Electoral Rules, Women’s Representation and the Qualification of Politicians

Profeta, Paola; Woodhouse, Eleanor Florence

doi:10.1177/00104140211047414

Cited by 21 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…Out of 286 respondents, 5 respondents gave their views except for these given options. The examination of Italy's governmental levels from 1987 to 2013 has also demonstrated that proportional electoral systems are linked to a greater degree of female representation compared to majoritarian systems (Profeta & Woodhouse, 2022). They wrote that it depends on the women candidates and how they perform in the election fray.…”

Section: Appropriate Electoral System For Female Candidatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of the electoral system on women's representation: Evidence from national elections of Nepal

Shrestha,

Mishra

2024

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The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of the electoral system on women's representation in Nepalese elections. The article utilizes a questionnaire-based approach to gather data on women's representation in Nepalese elections. The questionnaire is distributed to individuals from diverse backgrounds and aims to assess the influence of the electoral system on women's success in elections. The obtained data is analyzed to determine the correlation between the electoral system and women's representation. The study reveals that the use of the first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system in the initial six elections resulted in limited success for women candidates. The proportional representation (PR) system, employed in the last three elections, led to a significant increase in women's representation. In the CA elections of 2008 and 2013, over 48 percent of women were elected through the PR system. Furthermore, in the 2017 House of Representatives (HoR) elections, more than 76 percent of female candidates emerged victorious. These findings emphasize the crucial role that the electoral system plays in promoting women's representation. This underscores the importance of selecting an electoral system that promotes gender equality and facilitates increased women's representation. The findings of this study have practical implications for electoral reforms in Nepal. Policymakers and electoral authorities should consider the impact of the electoral system on gender equality and design mechanisms to promote women's participation and success in politics. By implementing a more women-friendly electoral system, Nepal can strive towards achieving greater gender parity and inclusivity in its political landscape.

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Section: Appropriate Electoral System For Female Candidatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of the electoral system on women's representation: Evidence from national elections of Nepal

Shrestha,

Mishra

2024

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“…Observational research from the US and Europe has shown there is a gender gap in the qualifications men and women possess when running for office. On average, women have higher levels of qualifications, experience, and education than men (Fulton, 2012;Profeta & Woodhouse, 2022). Work on quotas in Italy and Sweden has found quota-women to be more qualified than non-quota men (O'Brien & Rickne, 2016;Weeks & Baldez, 2015).…”

Section: Gender Qualifications and Voter Evaluationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Working Hard or Hardly Working? Gender and Voter Evaluations of Legislator Productivity

Hargrave

Smith

2023

Polit Behav

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Do women have to work harder in office to be evaluated the same as men? When running for office, studies show that women are, on average, more qualified than men candidates. Once in office, women outperform their men colleagues in sponsoring legislation, securing funding, and in their constituency responsiveness. However, we do not know whether women need to outperform men in their political roles to receive equivalent evaluations. We report on a novel conjoint experiment where we present British voters with paired profiles describing Members of Parliament at the end of their first parliamentary term. Through manipulating the legislative outputs, gender, and party of MPs, we find that voters overall prefer politicians who are productive to politicians who are unproductive, and reward productive politicians in job performance and electability evaluations. However, we find no evidence that productive women are unjustly rewarded, nor do unproductive women face greater punishment than men. Our results suggest that, at least for productivity as measured in parliamentary-based activities, women politicians do not need to work harder than their men colleagues to satisfy voters.

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“…8 For quotas, see Bush (2011), Clayton (2021, and Clayton and Zetterberg (2018). 9 Aldrich (2020), Luechinger, Schelker, and Schmid (2023), Profeta and Woodhouse (2022), Roberts, Seawright, and Cyr (2013), Salmond (2006), Skorge (2023), Thames (2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

More Equality for Women Does Mean Less War: Descriptive Representation, Legislative Votes, and International Conflict

Kikuta

2024

Preprint

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Although the pacifying effect of gender equality is said to be a near-consensus, the causal mechanisms remain underspecified, and causal identification is weak. I address those shortcomings by providing the first causal evidence regarding the effects of women’s legislative representation on the state’s foreign military actions. I argue that women legislators affect foreign policies via legislative votes, and hence that the effect depends on whether military deployment requires legislative approval. I test the hypotheses by exploiting as-if random variation in mixed-gender close races and classifying the gender of 270,553 candidates in 253 legislative elections across 50 countries. The analysis indicates that women’s close victories reduced the state’s military actions but only with legislative veto power. The analysis of legislative votes also suggests that women legislators influenced other legislators and substantially reduced votes for military deployment. These results imply the crucial roles of legislatures in the gender-peace thesis.

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Electoral Rules, Women’s Representation and the Qualification of Politicians

Cited by 21 publications

References 77 publications

Effect of the electoral system on women's representation: Evidence from national elections of Nepal

Effect of the electoral system on women's representation: Evidence from national elections of Nepal

Working Hard or Hardly Working? Gender and Voter Evaluations of Legislator Productivity

More Equality for Women Does Mean Less War: Descriptive Representation, Legislative Votes, and International Conflict

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