Gender Is Not a Proxy: Race and Intersectionality in Legislative Recruitment

Abstract

Election to office is shaped by a series of decisions made by prospective candidates, parties, and voters. These choices determine who emerges and is ultimately selected to run, and each decision point either expands or limits the possibilities for more diverse representation. Studies of women candidates have established an important theoretical and empirical basis for understanding legislative recruitment. This study asks how these patterns differ when race and intersectionality are integrated into the analyses. Focusing on more than 800 political aspirants in Canada, I show that although white and racialized women aspire to political office at roughly the same rates, their experiences diverge at the point of party selection. White men remain the preferred candidates, and parties’ efforts to diversify politics have mostly benefited white women. I argue that a greater emphasis on the electoral trajectories of racialized women and men is needed.

Women's Empowerment in Fulfilling the Affirmative Quota of Election Supervisors

“…So far, the study of women's representation or gender politics has only revolved around the issue of participation in elections, and representation of women in parliament, as leaders of regional heads at the provincial, district, and municipal levels, this statement is following what Erin Tolley has said so far in determining legislative recruitment where gender, race and, intersectionality greatly influence the stages of the legislative recruitment process, especially for women with racial minorities and colored skin (Tolley, 2022). Not only that, but gender stereotypes have also been a very in-depth study of elections in America and how gender greatly influences voters' beliefs about female candidates who are associated as loving, humble, helpful, and empathetic.…”

From Parliament to Party: The Gender‐Sensitive Parliamentary Group

“…Research on parties from a gender perspective is rich, particularly with a view to the recruitment, selection, and election of women and other underrepresented groups (see for overviews Krook & Norris, 2014;Reingold et al, 2021;Tolley, 2023). Recently, Verge (2020) engaged with party gender action plans and outlined how they can tackle gender inequalities more comprehensively through targeted intra-party measures, whereas following Childs (2013), Meier et al (in press) explored the tensions between parity democracy and intra-party democracy.…”

“…For example, the monitoring and publishing of data on leadership and committee positions, rapporteurs, and speech time, allows for goal-setting and transparency about their commitment. Visible commitment may incentivize party engagement from women and marginalized groups and secure their intra-party success (Tolley, 2023), ultimately creating more diverse groups. Monitoring and engaged follow-up of measures propagated and initiated is crucial in this respect as it illustrates such a commitment.…”

Fulfillment of women's political rights through mainstreaming gender quotas in Election Supervisory Board

“…The patriarchal culture that has been adopted by Indonesian society, which often considers that men are masculine figures, believes that their personalities are physically stronger, making women associated as weak individuals. Women and politics are one of the many studies examined by researchers who are interested in gender studies, especially women's involvement in politics, such as in political parties (Radojevic, 2023), parliament (Tolley, 2022), regional head (Ulfaningrum et al, 2023). Some of these studies focus on how women's representation can be fulfilled properly where the view of masculinity is as opposed to femininity (Linders et al, 2022).…”