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

Effect of a cylindrical thin-shell of matter on the electrostatic self-force on a charge

The electrostatic self-force on a point charge in cylindrical thin-shell space-times is interpreted as the sum of a $bulk$ field and a $shell$ field. The $bulk$ part corresponds to a field sourced by the test charge placed in a space-time without the shell. The $shell$ field accounts for the discontinuity of the extrinsic curvature ${\kappa^p}_q$. An equivalent electric problem is stated, in which the effect of the shell of matter on the field is reconstructed with the electric potential produced by a non-gravitating charge distribution of total image charge $Q$, to interpret the shell field in both the interior and exterior regions of the space-time. The self-force on a point charge $q$ in a locally flat geometry with a cylindrical thin-shell of matter is calculated. The charge is repelled from the shell if ${\kappa^{p}}_{p}=\kappa<0$ (ordinary matter) and attracted toward the shell if $\kappa>0$ (exotic matter). The total image charge is zero for exterior problems, while for interior problems $Q/q=-\kappa \, r_e$, with $r_e$ the external radius of the shell. The procedure is general and can be applied to interpret self-forces in other space-times with shells, e.g., for locally flat wormholes we found $Q_{\mp}^{wh}/q=-1/ (\kappa_{wh} r_{\pm})$.Comment: (15 pages, 6 figures; the work had been extended, corrected and reformulated from version v1 to v2, and minor misprints corrected from v2 to v3