Electoral Systems and the Legislative Representation of Muslim Ethnic Minority Women in the West, 2000–2010

Abstract

Despite growing interest from practitioners, politicians and the media, the political representation of Muslim ethnic minority women in the West has received scant scholarly attention. I address this gap with new data on the representation of Muslim ethnic minority women and men in 20 national legislatures from 2000 to 2010. Results reveal that Muslim ethnic minority women are increasingly elected in countries with proportional representation (PR) electoral systems, whereas Muslim ethnic minority men have been elected across a range of electoral systems. The benefits of PR electoral systems to ‘women’ apply to ethnic minority women from Muslim backgrounds.