Substantive Representation of Women (and improving it). What is and should it be about?

More and more countries implement quotas and install women’s policy agencies as an answer to the under-representation of women and gender related interests in politics and policy. The main argument is that more women MPs and the structural presence of attention for women’s interests not only contribute to just and democratic politics, but also enhance the quality of democratic decision and policy-making on a substantive level. Women MPs and women’s policy agencies would foster the inclusion of women’s interests and gendered perspectives. However, it remains unclear what ‘substantive representation of women’ and improving it actually mean. This article first deals with the ‘what’ of substantive representation of women in terms of the acts and contents involved: what is it about? Next, it focuses on the improvement of the substantive representation of women: what is better substantive representation and how can it be reached? My answer to this question refers to quantitative improvements (e.g. more support for women’s interests) and qualitative improvements (e.g. support for more women). ‘Good’ substantive representation implies recognizing diversity and ideological conflict regarding women’s interests and gendered perspectives

From women’s presence to feminist representation:Second-generation design for women’s group representation

Feminist democratic representation is a new design for women’s group representation in electoral politics. We build on the design principles and practices of the 1990s’ presence theorists, who conceived of political inclusion as the presence of descriptive representatives and advocated for gender quota. Our second-generation design foregrounds women’s ideological and intersectional heterogeneity, and details a representative process that enacts three feminist principles: inclusiveness, responsiveness and egalitarianism. A new set of actors – the affected representatives of women – play formal, institutionalised roles in two new democratic practices: group advocacy and account giving. Together, these augmentations incentivise new attitudes and behaviours among elected representatives, and bring about multiple representational effects that redress the poverty of women’s political representation: elected representatives now know more, care more and are more connected to diverse women, including the most marginalised; and the represented are now more closely connected with, more interested in and better represented through democratic politics