in a top-down fashionand also
numbers of women tend to be more gender- features of essentialism: the tendency to view
equal also in other respects than societies that women and men as xed, rather than change-
elect few women. able, categories. Debates also concern how gen-
My review focuses on women in parliaments der is related to categories such as ethnicity, age,
in established democracies. However, especially and class (Dietz 2003).1
when it comes to research on descriptive rep- One way to handle such controversies is
resentation, the perspective has to be widened. to let politically active women themselves de-
There is at present a global quota trend that has ne womens interests or what they perceive
resulted in rather surprising rankings among as gender equality; this strand of research re-
countries. The Nordic countriesas is widely lies on what are labeled subjectively dened
recognizedhold a leading position, with the interests (e.g., Celis 2006). Other researchers
proportion of women in national parliaments elaborate theoretically founded denitions that
averaging 41.4%. But among individual coun- are sensitive to diversity among women but also
tries, Rwanda is currently on top of the list state some common ground (e.g., Lovenduski
(48.8%), Sweden is number two (47.0%), Cuba & Norris 2003, Wangnerud 2000a). In prac-
number three (43.2%), and Finland number tice, these different approaches often produce
four (41.5%). similar lists of womens interests. Phillipss rea-
soning in The Politics of Presence is an example of
mainstream argumentation:
THEORIES ON WOMENS
INTERESTS Women have distinct interests in relation to
The assumption that women have certain in- child-bearing (for any foreseeable future, an
terests in common is a main thread in stud- exclusively female affair); and as society is cur-
ies on women in parliaments. However, in re- rently constituted they also have particular in-
search focusing on descriptive representation, terests arising from their exposure to sexual
the theoretical reasoning behind this assump- harassment and violence, their unequal po-
tion is not well elaborated. In order to analyze sition in the division of paid and unpaid la-
numeric differences between countries, or nu- bor and their exclusion from most arenas of
meric changes over time, far-reaching deni- economic or political power. (Phillips 1995,
tions of womens interests are not necessary. It pp. 6768)
is widely acceptable to use the share of seats in
parliament as an indicator of political inclusion When Phillips concretizes what women can
in society for a category such as women. In this gain from increased political inclusion, she
strand of research, the theoretical focus is in- stresses context; womens interests are con-
stead directed toward developing explanations nected to how societies are currently consti-
for variations. tuted. If we look at contemporary societies, we
In studies focusing on substantive represen- see noteworthy differences between women and
tation, it is, however, necessary to specify con-
cepts such as womens interests and gender
equality. A core idea in this strand of research is 1
The concept of interests is not limited to gender research. It
that there are certain interests and concerns that is ubiquitous (Pitkin 1967, p. 156) in debates on represen-
tation. To differentiate interests is a matter of concretizing
arise from womens experiences and that these that which various groups can expect to gain through political
will be inadequately addressed in a politics that inclusion.
www.annualreviews.org Women in Parliaments 53

ANRV377-PL12-04 ARI 13 April 2009 12:41
men in their everyday life situations. It is there- review research on gender and parliamentary
fore interesting to ask about the extent to which recruitment in Western democracies and then
an increase in the number of women elected af- widen the perspective. The discussion is re-
fects how societies function. The contextual ap- stricted to factors connected to national par-
proach implies that concepts such as womens liaments lower or single houses.
interests and gender equality are anchored in Norris (1993, p. 311) has worked out a
time and space; this means that more exact def- model of parliamentary recruitment in Western
initions have to be worked out in relation to the democracies emphasizing the political system,
actual parliament studied. One problem here, the party context, and supply and demand fac-
though, is that even the most carefully contex- tors in the recruitment process. Factors in-
tually anchored denition will necessarily end cluded under the label political system are
up a bit simplied. However, when I review re- the electoral system, party system and legisla-
cent empirical research on substantive repre- tive competition. Factors included under the la-
sentation of women I conclude that this is a risk bel party context are party ideology and party
worth taking. Gender serves as a lens that makes organization. The picture of the recruitment
important issues in the eld of representation process includes social background as a deter-
visible: Whom do elected politicians represent? minant for required resources to become an
What is at stake in the parliamentary process? elected representative as well as for motivation.
What do we know about the interplay between Resources and motivation are then described
parliaments and the everyday lives of citizens? as decisive factors for who gets into the pool
Gender research adds new fuel to all these clas- of the eligible. Further obstacles that must be
sic debates. overcome before one gets elected are the judg-
In research on substantive representation ments of gatekeepers and voters. The model
of women, an aspect of politicization is intro- also indicates that the outcome of the election
duced. It is commonly argued that societies will has a feedback effect on motivation; if only a
not achieve equality between women and men few women are elected, or if women are elected
by simply disregarding gender-related differ- only occasionally, this might enforce the idea
ences (Phillips 2007, p. 127). This is not always that politics is a mans game.
spelled out clearly in the literature; however, I One of the most stable results in empirical
think most authors would agree that in gender- research is that the election of women is fa-
equal democracies, women and men are equally vored by electoral systems with party lists, pro-
able to choose between alternatives that address portional representation (PR), and large district
their specic concerns. The theory of the pol- magnitudes. The conventional wisdom used to
itics of presence stipulates that equal rights to be that these systems are less competitive than
a vote are not strong enough to guarantee this; majority systems based on single-member dis-
there must also be equality among those elected tricts. In a single-member system, a woman has
to ofce. to be the number-one choice for her party in
order to take part in the race. In a PR system
with large district magnitudes, a woman can be
RESEARCH ON DESCRIPTIVE placed further down on the party list and still be
REPRESENTATION: NUMBER elected (Matland & Brown 1992, Norris 1996,
OF WOMEN IN PARLIAMENTS Rule 1987). However, this wisdom also main-
Owing to a recent worldwide quota trend, contains that PR tends to favor party systems with a
ventional wisdom regarding explanations for large number of parties and also means greater
variations in the number of women elected is possibilities for new parties to enter the parlia-
partly outdated. However, it is still valid to re- mentary arena. In this sense a PR system is very
view more established explanatory factors and competitive. Empirical studies show that once
discuss their strengths. In this section, I rst one party picks up the issue of gender equality,
54 Wangnerud
ANRV377-PL12-04 ARI 13 April 2009 12:41
and makes the increased election of women an the main gatekeeper in the recruitment process,
issue, other parties within the same system tend at the center of the analysis.
to follow suit. This logic can be explained by Recent studies point to conscious acts by
policy diffusion, a wish to pick up new ideas, party leadership, such as the implementation
and strategic considerations; parties are striving of gender quotas or other gender-specic mea-
for power, and gender equality is one among a sures, as important determinants of the number
number of weapons that can be used in elec- of women elected (Freidenvall 2006, Kittilson
toral competition (Kittilson 2006, Lovenduski 2006, Studlar & McAllister 2002). During past
& Norris 1993). decades, the number of women elected has also
There is no doubt that the political system increased in parties that have never adopted
is relevant in cross-country research. However, quotas; however, the average number of women
cross-country studies tend to miss variations be- elected is signicantly higher in parties that
tween parties within a single system. Variations have adopted quotas. Kittilson (2006) compares
in the proportion of women to men are even 71 parties in Western Europe between 1975 and
greater across parties than across nations. One 1995. In 1975 few parties had adopted quotas,
of the earliest ndings in the eld of party con- and the average number of women elected was
text was that leftist ideology is a strong pre- on the same level, about 10%, in each of the
dictor for a high number of women elected. party groupings in her study. In 1995 the aver-
However, this pattern is weaker than it used age number of women elected had increased to
to be. Substantial increases are found in most 35% in parties with quotas (21 parties in the
party families in Western democracies, even sample) and to 25% in parties without quo-
though religious and ultraright parties still have tas (50 parties in the sample). She divides par-
few women elected (Kittilson 2006). Kittilson ties with quotas into two subgroups: those that
(2006, p. 48) has distinguished between old adopted quotas between 1975 and 1985, and
left and new left political ideologies, and those that adopted quotas between 1986 and
her analysis shows that new left ideology is 1991. Kittilson (2006, p. 64) demonstrates that
a decisive factor in cross-party, cross-country averages within quota parties, in each sepa-
comparative research. Parties that value envi- rate subset, jumped above averages within non-
ronment over economic growth and are pro- quota parties shortly after quotas were adopted.
permissive in social policy tend to have more Parties with quotas also remain on a high aver-
women elected. In addition to party ideology, age level.
party organization matters: A centralized orga- The literature on causes behind the elec-
nization is favorable for women, but even more tion of large numbers of women reveals a shift,
important is that the party organization has ties at least in Western democracies, from system-
with organizations outside the party, because oriented toward strategy-oriented explanatory
these provide more points of access for women models (Wangnerud 2000b). Strategy-oriented
(Kittilson 2006, pp. 4849). explanatory models dig into processes endoge-
To be elected, women must rst be willing nous to parties, whereas system-oriented ex-
to stand as candidates. However, recent studies planatory models explore exogenous processes.
show that the idea of a smooth process in which This shift does not mean that the framework
higher numbers of women in the pool of the eli- for parliamentary recruitment worked out by
gible automatically spill over to higher numbers Norris has become obsolete; it still serves as a
among the elected representatives is too simple. good overview and spells out important factors.
In Western democracies, the number of women However, other layers or steps in the process
elected, in many cases, has not grown incremen- have to be developed more fully. Timing and
tally but rather in punctuated and sometimes framing are two examples of concepts used in
dramatic increases (Kittilson 2006, p. 10). This strategy-oriented research to capture the mech-
nding puts internal processes within parties, anisms at work. The strategy-oriented strand

ANRV377-PL12-04 ARI 13 April 2009 12:41
of research also points to the importance of ac- Inglehart & Norris are not the rst to em-
tions taken by women themselves, often in a phasize culture, and the major contribution
joint venture between womens movements and of their book is the vast amount of empirical
women at higher ranks within the party struc- data they provide, covering almost all parts of
tures. Timing and framing are strategies to in- the world. However, the cultural explanation
crease support within party machineries; if the has been criticized for being unable to cap-
time is right and the packaging appetizing, ture short-term change. It has also been crit-
quests for increased gender equality will have a icized for being almost a tautology (Sainsbury
fairly good chance of gaining support (Kittilson 1993, Rosenbluth et al. 2006). Nonetheless, re-
2006, Lovenduski & Norris 1993). gional differences are a persistent feature of
worldwide comparisons, and additional studies

substantiate the view that gender-related values
Cultural Explanations are important in this eld (Paxton & Kunovich
and Socioeconomics
2003, Studlar & McAllister 2002, Teigen &

From the start of cross-country research on Wangnerud 2009).
women in parliaments, regional differences A pattern in the literature is that researchers
have been a recurrent nding. The high per- doing worldwide comparisons on the number
centage within the Nordic region (41.4%) is of women elected emphasize different factors
exceptional, and perhaps even more remarkable from those emphasized by researchers doing
is that within this region the number of women more geographically restricted analyses. The
elected has been high for quite a long time. In time perspective used is also important in de-
the 1980s the expression Nordenthe passion termining the kinds of factors that stand out
for equality was coined (Graubard 1986). This as decisive. Wides (2006) analysis includes 74
slogan alludes to values deeply embedded in to 179 countries during the postwar period
society. 19502005; numbers of countries vary accord-
Gender culture can be dened as societal ing to how many states are independent and
ideals, meanings, and values that have gender also have parliaments. Wide shows that until
connotations (Pfau-Efnger 1998). In the book the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the year of
Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change the introduction of female suffrage and the ap-
around the World, Inglehart & Norris (2003) pearance of communist regimes are the most
emphasize the importance of a gender-equality decisive factors. The communist regimes in
culture in which women have opportunities for Eastern and central Europe practiced a sys-
upward mobility. The opposite of a gender- tem of gender quotas. In the period after 1990,
equality culture is one where traditional gen- proportional electoral system is the most deci-
der values prevail. Inglehart & Norris construct sive factor and, in addition to the use of gen-
a gender-equality scale from measurements of der quotas, has a signicant effect. Wide (2006)
citizens attitudes regarding women as political also shows that during the whole period from
leaders, womens professional and educational 1950 to the present, Protestantism and high
rights, and womens traditional mother role. levels of economic development correlate posi-
The empirical ndings show that the gender- tively with a high number of women elected (see
equality scale correlates with the number of also Studlar & McAllister 2002). Other large-n
women in parliament (Inglehart & Norris 2003, studies show that socioeconomic factors, such
p. 138).2 as womens share in professional occupations,
2
The correlation is strong (0.57, level of signicance .01), proportion of women elected to parliament. Inglehart &
yet there are outliers to the general pattern; some established Norris (2003, p. 139) conclude that in those countries public
democracies like Australia and the United States display opinion seems to run ahead of the opportunities that woman
more egalitarian attitudes than might be expected given the have when pursuing public ofce.
56 Wangnerud
ANRV377-PL12-04 ARI 13 April 2009 12:41
have an impact (Kenworthy & Malami 1999, the number of women elected and changes in
Matland 1998, Salmond 2006). the status of women in society more generally.
Dahlerup (2006a) and colleagues distin-
guish between fast-track and incremental mod-
The Recent Postcommunism els regarding the number of women elected;
Quota Trend however, there are no clear boundaries here.
In the book Women, Quotas and Politics, Whether changes are seen as fast or not de-
Dahlerup (2006a) and colleagues analyze the pends on the reference points used. However,
recent postcommunism quota trend. Gender if the development in Sweden is contrasted with
quotas are generally understood as formal- the development in Rwanda, the differences in
ized measures with the specic aim of increas- the models are striking. By the beginning of the
ing the number of women elected. There are 1970s, parties in Sweden had started to imple-
40 countries where gender quotas in elections ment measures, often referred to as soft quo-
to national parliaments have been implemented tas, in order to increase the number of women
by means of constitutional amendment or by elected. During the 1970s Sweden crossed the
changing the electoral laws; these are legal quo- threshold of 20% women in parliament; the
tas. In another 50 countries, major political proportion climbed past 30% during the 1980s
parties have set out quota provisions in their and 40% during the 1990s. This step-by-step
own statutes; these are party quotas (Dahlerup development, spanning almost four decades,
2006a; for current research debates on gender lies behind the current gure of 47.0% women
quotas, see theme articles collected under the in the Swedish parliament (Bergqvist et al.
title Gender Quotas I & II in Politics & Gender 2000, Freidenvall 2006). Rwandas situation is
2005 and 2006 respectively). much different. Whereas Swedens twentieth-
The recent quota trend can be traced to century history is characterized by political sta-
Norway at the beginning of the 1970s, when the bility, economic growth, and peace, Rwanda
Socialist Left Party implemented gender quotas is one of the poorest countries in the world,
regarding seats in internal party settings, such as and its modern history contains disastrous wars.
the Party Board, as well as external party candi- Gender quotas were implemented in Rwanda
date lists. However, many observers point out as a part of the reconciliation process after the
that it was the United Nations Fourth World genocide in 1994. In 1994 women made up
Conference on Women in Beijing, 1995, that 17.1% of the national parliament in Rwanda.
sparked changes. The use of gender quotas is After the election in 2003, the number was
becoming especially frequent in Latin America 48.8%. The number of women tripled in less
and sub-Saharan Africa. Dahlerup (2006a, p. 4) than ten years (Devlin & Elgie 2008).
suggests an international contagion effect was
important for the spread; for some countries,
the implementation of quotas reects a wish Corruption, Welfare State,
to appear modern in the international com- Labor Market Characteristics,
munity. Dahlerup reects that state-driven po- and Voter Preferences
litical inclusion of women might foremost be Before ending this section on descriptive repre-
symbolic. sentation, I draw attention to some additional
The present quota trend causes a special factors discussed in the literature on women
kind of historical leap in many economically in parliaments: corruption, the type of welfare
less developed countries. As mentioned above, state, labor market characteristics, and voter
Kittilson (2006) states that dramatic increases preferences. These factors are shedding new
are also a part of the story in Western democra- light on the processes at work; however, they
cies. But in other parts of the world, there is an are not yet rmly included in the research
even stronger divergence between changes in canon.

ANRV377-PL12-04 ARI 13 April 2009 12:41
Studies on corruption, such as those initi- U.S. Congress is lower, 16.8% in 2008, than
ated by researchers at the World Bank, nd ev- would be predicted from female labor force
idence of a relationship between the number of participation and egalitarian attitudes among
women in parliament and the level of corrup- citizens. Iversen & Rosenbluth (2008) suggest
tion: The higher the number of women in the that the political arena can be analyzed as a
national parliament of a country the lower the job-market arena. In candidate-centered po-
level of corruption (Dollar et al. 2001). How- litical systems, such as the U.S. system, se-
ever, the causal direction of the relationship is niority and uninterrupted careers matter more
not clear, and Sung (2003, p. 718) observes that than in party-centered political systems, and
[g]ender equality and government account- constituency services are highly emphasized.
ability are both great achievements of mod- Women aspiring to a parliamentary position are
ern liberal democracy. Sung conrms, though, hit harder by the need to take time off for child
that the degree of fairness or cleanness in a care and other family duties.
system is of importance for womens ability to Some research on gender differences among
achieve politically important positions. voters relates to research on women in parlia-
Rosenbluth et al. (2006) use Nordic/ ments. One important nding from time-series
Scandinavian exceptionalism as the starting approaches is that gender differences among
point of an analysis intended to explain the the citizenry tend to be pervasive; they re-
mechanisms by which the expansion of the wel- ect societal conditions and exist outside the
fare state facilitates womens entry into politics. context of specic elections (Box-Steffensmeier
The Nordic region is characterized not only et al. 2004). In addition, the dynamics of a
by the high proportion of women elected to specic electionwhether high-prole women
its parliaments but also by its encompassing take part and/or whether womens issues are
cradle-to-grave welfare states. The key link high on the agendaaffect these differences
between female legislative representation and or gender gaps. Ondercin & Bernstein (2007,
the Nordic type of welfare state is presented in p. 50) conclude, The voice of women in the
three steps: Welfare state policies free women electorate is heard more loudly when a woman
to enter the paid workforce; they provide public articulates the views on which women and men
sector jobs that, to a disproportionate degree, differ. However, the specic issues that gen-
employ women; and hence the political inter- erate gender differences in each election vary
ests of working women are changed enough to (Cutler 2002, Dolan 2005, Koch 2002). The re-
create an ideological gender gap (see Hernes search instrument plays an important role; the
1987). kinds of gender-related patterns that arise re-
The results reported by Rosenbluth et al. late to the kinds of issues that are included, for
(2006) show that increases in government (non- example, in questionnaires.
military) expenditure are consistently associ- There is some evidence that female voters
ated with increases in the number of women are more supportive of female politicians than
elected, and the results hold when controlled male voters are (Banducci & Karp 2000). How-
for factors such as left ideology and female la- ever, some ndings indicate that female vot-
bor force participation. However, the parties ers tend to overestimate the actual number of
are still gatekeepers in the recruitment process. women in parliamentary positions to a larger
Increasing the number of female candidates is extent than male voters do. If our knowledge
described by Rosenbluth and colleagues as a were more accurate, the issue of gender equality
fruitful step for a party to take in order to in parliament would perhaps be more strongly
exploit the gender gap created by a new set of prioritized (Sanbonmatsu 2003).
preferences. The literature on descriptive representation
The case of the United States presents a of women brings forward a broad spectrum of
paradox. The number of women elected to the explanatory factors. I perceive the challenge
58 Wangnerud
ANRV377-PL12-04 ARI 13 April 2009 12:41
Table 1 Explanatory factors brought forward in research on variations in the number of women elected
to national parliaments (descriptive representation)
Macro-level variables Meso-level variables Micro-level variables
year of female suffrage party ideology voter preferences
religion party organization motivation among women to be candidates
gender-equality culture party gender quotas
system cleanness womens movement
electoral system timing and framing
welfare state system dynamics in specic elections
legal gender quotas contagion effects across parties

government (nonmilitary) expenditure
socioeconomics
contagion effects across countries
for future research to be the building of ne- bring about: It is representation . . . with a pur-
tuned models that specify relationships. Even pose, it aims to subvert or add or transform.
though research in this eld is mature and uses In the introduction to this essay, I stated
sophisticated methods for data analysis, many that research on substantive representation of
studies test the impact of one favorite factor women is a less mature eld than research
while controlling for some standard factors. on descriptive representation. One indicator of
Macro-level variables still dominate research on this is the lack of agreement in the literature
womens descriptive representation. However, on what effects to expect when the number of
a promising trend is found in research (e.g., women in parliament increases. In fact, much of
Kittilson 2006) that scrutinizes the interplay the current research debate on substantive rep-
between structures of society and actors such resentation of women concerns hindrances to
as political parties and womens movements. female politicians. The point is made that sub-
Table 1 facilitates an overview of explanatory stantial changewhatever that meanscannot
factors brought forward in research on descrip- be taken for granted just because a group, such
tive representation. as women, is taking part in decision making to a
larger extent than before. The link between de-
scriptive and substantive representation that is
RESEARCH ON SUBSTANTIVE suggested by the theory of the politics of pres-
REPRESENTATION: EFFECTS OF ence is probabilistic rather than deterministic
WOMEN IN PARLIAMENTS (Dodson 2006).
What do women do in parliaments? In most The relationship between descriptive and
Western democracies, it is possible to nd substantive representation is hard to capture,
prominent female politicians in areas such as but the problems in this eld of research should
foreign affairs and nance, as well as in areas not be overemphasized. The review in this sec-
such as education or family policy. However, tion shows that a reasonable set of indicators is
the core issue in research on substantive repre- being used in empirical research and that these
sentation does not concern what women do in indicators can serve as a base for further de-
parliaments but, more specically, the extent velopments. Before I get to research on effects
to which the number of women elected affects of the increased number of women elected, I
womens interests. Phillips (1995, p. 47) argues review research on hindrances to female politi-
that gender equality among those elected to of- cians. This research is concerned with precon-
ce is desirable because of the changes it can ditions for change.

ANRV377-PL12-04 ARI 13 April 2009 12:41
Preconditions for Change their political partys ideology. Beckwith (2007)

The concept of critical mass is intensely de- summarizes much of the discussion by stating
bated. Some scholars seek to identify a thresh- that both numbers and newness must be taken
old number or a tipping point at which the into account when analyzing gender; being
impact of womens presence in parliaments be- new in parliament is widely recognized as a
comes apparent; a gure of 30% is often men- factor that diminishes possibilities for impact.
tioned. However, others criticize the concept of The importance of newness is supported by
critical mass as being too mechanical and imply- empirical results from Jeydel & Taylor (2003),
ing immediate change at a certain level. They who show that when factors such as senior-
focus instead on critical acts (Dahlerup 1988) ity and institutional position are taken into ac-
to explore two questions: Who is pushing for count, there is no real demonstrable difference
change consistent with womens interests, and between the effectiveness of women and men in
what kinds of strategies are useful (Dahlerup the U.S. House of Representatives. Two mea-
2006b; Childs & Krook 2006)? Still others (e.g., sures of effectiveness are used in their study:
Grey 2006) suggest that different thresholds percentage of bills sponsored by a member of
have to be recognized in studies on women in Congress that were passed into law and the dis-
parliaments; for example, attaining a propor- tribution among congressional districts of fed-
tion of 15% may allow female politicians to eral money to implement domestic policy.
change the political agenda, but 40% is needed However, the suggestion that impact in par-
for women-friendly policies to be introduced. liaments is related not only to levels of senior-
Hindrances to female politicians, such as ity but also to gender understood in a purer
hostile reactions to women, working conditions sense also coincides with results from empirical
incompatible with family responsibilities, and research. Haavio-Mannila et al. (1983) distin-
the existence of male-dominated networks are guish two kinds of divisions between women
suggested in the literature. Lovenduski (2005a, and men: those related to formal power (hi-
p. 48) argues that the most difcult obstacle erarchical gender structures) and those related
is the deeply embedded culture of masculinity to policy areas (functional gender structures).
in political institutions. She points out gender Research on functional structures has focused
biases in personnel, in policy, and in cultures on parliamentary committee assignments, and
of political organizations (Lovenduski 2005a, the patterns displayed with respect to feminin-
p. 52). ity and masculinity are puzzling.
The question of how the presence of women Thomas (1994) is a pioneer of empirical re-
affects behavior and culture within political search on gender and committee assignments.
institutions is multi-layered. The question is In an analysis on state legislators in the United
not just about whether women behave differ- States, she follows developments over time: In
ently, or whether they meet certain obstacles, the 1970s, women representatives were concen-
or whether, beyond a certain threshold of trated in a very narrow set of committees, most
numbers, they are able to make an impact. often education committees; however, in the
The question is also whether their presence 1980s, women were found in all kinds of com-
has an impact on the behavior of men, either mittees. However, the proportion of women
reinforcing gender differences or modifying and men was not equal on all types of com-
them. In addition, it is important to take into mittees. A 1988 survey showed that women
account some less gender-specic factors in the were signicantly more likely than men to
analyses of impact. Grey (2006) points to the be assigned to health and welfare committees;
importance of the institutional positions of the women were also less likely than men to sit
female politicians in question, the time women on committees dealing with business and pri-
have spent in ofce, and their own as well as vate economic concerns (Thomas 1994, p. 66).
60 Wangnerud
ANRV377-PL12-04 ARI 13 April 2009 12:41
Thomas also investigates the extent to which cians meet. The most important conclusion
committee assignments reect priorities among to be drawn from my review of research on
male and female politicians. Her conclusion hindrances for female politicians is that no
from the 1988 survey was that gender pat- strong empirical evidence supports the idea that
terns resulted from legislators choices rather women are merely symbolic representatives. It
than coercion or discrimination (Thomas 1994, would be far-fetched to say that womens room
p. 67). to maneuver in parliaments in Western democ-
In studies on committee assignments in the racies is severely undermined by their gender.
Swedish parliament, the time perspective is
wider. Wangnerud (1998) focuses on stand-
ing committees during the period 19701996. Indicators of Attitudes, Priorities,

The data reveal that the division between male and Policy Promotion
and female policy areas was especially clear- The point of departure for the theory of the pol-
cut in the 1980s and early 1990s. However, itics of presence is sociological. Female politi-
the Swedish election of 1994 was followed by a cians are expected to be better equipped to
notable change; previous gender patterns, very represent the interests of female voters be-
much in line with those reported by Thomas cause they, at least to some extent, share the
(1994) for U.S. state legislators, almost dis- same experiences. There are plenty of counter-
appeared. In the present Swedish parliament, hypotheses to this expectationfor example,
there is only one standing committee with that ideology is what matters in politics, that so-
<40% women, and that is the committee on cial characteristics such as class or ethnicity are
social insurance, a formerly heavily female- more decisive than gender, and that parliamen-
dominated area (L. Wangnerud, unpublished tary institutions inuence politicians more than
material). politicians are able to inuence them (meaning
Several conclusions can be drawn from re- that women entering parliament become just
search on gender and committee assignments. like the male politicians who preceded them).
The rst is that patterns of functional divisions It goes without saying that parliaments are
between women and men in parliaments can- complex institutions and that it is a method-
not be satisfactorily explained by factors such ological challenge to empirically test the the-
as the number of years politicians have spent in ory of the politics of presence. One suggestion
parliament, their party afliation, or their age. is that studies in this eld ought to be longitu-
The overall picture is that functional divisions dinal in design; we should follow what happens
stem from mens and womens different pref- from the start when women are few, up to the
erences for committees. However, there is also point where women are present in large num-
empirical support for the existence of stereotyp- bers (Beckwith 2007). Longitudinal designs of
ing processes; women displaying typical male this kind are hard to conduct. An alternative is
preferences met special obstacles, for example, to use a wide range of indicators in cross-section
in the Swedish parliament during earlier time analysis and include control variables in order
periods. Another important nding from time- to isolate effects of gender.
series approaches is that the magnitude as well Thomas (1994) does cross-section research
as the shape of the functional division varies that includes more than one time-point and uses
over time. It is also important to state that there a wide set of indicators. In her book How Women
are no obvious correlations between functional Legislate, she distinguishes between legislative
divisions and the status of different policy areas procedures and legislative products. Legislative
(Wangnerud 1998; for a different view on status procedures include activities such as making
see Heath et al. 2005). speeches, working with colleagues, and bar-
The literature provides no clear-cut answer gaining with lobbyists. Legislative products in-
to the question of what obstacles female politi- clude voting records, issue attitudes, and policy

ANRV377-PL12-04 ARI 13 April 2009 12:41
priorities. Thomass ndings show a closing study on gender differences in U.S. state legisla-
gap between women and men concerning tors policy preferences, Poggione (2004) found
procedures; however, when it comes to prod- that women expressed signicantly more liberal
ucts, the gap does not appear to be closing. welfare policy preferences than men. The dif-
Today, Thomas (1994, p. 7) concludes, ference was most profound among Republican
women legislators embrace priorities dealing legislators.
with issues of women, and children and the A variation on measuring attitudes is to re-
family. Men do not share this priority list. search how parliamentarians dene their task.
Recent empirical research demonstrates an Female politicians, to a larger extent than their
ambition to further develop measurements for male colleagues, view the representation of
legislative products. Some choose to structure womens interests (which has been included
their analysis around dimensions such as pol- in questionnaires) as part of their duty. In a
icy style, agenda, and outcomes (Squires & study of the ve Nordic countries, Esaiasson
Wickham-Jones 2001), and others choose di- (2000, p. 64) analyzes behavioral consequences
mensions such as legislative voting, parliamen- of such a task denition, and he concludes that
tary roles, and ideological values (Lovenduski self-dened champions of womens interests
& Norris 2003). I have chosen to structure this are more inclined than others to contact cab-
review around attitudes, priorities, and policy inet ministers on behalf of women. Dodson
promotion because these dimensions capture (2006) reports similar results regarding the U.S.
the bulk of recent empirical research. Congress.
Gender differences in politicians attitudes Research on attitudes examines what so-
have been studied rather frequently. There lutions are favored once an issue is on the
is an agreement in research that gender has political agenda. In contrast, research on pri-
an impact; what varies between studies is the orities focuses on an earlier step, asking which
strength of the impact (Esaiasson & Holmberg issues get onto the political agenda in the rst
1996, Lovenduski & Norris 2003, McAllister & place. Empirical research shows that female
Studlar 1992, Narud & Valen 2000, Norris & members of parliament tend to prioritize issues
Lovenduski 1995). Even though the magnitude that are also prioritized by female voters (Diaz
is disputed, the direction of the gender gap in 2005, Reignold 2000, Skjeie 1992, Swers 1998,
attitudes is fairly clear: Women in parliaments Thomas 1994, Wangnerud 2000a).
tend to be more leftist than men, and they tend Wangneruds (2006) study of gender differ-
to be more favorable toward new policies, such ences in priorities among Swedish parliamen-
as those concerned with environmental protec- tarians covers a period of almost 20 years. The
tion. Differences also appear on issues that can focus is on the number of male and female
be dened as womens interests, such as social politicians who mention social policy, family
policy (women support more permissive poli- policy, care for the elderly, or health care as a
cies); pornography (women are more skeptical); campaign issue or an area of personal interest.
and afrmative actions such as introducing gen- The items included in the study can be seen as
der quotas (women are more in favor). Sugges- a broad way of conceptualizing priorities classi-
tions have been made that gender differences ed as womens interests, since policies in these
appear on issues that are not yet central to par- areas have a special bearing on the everyday
ties (Heidar & Pedersen 2006). life of women. The empirical analysis shows
Research on attitudes highlights the impor- that in 1985, 75% of female members of par-
tance of party afliation. Some attitudes, such liament addressed issues of social policy, family
as those regarding the pornography issue, tend policy, care for the elderly, or health care in their
to split women and men regardless of their election campaigns. The corresponding gure
party, whereas other issues split women and among male members of parliament was 44%
men in some parties but not in others. In a (a difference of 31 percentage points). In that
62 Wangnerud
ANRV377-PL12-04 ARI 13 April 2009 12:41
same year, 52% of female members of parlia- their male colleagues. It is obvious in studies
ment stated that issues of social policy, family of the Nordic countries that women in parlia-
policy, care for the elderly, or health care were ments give the issue of gender equality higher
areas of personal interest, compared with 11% priority than their male colleagues, even though
of male members of parliament (a difference of far from all women are champions of equality
41 percentage points). These noteworthy gen- (Wangnerud 2000b; cf. Bergqvist et al. 2000).
der differences hold when the results are con- I have made some references to empirical re-
trolled for party afliation and age. search on political behavior; however, most of
Another important result from this research the research I have reviewed so far has relied on
(Wangnerud 2006) is that, although gender parliamentarians responses to questionnaires.
differences are found on the two subsequent Vega & Firestone (1995) have examined leg-
survey occasions, 1994 and 2002, the gap has islative voting behavior from 1981 to 1992 in
narrowed over time. An additional signicant the U.S. Congress, and their results conrm
result in the Swedish study is that gender the ndings of questionnaire-based research.
differences were much greater in personal They conclude that congressional women dis-
agendas (areas of personal interest) than in play distinctive legislative behavior that por-
campaign agendas. In Swedish politics, the tends a greater representation of women and
election campaign is centrally controlled to womens issues (Vega & Firestone 1995,
a rather great extent by the parties. When p. 213). This nding is in line with Celiss (2006)
analyzing effects of gender, it is important analysis of speeches from the budget debates
to note that different political arenas can be of the Belgian Lower House during the pe-
exposed to different levels of outside inuence. riod 19001979. Female members of the Bel-
The results presented here should not be in- gian Parliament were found to be womens most
terpreted to mean all women in parliament nec- fervent representatives (Celis 2006, p. 85).
essarily promote the same kinds of solutions Grey (2002) has conducted a study on
to social problems. In a study of the Norwe- changes in New Zealands parental leave poli-
gian parliament, Skjeie (1992) analyzes how ef- cies. Changes were made in 1975 and 1999, and
fects of gender are ltered through party ide- during this time period, the number of women
ology. Her results show that more women than in the parliament of New Zealand grew from
men give priority to issues of care-and-career <5% to almost 30%. Greys analysis of parlia-
politicshow to successfully combine family mentary debates preceding the changes shows
life and working life; however, women from a somewhat different result than, for example,
right-wing parties tend to support private so- Celiss study of the Belgian Lower House: The
lutions, whereas women from left-wing parties most obvious division in Greys study was along
tend to support state intervention. party lines and not along gender lines. Grey
Priorities can also be measured in terms (2002) does, however, point to some important
of the parliamentarians contacts. I referred to changes that have occurred in New Zealand
the study of Esaiasson (2000), which showed parallel to the increase in the number of women
that more female than male members of par- elected. As one example, leave provisions for
liament in the Nordic countries have frequent both parents, rather than mothers alone, have
contacts with cabinet ministers on behalf of been accepted.
women. In addition, a study of the Nordic Although there are studies on policy pro-
parliaments found that female politicians have motion, the closer one gets to outcomes in cit-
more frequent contacts with womens organi- izens everyday lives, the fewer empirical nd-
zations outside parliament. Women in Nordic ings there are to report. In a statistical analysis
parliaments also cooperate across party lines in of child-care coverage in Norwegian munici-
order to inuence parliamentary decisions re- palities for 1975, 1979, 1983, 1987, and 1991,
lated to gender equality to a greater extent than Bratton & Ray (2002) demonstrate that the

ANRV377-PL12-04 ARI 13 April 2009 12:41
number of women elected has inuenced public Outcomes can also be understood in more
policy outputs (increased child-care coverage), narrowly dened political terms. Atkeson
but the effect of women representatives is not & Carrillo (2007), having pooled American
constant; it is most evident in a period of policy National Election Studies from 1988 to 1998,
innovation. Bratton & Ray (2002) also point out conrm that higher numbers of women elected
that an important precondition for the transla- promote higher values of external efcacy for
tion of descriptive representation to policy out- female citizens. The results hold when con-
comes is the existence of gender differences in trolled for factors such as political participation,
the mass public and the presence of women in strength of partisanship, various electoral char-
the executive. acteristics, and state political culture. Political
The lack of research on outcomes in ev- efcacy is an indicator of whether the individual
eryday life for citizens is a problem. Especially perceives the governmental authorities and in-
unfortunate is the lack of good cross-country stitutions as responsive to citizen inuence (see
comparative research. However, a study by Cutler 2002).

Schwindt-Bayer & Mishler (2005), using data Before ending this section, I want to
from 31 democracies, serves as a promising say something about results from parliaments
example. The starting point is an integrated outside the sphere of Western democracies.
model of womens representation that takes into Rwanda, with a parliament of 48.8% women,
account both descriptive and substantive repre- deserves attention. Interviews with women rep-
sentation. Indicators of substantive representa- resentatives in the Rwandan parliament indi-
tion are weeks of maternity leave, indexes on cate that they consider themselves to be more
womens political and social equality, and mari- concerned with grassroots politics than their
tal equality in law. The main conclusion is that male colleagues are, and also that there has been
increased descriptive representation increases a strong advocacy of international feminism
legislatures responsiveness to womens policy by many female deputies (Devlin & Elgie 2008).
concerns and also enhances perceptions of le- However, when Devline & Elgie examine pol-
gitimacy among the electorate, but the authors icy outputs, they conclude that the increased
perceive the effects of substantive representa- womens representation in Rwanda has had
tion to be smaller than anticipated in theory. little effect.
Different international organizations have In summary, a large number of indicators
created gender-equality scales, capturing as- on substantive representation are used in em-
pects such as female life expectancy, years of pirical research. They are perhaps not ideal for
formal schooling for females, ratio of female- capturing the effects of the increased number of
to-male earned income, and maternity leave women elected, but they are reasonable. Longi-
benets. These indexes have to be evalu- tudinal studies comprise one way of advancing
ated further; however, worldwide compar- research in this eld; however, what I believe is
isons reveal some interesting parallels to the even more urgent is the development of a set
number of women elected. In 2007, Nordic of standard denitions and indicators that en-
countries topped lists of the most gender- able good cross-country comparative research.
equal countries compiled by the United Na- There is a trade-off here between the con-
tions (Gender-related Development Index), the textual approach suggested above, which says
World Economic Forum (Gender Gap In- that denitions of womens interests and gen-
dex), the International Save the Children Al- der equality should be anchored in time and
liance (Mothers Index), and the Social Watch space, and the comparison of a large number of
(Gender Equity Index). Nordic countries also cases. However, even if theoretical denitions
top lists that rank countries by the number should end up a bit at, I believe that compar-
of women in parliament (Inter-Parliamentary isons across countries are a necessary next step.
Union website http://www.ipu.org). Some indicators suit some contexts better than
64 Wangnerud
ANRV377-PL12-04 ARI 13 April 2009 12:41
other contexts; for example, registering legisla- and colleagues suggest that WPAs could in-
tive voting behavior makes more sense in re- crease womens access to the state by further-
search on the U.S. Congress than in research on ing womens participation in political decision-
European parliaments, where parties are more making and by inserting feminist goals into
coherent and pressure for loyalty is strong when public policy. Thus WPAs may enhance the po-
it comes to voting in the chamber (Lovenduski litical representation for women. Using sim-
& Norris 2003). For European countries, it is ilar reasoning, Weldon (2002, p. 1153) states
necessary to use indicators that capture impacts that womens movements and womens policy
in earlier stages of the parliamentary process. agencies may provide more effective avenues
of expression for womens perspective than the
presence of women in the legislatures. A last

POLITICS OF PRESENCE example from this strand of research can be
OR FEMINIST AWARENESS? drawn from Sawer (2002, p. 17), who argues
The most interesting challenge to the theory that increasing the number of women in parlia-
of the politics of presence is currently found ment is insufcient to ensure that women are
in the writings of, among others, Iris Marion better represented.
Young. This alternative approach highlights the Research on institutions and actors outside
importance of feminist awareness. Instead of fo- the parliamentary process can help ll in the
cusing on the common experiences shared by picture of mechanisms that drive change in so-
female representatives and female voters (the ciety. However, it has to be remembered that
politics of presence), the feminist awareness ap- the number of female citizens who are part of
proach concentrates on the formulation and im- the womens movement is limited. It is also im-
plementation of programs explicitly aiming to portant to remember that femocrats, in con-
change society in women-friendly directions. trast to female politicians, are seldom tried out
The theory of feminist awareness does not as- in general elections. Although the parliamen-
cribe importance to female politicians per se, tary process should not be idealized, elections
but to politicians with a feminist agenda (Young are an important mechanism to check or cor-
2000). rect elites in society (Dahl 1989; Pitkin 1967,
There is a tension in the literature on sub- pp. 23243). It would be a mistake for research
stantive representation that has the potential to on substantive representation to sidestep the
sharpen analyses on women in parliaments and parliamentary process. From my point of view,
make the theory of the politics of presence more a split into separate subelds would be a failure
precise. It is obvious that not all women in par- for research on women and substantive repre-
liaments focus on womens interests and gender sentation.
equality, and it is also obvious that some men
in parliaments are active in this eld. However,
I sense a risk that instead of cross-fertilization, FINAL COMMENTS
there will be a split into two separate subelds: The result that emerges from the empirical
one focusing on women as voters and elected research is that female politicians contribute
representatives, and one focusing on womens to strengthening the position of womens in-
movements and femocrats in public adminis- terests. There is a need for more research
tration. on women in parliaments, especially regarding
During recent decades, governments in substantive representation. The lack of cross-
most Western democracies have developed country comparative research has already been
a set of agencies to meet the demands of highlighted, but there is also a need for other
womens movements. Research on state fem- studies, such as case studies exploring causal
inism labels these agencies womens policy mechanisms in more detail. The questgoals are
agencies (WPAs). Lovenduski (2005b, p. 4) to see how, exactly, change takes place and to

ANRV377-PL12-04 ARI 13 April 2009 12:41
explore how the presence of women in par- I believe it is almost impossible to go from
liament might inuence the behavior of men. a low proportion of women in parliament to a
Detailed studies would also be useful to more high proportion without going through a stage
closely connect research on the causes of the wherein visible divisions between female and
increased number of women elected and re- male politicians appear. However, the fact that
search on the effects of that change. There is women at some phases concentrate on issues
an interplay between the two steps or levels of such as gender equality and social welfare does
the parliamentary processelections and pol- not necessarily mean that they should conne
icy makingbut the different sets of theoreti- themselves to these areas for all time. There is,
cal and empirical research on women in parlia- naturally, a risk that the patterns described in
ments are not always well integrated. this overview, if maintained over long periods,
The list of desired studies is rather long. If conserve rather than change prevailing orders
I were to single out one future development of gender and power.
as more important than others, it would be How should gender differences in the par-
the quest for more cross-country comparative liamentary process be interpreted? A rm an-
research. Good-quality cross-country compar- swer is impossible. Taking a birds-eye view,
ative empirical research is a sign of a mature re- there are two perspectives on women in par-
search eld. And a pending question in research liaments, which can be denoted static and
on women in parliaments is whether some par- dynamic. From a static perspective, the pat-
liaments in the world are more open to change tern that emerges in this essay is interpreted
than others. as a division of labor between female and male
The last theme I want to touch upon is a politicians; when women enter the parliamen-
paradox that can be found between the lines in tary arena, they take over certain areas from
this essay. Gender differences observed within men, but nothing becomes fundamentally dif-
the parliamentary processsuch as gender different as a result. The dynamic interpretation
ferences in attitudes, priorities, and policy sees the emergence of genuine change. To me,
promotioncan be seen as a vehicle for change, the dynamic perspective is more credible. This
even though segregation between women and judgment does not rely on one or two espe-
men elsewhere in society generally is seen as cially signicant studies, but rather on the over-
a mechanism to maintain the prevailing orders all result that emerges when numerous stud-
of dominance and subordination (see Kimmel ies covering a wide set of indicators are piled
2004). together.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
The author is not aware of any afliations, memberships, funding, or nancial holdings that might
be perceived as affecting the objectivity of this review.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I thank Vicky Randall for her comments, especially concerning the section Preconditions for
Change. I also thank Mette Anthonsen, Peter Esaiasson, and Mikael Gilljam for their helpful
comments.
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Contents Volume 12, 2009

A Conversation with Robert A. Dahl

Robert A. Dahl and Margaret Levi p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 1
Neorepublicanism: A Normative and Institutional Research Program

Frank Lovett and Philip Pettit p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p11
Domestic Terrorism: The Hidden Side of Political Violence
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Women in Parliaments: Descriptive and Substantive Representation
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Self-Government in Our Times
Adam Przeworski p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p71
Social Policy in Developing Countries
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Variation in Institutional Strength
Steven Levitsky and Mara Victoria Murillo p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 115
Quality of Government: What You Get
Sren Holmberg, Bo Rothstein, and Naghmeh Nasiritousi p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 135
Democratization and Economic Globalization
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Has the Study of Global Politics Found Religion?
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Redistricting: Reading Between the Lines
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Does Efciency Shape the Territorial Structure of Government?
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Bargaining Failures and Civil War
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Hobbesian Hierarchy: The Political Economy of Political
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David A. Lake p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 263
v
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Negative Campaigning
Richard R. Lau and Ivy Brown Rovner p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 285
The Institutional Origins of Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa
Nicolas van de Walle p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 307
Riots
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Regimes and the Rule of Law: Judicial Independence in Comparative
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Gretchen Helmke and Frances Rosenbluth p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 345
Field Experiments and the Political Economy of Development
Macartan Humphreys and Jeremy M. Weinstein p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 367

Laboratory Experiments in Political Economy
Thomas R. Palfrey p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 379
Field Experiments on Political Behavior and Collective Action
Eline A. de Rooij, Donald P. Green, and Alan S. Gerber p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 389
Experiments on Racial Priming in Political Campaigns
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Elections Under Authoritarianism
Jennifer Gandhi and Ellen Lust-Okar p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 403
On Assessing the Political Effects of Racial Prejudice
Leonie Huddy and Stanley Feldman p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 423
A Second Coming? The Return of German Political Theory
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Group Membership, Group Identity, and Group Consciousness:
Measures of Racial Identity in American Politics?
Paula D. McClain, Jessica D. Johnson Carew, Eugene Walton, Jr.,
and Candis S. Watts p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 471
Opiates for the Matches: Matching Methods for Causal Inference
Jasjeet Sekhon p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 487
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ANRV377-PL12-04 ARI 13 April 2009 12:41

Annu. Rev. Polit. Sci. 2009. 12:5169 Key Words

INTRODUCTION female politicians, at least to some extent, share

not change easily.

tive and substantive representation. I show that

www.annualreviews.org Women in Parliaments 53

www.annualreviews.org Women in Parliaments 55

worldwide comparisons, and additional studies

2003, Studlar & McAllister 2002, Teigen &

www.annualreviews.org Women in Parliaments 57

legal gender quotas contagion effects across parties

www.annualreviews.org Women in Parliaments 59

Preconditions for Change their political partys ideology. Beckwith (2007)

ing committees during the period 19701996. Indicators of Attitudes, Priorities,

www.annualreviews.org Women in Parliaments 61

www.annualreviews.org Women in Parliaments 63

comparative research. However, a study by Cutler 2002).

presence of women in the legislatures. A last

www.annualreviews.org Women in Parliaments 65

www.annualreviews.org Women in Parliaments 67

Europe. Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press

Lovenduski J. 2005a. Feminizing Politics. Cambridge, UK: Polity

www.annualreviews.org Women in Parliaments 69

Contents Volume 12, 2009

A Conversation with Robert A. Dahl

Neorepublicanism: A Normative and Institutional Research Program

Macartan Humphreys and Jeremy M. Weinstein p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 367

Cumulative Index of Contributing Authors, Volumes 812 p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 509

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