What makes the substantive representation of women possible in a Westminster parliament? The story of RU486 in Australia

Abstract

This article explores institutional and other factors facilitating the substantive representation of women in parliament. It engages with a range of indicators of substantive representation, including process/ responsiveness indicators, legislative/policy outcomes and attitudinal alignment of women representatives and women in the community. It presents an Australian case study of a successful initiative by a cross-party group of women parliamentarians to facilitate access to the abortion drug RU486. It finds that critical mass, critical actors and a critical juncture were important but so was institution-building, particularly the understudied role of parliamentary groups.

Gender and opinion–policy congruence in Europe

“…Qualitative studies by Sawer (2012) and Childs and Withey (2006) Reflecting this disagreement about the impact of women's 'mere' presence in parliaments on policy outcomes, the studies that have tested this relationship arrive at varying conclusions. In the US, Thomas (1991) shows that the proportion of women in state legislatures is unrelated to the passage of bills linked to women, children, or families.…”

Do parliaments underrepresent women’s policy preferences? Exploring gender equality in policy congruence in 21 European democracies

“…Beyond studies on congruence, the bulk of research addressing factors facilitating women’s substantive representation (e.g., the role of institutional settings or political attitudes) demonstrates that representative bodies are biased towards the preferences of men (McAllister and Studlar 1992 ; Sawer 2012 ; Schwindt-Bayer and Mishler 2005 ; Wängnerud and Sundell 2012 ). These different studies thus lend support to the expectation that the preferences of women, a traditionally disadvantaged group, should lead to an overrepresentation of men’s preferences.…”

“…Central to this argument is the idea that the presence of women in parliaments changes the policy-making process. For example, feminist issues are more likely to be brought to the fore as the share of female legislators in elected assemblies increases (Dahlerup 1988 ; Dovi 2002 ; Mansbridge 1999 ; Norris and Lovenduski 1995 ; Sawer 2012 ; Schwindt-Bayer and Mishler 2005 ; Studlar and McAllister 2002 ; Swers 2002 ; Wängnerud and Sundell 2012 ). Moreover, women legislators are more likely to support liberal policies (Burrell 1994 ), hold liberal attitudes (McAllister and Studlar 1992 ), and are instrumental in promoting policies that enhance gender quality (Vallance and Davis 1986 ).…”

“…Despite their numerical underrepresentation in the parliaments and assemblies in modern democracies, are women’s policy preferences equally well reflected by elected officials compared to those of men? Women tend to care about issues pertaining to reproductive rights, gender equality and other feminist matters that are usually underrepresented in parliaments (Dahlerup 1988 ; Mansbridge 1999 ; McAllister and Studlar 1992 ; Sawer 2012 ; Schwindt-Bayer and Mishler 2005 ; Wängnerud and Sundell 2012 ). Taking aside issues that directly relate to gender, women exhibit more liberal ideological orientations than men (Gidengil et al .…”

“…To tackle the issue of substantive representation, this study adopts a multidimensional concept of women’s preferences, covering seven policy areas – views on the free market, welfare state redistribution, the environment, lifestyles, immigration, multiculturalism and religious principles – to capture the diversity of women’s policy positions outside traditional feminist issues. This approach widens the scope of inquiry well beyond existing research, which examines either parliamentary interventions and advocacy on behalf of women (e.g., Dahlerup 2006 ; Sawer 2012 ; Schwindt-Bayer and Mishler 2005 ; Studlar and McAllister 2002 ; Swers 2002 ), or congruence between voters and élites on left–right placements (e.g., Bernauer et al . 2015 ; Blais and Bodet 2006 ; Golder and Stramski 2010 ; Powell 2000 , 2009 ).…”