Women in Parliaments: Descriptive and Substantive Representation

Abstract

This essay reviews two research programs. The first focuses on variations in the number of women elected to national parliaments in the world (descriptive representation), and the second focuses on effects of women's presence in parliament (substantive representation). The theory of the politics of presence (Phillips 1995) provides reasons for expecting a link between descriptive and substantive representation. The safest position would be to say that results are "mixed" when it comes to empirical support for the theory of the politics of presence. However, when a large number of studies covering a wide set of indicators on the importance of gender in the parliamentary process are piled together, the picture that emerges shows that female politicians contribute to strengthening the position of women's interests.

Challenges and Opportunities of Women Political Participation in Ethiopia

“…Descriptive representation is deal widely acceptable share of seats in parliament as an indicator of political inclusion in society for a category such as women [13]. The term descriptive representation denotes representation on the basis of common characteristics and share experience, for instance representing some one based on gender or class can be categorized as descriptive representation of women [9].…”

“…The term descriptive representation denotes representation on the basis of common characteristics and share experience, for instance representing some one based on gender or class can be categorized as descriptive representation of women [9]. However, in research focusing on descriptive representation, the theoretical reasoning behind this assumption is not well elaborated [13]. On the other hand substantive representation deals with women's interests, gender equality and rational behind women representation.…”

Are Female Legislators Different? Exploring Sex Differences in German MPs' Outside Interests

“…To date, much of this scholarship concentrates on legislator behaviour inside parliament. It evaluates whether female legislators have different policy preferences than their male counterparts, are successful in implementing 'women-friendly' or 'female' policies, or affect the size and composition of public expenditures (for reviews, see Wängnerud, 2009;Ashworth et al, 2012). At a more behavioural level, this literature also assesses whether female and male politicians diverge in terms of presentation and speech style, collaboration with colleagues, or in other respects inside the political arena (Thomas, 1994;Childs, 2004).…”

Democratizing Candidate Selection

“…Distinctions have been made between descriptive, substantive and symbolic representation of women (Krook, 2010;Wängnerud, 2009). With roots in Anne Phillips' famous Politics of Presence (1995), and Pitkin's framework of representation (1967), the descriptive versus substantive representation debate has dominated the field for a number of years.…”

“…Candidate selection is a critical element in unpacking the electoral opportunity of women because it takes place at the intersection of the supply and demand spaces (Norris & Lovenduski, 1995) and because it plays on the dynamic between system and strategy-based explanations of political recruitment (Wängnerud, 2009). Rahat (2006, 2010) provide an extremely useful framework for evaluating candidate selection from a comparative perspective.…”