Political Parties: The Missing Variable in Women and Politics Research

Abstract

An explosion in the literature on women and politics has been stimulated by the contemporary women's movement. This paper argues that an early diversity in theoretical orientation and methodology has been replaced by a narrow orthodoxy characterized by the use of polling and the survey method, and the theoretical voting behavior model employed by the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan. Left out of this approach is the study of political parties as organizations-a variable presented here as essential to the study of women in politics. The image of parties in women and politics scholarship is surveyed, as are the theoretical implications of ignoring women's gains in political parties in such studies.

Political Cleaners: Women as the New Anti‐Corruption Force?

“…Under‐institutionalization is a major reason for the relative exclusion of women as members and as candidates for public office (Norris, 1993) and for the relative hostility that political parties around the world exhibit to feminist policy priorities (Baer, 1999). 9 This, even if under‐institutionalization can mean that a female relative of a deposed or dead leader can get the top party post because of rank and file loyalty to a family dynasty, for most other women, it is an insurmountable obstacle to participation.…”

“…For the large number of women who are interested in political participation if not directly in leadership, parties limit access because of the masculinity of party cultures and the sexual dangers that this represents. That parties are often organized around masculine patronage networks is not a new observation and is as true in the UK or USA as in any developing country (Baer, 1999; Perrigo, 1996; Short, 1996). Proof of this can always be found in the phenomenally low numbers of women members, branch managers, and executive officers in parties around the world.…”

Gender, Informal Institutions and Political Recruitment

“…Once women manage to become selected as candidates, their electoral chances are roughly equal to those of their male counterparts (Darcy and Schramm 1977, Darcy et al 1994, Htun 2005, Rule 1987, Welch and Studlar 1986. Several important studies of political recruitment have thus named political parties the main gatekeeper for the political representation of marginalized groups, and there is a fairly strong scholarly consensus that candidate selection in political parties is key to our understanding of representation in all or most electoral contexts (Baer 1993, Caul 1999, Dahlerup 2007, Gallagher and Marsh 1988, Matland 2005, Norris and Lovenduski 1995. This study thus moves the focus from women activists to political parties with the aim of conducting a gendered analysis of those very organizations that matter most for representation patterns.…”

Gender and Political Recruitment

“…While the importance of the political recruitment process is widely recognized in the gender and politics literature, there have been few systematic studies into the 'shadowy pathways' prior to election (Norris, 1997, p. 8; see also Baer, 1993;Murray, 2010;Bjarnegård, 2013). In seeking to contribute to this under-researched area, this book revisited the dominant framework used in the field, Pippa Norris and Joni Lovenduski's (1995) supply and demand model, which suggests that women's descriptive under-representation is the combined result of the supply of prospective female candidates willing to stand for office and the demands of party gatekeepers who select the candidates.…”