Proportion Of Women In Parliament Research Articles

PROBLEMS OF WOMEN'S POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IN KAZAKHSTAN

This paper examines the features of women's political leadership and the main problems of its implementation. The analysis of foreign literature on political leadership and women's leadership is given. It also provides an overview of modern gender policy in Kazakhstan, provides data on the ranking of gender equality, an analysis of the proportion of women in parliament at the national level. Recommendations are proposed to support women's leadership in the country.

Women in parliament and deforestation: cross-country evidence

The aim of this study is to contribute to the empirical literature on the antecedents of deforestation. Specifically, we investigate the relationship between female parliamentarism and forest cover change. Based on annual data from more than 176 countries between 1990 and 2015, the estimates suggest that the proportion of women in parliament has a significant U-shaped association with per capita forest cover. In particular, the nation-states with a critical mass of female legislators above 38 % should experience increases in per capita forest cover.

Female parliamentarism and genuine savings: A cross‐country test

AbstractThe aim of this study to contribute to the ongoing research on the effect of female political participation on socioeconomic outcomes. In this study, we explore the link between the proportion of women in parliament and sustainable development, measured by genuine savings indicator. Our study finds that a 10 percentage point increase in the share of women in parliament is associated with an almost 1.25 percentage point increase in the genuine savings rate. In addition, using instrumental variable regression to overcome the problem of endogeneity, we find that women in parliament have causal effect on genuine savings.

Gender and opinion–policy congruence in Europe

Does public policy in Europe reflect women’s preferences equally well as men’s? This study compares the opinions of women and men with concrete policy on a set of 20 issues across a diverse range of policy areas in 31 European countries. It shows that the majorities of men and women frequently prefer the same policy. However, when they disagree, men’s preferences are more likely to be represented. Neither the proportion of women in parliament nor the left–right orientation of the government explains variation in women’s policy representation. Instead, a higher number of parliamentary parties increase the likelihood that policy reflects women’s views. This effect does not seem to be driven by left-libertarian politics or Green parties, even though women’s stronger support for ‘new politics’ issues is an important source of disagreement between men and women.

Do Government Positions Held by Women Matter? A Cross-National Examination of Female Ministers' Impacts on Women's Political Participation

Current research shows that female legislators serve as role models for women. Understudied is how and the extent to which female ministers inspire women to participate in politics. We argue that with their high visibility and greater ability to influence policy, female ministers also serve as role models, but their influence differs depending on the form of political engagement. Using the World Values Survey and additional national-level variables, we employ multilevel modeling techniques to explore how women in the cabinet influence various forms of women's political engagement. We find that the proportion of women in the cabinet has a stronger effect on participation than the proportion of women in parliament. All else being equal, a higher proportion of women in the cabinet increases women's conventional participation (voting and party membership), petition signing, and engagement in peaceful demonstrations, but it does not influence women's participation in strikes or boycotts. Our findings add to current studies of women's political representation, in which ministerial representation is often underexplored or not differentiated from parliamentary representation, and help distinguish various forms of participation. Future research should consider examining a wider variety of women's political roles in other areas of the political arena.

The Uneven Representation of Women in Asian Parliaments: Explaining Variation across the Region

AbstractAlthough home to the majority of the world’s women, Asia is the continent with the smallest proportion of women in Parliament. Rarely studied from a comparative perspective, this article examines the uneven representation of women in the lower houses of contemporary Asian parliaments. While socio-economic modernization and industrialization are generally expected to increase the proportion of women in positions of political influence, we find that differences in electoral and party systems across Asia play a greater role than levels of female literacy, urbanization, or per capita income. In particular, Asian parliaments with strict quotas and a higher number of (three of more) major political parties had significantly more female MPs. We also found cultural attitudes supportive of women in the public sphere to make a difference along with multi-member districts and parties on the political left.

Second Among Unequals? A Study of Whether France's “Quota Women” are Up to the Job

The introduction of France's “parity” law in 2000 raised fears of electing inferior women candidates via a gender quota. France has since held two legislative elections, with the proportion of women in parliament rising from 10.9% to 12.3% in 2002, and 18.5% in 2007. These rises permit an empirical evaluation of whether “quota women” measure up to those elected without a quota. New women parliamentarians are compared to their male counterparts and to women elected before 2002 to see whether there are any noticeable differences in their background (profession, age, and prior experience) and their levels of parliamentary activity (including numbers of bills, reports, and questions introduced).The findings challenge the notion that parity is producing weak politicians. The slightly different profiles of men and women politicians reflect wider barriers to women's political careers that would not have been overcome without the parity law. Once women are elected, the volume of activity shows no evidence of being gendered, suggesting that women are as effective in the job as men. These findings imply that sex is a barrier to entry but not to performance, reinforcing claims for the use of quotas to overcome entry barriers and negating claims that quotas produce second-rate parliamentarians.

The Impact of Electoral Reform on Women's Representation

One concern about reform of the electoral system in the Netherlands is whether this would reduce the proportion of women members in the House of Representatives. What evidence is there for this expectation? This study considers these issues, with the first section summarizing the normative arguments why socially inclusive legislatures are thought to be desirable. The representation of women in the Netherlands parliament is compared against the record in other countries worldwide. The second section analyzes the impact of electoral systems on gender representation, confirming that substantially more women are usually elected in systems using party list proportional representation, especially those such as the Netherlands which have a large district magnitude, compared with majoritarian electoral systems using single member districts. Any reform that moves away from nationwide PR in the Netherlands will therefore probably reduce the proportion of women in parliament unless other compensatory actions are taken. Subsequent sections examine alternative strategies that could be adopted, including statutory quotas regulating the candidate selection process for all parties (for example, as used in Belgium), the role of reserved seats in legislatures, and the use of voluntary quotas in candidate selection rules implemented by particular parties. The conclusion summarizes the main findings and arguments surrounding electoral reform in the Netherlands.

Freedom for women: Mainstreaming gender in the South African liberation struggle and beyond

The liberation struggle in South Africa highlighted racial and class oppression as key causes of poverty,inequality, and a lack of rights for most South Africans. Drawing on the language of the struggle,women political and trade union activists brought attention to their oppression and exploitation aswomen, and were able to place non-sexism alongside non-racism and democracy as key liberationprinciples. However, while men in these organisations ostensibly accepted the idea of non-sexism, theywere not ready to change their behaviour or give up their power, and women activists met with ongoingresistance. During the negotiations for democracy, women drew on their experience of the years ofstruggle and were able to ensure a high proportion of women in parliament, influence the country's constitution, and advocate the establishment of State machinery to mainstream gender equality.However, in the post-apartheid era of reconstruction and development, both the demobilisation ofprotest movements and the emphasis on the technical aspects of development stand in the way of gendermainstreaming via the State.