Research Frontier Essay: When Are Interests Interesting? The Problem of Political Representation of Women

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed an increasing demand by women for political representation of women. This demand points the way toward a number of important problems for political research, many of which remain unsolved primarily because of the segregation of women's studies from the dominant concerns of political science. This discussion focuses on the problem of group interests and representation, drawing on and suggesting further research on public opinion, interest groups, social movements, international politics, political elites, and public policy.

Intérêts spécifiques et formation de l'opinion politique des Suissesses (1999‐2005)

“…La littérature sur l'existence de women's issues, leurs définitions et leur classification est relativement étoffée de nos jours (Dodson et Carroll 1991;Sapiro 1998;Celis 2005). Bien que leurs effets sur le comportement politique classique ait été partiellement étudié, essentiellement en termes de vote et participation (Gaxie 1978(Gaxie et 2003Bourdieu 1979;Marques de Bastos 1993), aucune étude n'existe à notre connaissance sur leur effet sur les choix cognitifs des citoyennes.…”

“…The existence of "specific interests" which could be naturally associated to women is widely discussed in contemporary literature (Dodson et Carroll 1991;Sapiro 1998;Tremblay 1998;Pateman 2000). Following some authors, women could traditionally be more incline toward political topics such as childhood policies, sexual discrimination, birth control, and so on, and less interested to others.…”

“…Rapports de genre et recomposition de l'espace social", Gruyères, 29-30 novembre 2007. et l'univers économique et politique, a amené certain-ne-s chercheur-e-s à constater que la politique ne prenait pas en compte les préoccupations des femmes, et que, par conséquent, les femmes ne se préoccupaient pas de politique: "Politics does not take women's concerns into account, nor do women feel at home in politics" (Jonasdottir 1988). Ainsi, les préoccu-pations des femmes ont souvent été présentées comme ressortissant essentiellement de la sphère domestique et familiale (Dodson et Carroll 1991;Sapiro 1998). Avec la deuxième vague du féminisme, le personnel, et donc la sphère privée, est cependant appelé à devenir un enjeu politique.…”

Quotas for Men: Reframing Gender Quotas as a Means of Improving Representation for All

“…Although women do not monopolize the capacity to act as substantive representatives for women, they mobilize more frequently than men on issues of importance to women, and bring perspectives to policy debates that are otherwise lacking (Franceschet and Piscopo 2008;Mansbridge 1999;Sapiro 1981;Schwindt-Bayer 2010). Legislatures dominated by male elites are also problematic for symbolic representation, as they may lead to a sense of political alienation for members of excluded groups .…”

Women and Proportional Representation in Australia and New Zealand

“…There is a whole separate debate in feminist theory about the extent to which women can be said to have a distinct set of interests that can only be represented by women (see for example Sapiro 1981;Diamond and Harstock 1981;Jonasdottir 1988;Nicholson 1990;Pringle and Watson 1992;Gatens 1996). 2.…”