The Emergence and Impact of First Female Speakers in the UK, South Africa and India

Abstract

Women are continuing to make in-roads into male-dominated political institutions around the world (Krook, 2009). The now substantial scholarly literature which examines these dynamics and patterns has come to be known collectively as research on the ‘féminisation of polities’. This term is used to describe and assess the extent to which women have both entered and altered historically male-dominated political institutions (Lovenduski, 2005; Wangnerud, 2009). Much of the literature has focused on political parties (Lovenduski, 2005: 57). This chapter makes a unique contribution to féminisation scholarship by paying attention to the neglected issue of the gendered distribution of parliamentary offices, specifically the Speakership. Through a cross-national comparison of the first female Speakers in the United Kingdom, India and South Africa, we shift the focus away from what happens before and during elections to what happens immediately after. The chapter complements the growing literature on female ministerial and bureaucratic leadership with much-needed research on female legislative leadership. It builds on cross-national research that explores the challenges and opportunities facing women in elected office and analyses how windows of opportunity arise and are exploited by non-traditional political actors (cf. Kittilson, 2006). It adds to our understandings of the dynamics of female political leadership (cf. Norris, 2010; Steinberg, 2008).