Doctoral Dissertation Research: Making Democracy Work for Women: Gender Gaps in Political Participation and Representation

Columbia University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

General Summary Despite legal guarantees of equality, stark gaps in political participation and representation persist between men and women in democracies around the world. Evidence from advanced industrialized democracies shows that when women participate in higher numbers as voters (e.g. after the extension of suffrage rights), it produces policy shifts in line with their political preferences. However, it is unclear whether similar outcomes result in developing contexts where women?s voting rights are guaranteed in the constitution as a result of elite, rather than popular consensus. In this project, the PI draws on evidence from a developing democracy with persistent gender inequality, to show that voting rights are at best unevenly exercised by women. Certain additional conditions must be present for increased participation to produce improved representation: notably the independence of women's vote and the credible potential for collective action by women. By identifying the conditions under which women's preferences are equally represented in policymaking, the project findings can inform policy aimed to achieve women's political equality and improve the representation of marginalized voices in politics. Technical Summary: This project addresses a question that is central to political science theories of democratic representation and of substantive interest to policymakers and advocates for women?s rights: under what conditions does the equal exercise of a de jure right to participate produce de facto equality of representation for women? While this is a quintessential question in the study of democracy, rarely has it been examined outside the context of the developed world. This project fills this empirical gap by generating evidence on the actual content of women?s preferences in a developing democracy, and makes a contribution to democratic theory by identifying the conditions under which increased electoral participation by a group leads to more direct representation of their preferences in policy decisions. The PI uses original survey and behavioral data collected from citizens and representatives, supplemented by electoral and administrative data collected from government departments and data on women's mobilization collected from local NGOs to test the theoretical predictions. The PI also draws on semi-structured interviews with local government representatives, political party workers and civil society members to develop appropriate measures of key concepts and to contextualize the results of quantitative findings.