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Electing Women to National Legislatures

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Measuring Women’s Political Empowerment across the Globe

Part of the book series: Gender and Politics ((GAP))

Abstract

This chapter examines women’s numeric representation in national legislatures as it relates to women’s political empowerment. Women’s presence in parliament symbolizes the political empowerment of female citizens, broadly defined, as higher levels of representation signal the openness, inclusivity, and equity of the political system. Yet women’s presence in legislatures may not translate into high levels of individual empowerment for female lawmakers. Institutional, organizational, and structural barriers—such as masculine cultures and male-dominated political parties—limit women’s abilities to exercise their talents and qualifications. Future research should examine how this measure of political empowerment varies across different conceptualizations of “women.” Scholars should examine not just women as a group but women as individuals and as differentiated by race, ethnicity, class, and other identity-based categories.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We use these terms interchangeably to refer to countries’ lawmaking institutions.

  2. 2.

    Uruguay adopted a one-time gender quota law, in force only for the 2014 elections. In March 2017 the Senate approved legislation to make the quota permanent from 2019 onwards. This legislation did not pass in the lower house, however, so the fate of the quota policy remains uncertain.

  3. 3.

    Countries accurate as of January 2017.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Diana Z. O’Brien

  2. Department of Politics, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Jennifer M. Piscopo

Authors
  1. Diana Z. O’Brien
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  2. Jennifer M. Piscopo
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Amy C. Alexander

  2. University of California, Irvine, California, USA

    Catherine Bolzendahl

  3. Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA

    Farida Jalalzai

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O’Brien, D.Z., Piscopo, J.M. (2018). Electing Women to National Legislatures. In: Alexander, A., Bolzendahl, C., Jalalzai, F. (eds) Measuring Women’s Political Empowerment across the Globe. Gender and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64006-8_7

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