When Does She Rebel? How Gender Affects Deviating Legislative Behaviour

Sarah C Dingler,Lena Ramstetter

doi:10.1017/gov.2021.40

Sarah C Dingler, Lena Ramstetter

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1017/gov.2021.40

Copy DOI

Abstract

AbstractIt is common wisdom that the increase in the number of women in parliament brought along a new diversity of perspectives presented in legislatures. So far, however, we know little about the implications of women's presence on party cohesion. Moving towards a more complete understanding of how women affect political processes, this article addresses the question, does gender affect vote defection from party lines, and if so, under what circumstances? We argue that the actual and perceived risk associated with vote defection in roll-call votes is gendered and that this is constraining the leeway of women to rebel. Analysing roll-call vote data of the German Bundestag (1953–2013) provided by Bergmann et al. (2018), we show that gender exerts a consistent effect only if electoral safety and policy content are considered: it is in feminine policy areas and at high levels of electoral security that women are more likely than men to rebel. This finding implies that taking different incentive structures into account is key if we want to understand gendered legislative behaviour.

Highlights

It is common wisdom that the increase in the number of women in parliament brought along a new diversity of perspectives presented in legislatures
Based on studies demonstrating that the gender composition of parliaments shapes policymaking processes and outcomes, we argue that the gender of a Member of Parliament (MP) systematically affects the incentives to vote with or against the party majority
As the micro-determinants of legislative behaviour play a central role in the representation of interests in parliamentary democracies, we aim to narrow this gap in literature and explore if and when the gender of MPs shapes the likelihood of vote defection

Summary

Introduction

It is common wisdom that the increase in the number of women in parliament brought along a new diversity of perspectives presented in legislatures. Analysing roll-call vote data of the German Bundestag (1953–2013) provided by Bergmann et al (2018), we show that gender exerts a consistent effect only if electoral safety and policy content are considered: it is in feminine policy areas and at high levels of electoral security that women are more likely than men to rebel This finding implies that taking different incentive structures into account is key if we want to understand gendered legislative behaviour. Phillips 1995), even in the high-pressure environment of RCVs: in policy areas that align with women’s interests, female MPs are more likely to spark intra-party conflict These findings call for more attention to how incentive structures the shape of vote defection by men and women differently. This article refines our understanding of legislative behaviour in general, emphasizing that contextual factors still reign supreme in predicting the behaviour of MPs (e.g. Finke 2019; Höhmann 2020), law-making processes (e.g. Volden et al 2013) and policy outcomes (Reher 2018)

Objectives

Findings

Conclusion