Uncovering the Gendered Effects of Voting Systems: A Few Thoughts About Representation of Women and of LGBT People

Abstract

The subject of this chapter is the contribution of gender research to the study of the effects of voting systems on women’s and LGBT representation. It looks at the failure of classic works on voting systems to pay attention to their gender impact. It then highlights the ways in which feminist political science has redressed this failure, contributing research on which voting systems are most women-friendly. However, much of this new research has itself failed to take into account the impact of sexuality on representation. It has largely assumed that women, as electors and politicians, are heterosexuals and that voting systems and sexuality do not interact. To gain a fuller picture, a gendered-inspired approach to the study of electoral systems must take sexualities into account.