Women At/On the Ballot: Examining the Effects of Tokenism and Quotas

Mershon Center for International Security Studies Graduate Student Research 2007-08By 2006, about 40 countries had legislated or constitutionally mandated gender quotas for candidates running for seats in the national legislature, and many more political parties had self-imposed such rules. Proponents of quotas hail this trend, arguing they are necessary to achieve truly democratic forms of representation. Others, though, charge that any form of quotas conflicts with the basic tenets of liberal democracy. All too absent from the debate is an understanding of if and how quotas actually change political outcomes. Christina Xydias aims to fill this gap by investigating whether female legislators pursue different policy agendas than their male counterparts, and if so, under what circumstances

This Was the One for Me: AfD Women’s Origin Stories

Next to the Alternative for Germany (AfD)’s nationalism and anti- immigrant attitudes, natalism and support for traditional gender roles are key components of the party’s far right categorization. Women are not absent from parties like the AfD, though they support them at lower rates than men and at lower rates than they support other parties. In light of women’s lower presence in far-right parties, how do women officeholders in the AfD explain their party affiliation, and how do their explanations differ from men’s? An answer is discernible at the nexus between AfD officeholders’ publicly available political backgrounds and the accounts that they offer for joining the party, termed “origin stories.” Empirically, this article uses an original dataset of political bio- graphical details for all the AfD’s state and federal legislators elected between 2013 and late 2019. This dataset shows that AfD women at the state level are less likely than their men counterparts to have been affiliated with a political party, and they are less likely to have been politically active, prior to their participation in the AfD. Regardless of the facts of their backgrounds, however, women more than men explain their support of the AfD as a choice to enter into politics, and men more than women explain their support of the AfD as a choice to leave another party. The article argues that these gendered origin stories can be contextualized within the party’s masculinist, natalist, and nationalist values

Left, Right, and Center: Women’s Political Incorporation in the OECD

Women’s political incorporation encompasses suffrage as well as election into political office and inclusion in political leadership positions. Standard accounts of political parties’ support for women’s political incorporation differentiate between “the left” and “the right,” expecting that parties viewed left-leaning incorporate more women than those viewed as right-leaning. Drawing from previous research on comparative political institutions, parties, and ideologies, this study argues that we are more likely to find right-leaning parties that have incorporated women at higher rates in some systems than in others. Empirically, this study’s cross-sectional analysis of 281 political parties in 35 OECD member states shows that context matters for center and right parties’ incorporation of women, while left parties are more consistent cross-nationally. These findings controvert a homogeneous portrait of party families across political systems, pointing instead to the salience of context for differentiating among otherwise similar parties

Why Theorizing and Measuring Shared Experience in Descriptive Representation Is “A Mess Worth Making”

Jane Mansbridge’s (1999) “contingent ‘yes’” amplified a chorus of voices discussing the substantive and symbolic functions of historically marginalized groups’ presence in political office. In her essay, Mansbridge points to contexts of mistrust and uncrystallized interests as domains where presence enhances “adequate communication” and “innovative thinking” for these social groups (628). In this and many other accounts, the linchpin between descriptive and substantive representation for these functions is group members’ shared experiences, alternatively framed as the perspectives informed by those experiences. Shared experiences cannot and do not produce identical effects (they are filtered through many lenses), but they are widely understood to inform and indeed often to authenticate political representation

Reproducing Hierarchies at the APSA Annual Meeting: Patterns of Panel Attendance by Gender, Race, and Ethnicity

Research on the political science profession has shown that homophilous research networks—that is, those organized along the lines of gender and race/ethnicity—reproduce hierarchies. Research networks composed of white men experience the most prestige and lead to the most opportunities. This study documents homophilous networks in a setting where they likely are nurtured: academic conferences. Drawing data from the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, we examine the correspondence between the gender and the racial/ethnic composition of section members, panelists, and audience members for four research sections: Political Methodology; Political Psychology; Race, Ethnicity, and Politics; and Women and Politics. We find that attendees’ and panelists’ gender and racial/ethnic identity largely mirror the dominant gender and racial/ethnic group in their section. These findings indicate that homophily manifests at academic conferences and that efforts to diversify research networks should consider who listens to whom in these settings

Constructing Political Representation: A Mess Worth Making

What do we mean by political representation? In political science, elected policymakers are said to substantively represent constituents, and policymakers who are viewed as members of particular social groups descriptively represent these groups. For instance, women’s descriptive representatives are policymakers who are received as women, and Latinx communities’ descriptive representatives are policymakers who are widely viewed as Latinx. However, public figures also construct representation through their self-presentation and their agendas, associating themselves with social groups and those groups’ interests and needs. This talk proposes strategies for interpreting constructed representation next to substantive and descriptive representation. It draws examples from the 2019-2020 U.S. Democratic primary debates, which included a historically diverse set of candidates. What do we mean by political representation? In political science, elected policymakers are said to substantively represent constituents, and policymakers who are viewed as members of particular social groups descriptively represent these groups. For instance, women’s descriptive representatives are policymakers who are received as women, and Latinx communities’ descriptive representatives are policymakers who are widely viewed as Latinx. However, public figures also construct representation through their self-presentation and their agendas, associating themselves with social groups and those groups’ interests and needs. This talk proposes strategies for interpreting constructed representation next to substantive and descriptive representation. It draws examples from the 2019-2020 U.S. Democratic primary debates, which included a historically diverse set of candidates.https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/fac_coll/1041/thumbnail.jp

Beyond Left, Right, and Center: the Politics of Gender and Ethnicity in Contemporary Germany

The political left is widely associated with expanding the rights of historically marginalized social groups, while the political right is widely associated with resisting this expansion. However, the categories of “left” and “right” are both internally highly varied and contextually contingent. Focusing on the case of the contemporary Federal Republic of Germany, this talk examines political parties’ engagement in advocating for women and ethnic minorities and shows that “left” and “right” labels are less informative than parties’ historical origins and their strategic environments.https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/fac_coll/1053/thumbnail.jp