What are women's political interests? Connecting theory to empirical approaches in cross‐national perspective

Abstract

Parliamentarians and other elected officials have the power to “act for” women and improve their substantive representation. Yet, women are not a homogeneous group with identical individual goals. Given the diversity of women, especially considering the social intersections within a multiplicity of socioeconomic and cultural arrangements across the globe, the identification of “women's political interests” worldwide is problematic. Does the concept of “women's interests” grasp the diversity of women's collective political demands? How can this concept be used to study women's substantive representation in legislative bodies? This article presents theoretical perspectives on the concept and their connection to empirical approaches to the identification of women's interests.

Bureaucratic Representation and Gender Mainstreaming in International Organizations: Evidence from the World Bank

“…Moreover, the gender representation literature also shows that intersectional identities shape peoples' views and decisions (Acker 2012;Kantola and Nousiainen 2009;Karim and Beardsley 2017, 52;Palaguta 2020). For example, the highly skewed representation of nationalities among the staff of the Bank, dominated by staff from high-income countries, likely also means that the voices of women from countries where most Bank's projects are implemented remain marginalized in the organization.…”

The politics of disaggregated family policy: The role of party ideology and women's political representation in governments

“…There has been a debate about what constitutes women's interests, since women are not a homogenous group (Palaguta, 2020) and might have only minor or no different preferences to men (Childs & Krook, 2009) or only regarding socio‐cultural topics that primarily affect women (Espírito‐Santo et al, 2020). We follow a deductive approach and assume that women's interests are to improve women's economic, societal, and political position and thus gender equality (Campbell et al, 2010).…”

Does Local Political Representation affect the Childcare Coverage Rate in Austrian Municipalities?

“…Institutional norms, legislative arenas, political climate have to be taken into considerations, as well as the stages in the policy-making process and differences between feminist and non-feminist definitions of female interests (see e.g., Childs and Krook, 2009). Many scientists further question the homogeneity of political interests among women around the world and the resulting homogeneity of substantive representation (see e.g., Davidson-Schmich, 2011;Palaguta, 2020). Others argue that female representation and activism played a key role only in specific contexts and time periods (see e.g., Misra, 2003).…”