Joni Lovenduski

Westminster Women: The Politics of Presence

The entry of the 1997 cohort of Labour women into public life offers a test case of whether, and under what conditions, women politicians have the capacity to ‘make a substantive difference’. We outlines the theory of the politics of presence and discuss how to operationalise this in a testable model. We, use the British Representation Study survey of 1,000 national politicians (including parliamentary candidates and elected Members of Parliament) conducted in the 2001 general election. The analysis centres on the impact of gender on five scales measuring attitudes and values on issues that commonly divide British party politics. Once we control for party, there are no significant differences among women and men politicians across the value scales concerning the free market economy, Europe, and moral traditionalism. Yet on the values most directly related to womens interests – namely the affirmative action and the gender equality scales – women and men politicians differ significantly within each party, even after controlling for other common social background variables that explain attitudes, such as their age, education, and income. The conclusion considers why these findings matter for the composition of parliament, the public policy agenda and for womens roles as political leaders.

State feminism and political representation

1. Introduction 2. Gendering political representation: debates and controversies in Austria Regina Kopl 3. The Belgian paradox: inclusion and exclusion of gender issues Petra Meier 4. A politics for presence. State feminism, womens movements and political representation in Finland Anne Maria Holli and Johanna Kantola 5. Gendering the Republican system: debates on womens political representation in France Claudie Baudino 6. WPAs and political representation in Germany Lynn Kamenitsa and Brigitte Geissel 7. Gendering the debate on political representation in Italy: a difficult challenge Marila Guadagnini 8. High tides in a low country gendering political representation in the Netherlands Jantine Oldersma 9. The womens movement, gender equality agencies, and central-state debates on political representation in Spain (1983-2003) Celia Valiente 10. Party feminism, state feminism and womens representation in Sweden Diane Sainsbury 11. Party government and womens representation debates: the UK Joni Lovenduski 12. Womens policy agencies, the womens movement, and representation in the US Janine A. Parry 13. Conclusions: state feminism and political representation Appendix 1. Tables of womens representation in eleven countries Appendix 2. The RNGS model.

Gender Quotas and Models of Political Citizenship

Gender quotas have spread rapidly around the world in recent years. However, few studies have yet theorized, systematically or comparatively, variations in their features, adoption and implementation. This article surveys quota campaigns in Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. It proposes that one or more sets of controversies influence the course and outcomes of quota reforms. These revolve around (1) competing principles of equality, (2) different ideas about political representation, and (3) various beliefs about ‘gender’ and its relation to other kinds of political identities. The article draws on these distinctions to identify four broad models of political citizenship that determine the kinds of quota policies that are pursued and their prospects for bringing more women into political office.

‘If Only More Candidates Came Forward’: Supply-Side Explanations of Candidate Selection in Britain

In a familiar observation, members of the British House of Commons are demographically unrepresentative of the British population in terms of gender, race, education and class. This article takes a fresh look at the reasons why this is the case, based on data from the British Candidate Study, 1992. This study analyses the background, experience and attitudes of MPs, candidates, applicants, party members and voters. By comparing strata we can see whether the outcome of the selection process reflects the supply of those willing to stand for Parliament or the demands of local party activists when adopting candidates for local constituencies.

Do Women Need Women Representatives

This article analyses the relationship between the representatives and the represented by comparing elite and mass attitudes to gender equality and women’s representation in Britain. In so doing, the authors take up arguments in the recent theoretical literature on representation that question the value of empirical research of Pitkin’s distinction between substantive and descriptive representation. They argue that if men and women have different attitudes at the mass level, which are reproduced amongst political elites, then the numerical under-representation of women may have negative implications for women’s substantive representation. The analysis is conducted on the British Election Study (BES) and the British Representation Study (BRS) series.

Women Candidates for Parliament: Transforming the Agenda?

Why should more women be elected to positions of power in Britain? What difference would it make? This Note aims to examine these questions using data from a survey of almost six hundred men and women candidates to the British Parliament in the 1987 general election. There are two major arguments for increasing womens representation.

Why parties fail to learn: electoral defeat, selective perception and British party politics

Multiple factors can be offered to explain the Labour victory, and Conservative defeat, in the 2001 British general election. Here we pursue an explanation based on the idea that rational vote-seeking politicians may fail to learn from electoral defeat due to selective perception. In Part I we outline the theoretical premises and in Part II consider how this framework can be applied to the context of British elections. Evidence is drawn from the 2001 British Representation Study1 (BRS) involving 1000 parliamentary candidates and MPs. Comparisons are made with the British Election Study (BES). We focus on two measures of ideological change in British politics, namely tax cuts versus spending and European integration versus independence. The evidence is laid out in Part III. The analysis supports three main conclusions: (i) on the key issues of public spending and Europe, Labour politicians remained close to the centre ground of Westminster party politics, along with the Liberal Democrats, with the Nationalist parties further towards the left, while the Conservatives remained on the far right; (ii) as a result of this pattern the Conservatives were the party furthest away from the median British voter; and (iii) one important reason for this pattern was ‘selective perception’, so that more Conservative politicians ‘missed the target’. In concluding, we discuss the reasons for this phenomenon and the broader lessons explaining why parties fail to learn and adapt in the face of repeated massive electoral defeats.

Feminist Ideas and Domestic Violence Policy Change

The extent of influence of feminist ideas and efforts on domestic violence policy has been the subject of some contention. For example Hanmer, Radford and Stanko argue that by 1989 it appeared that ‘... the police and caring professions have responded ... to feminist criticisms of the 1970s, but have done so in a way which has completely negated feminist definitions, politics, research and provision of support services’. In their view the wide and radical aims of feminist advocates to shift official thinking about domestic violence and to insert feminist practices into policy have not been met. Institutional analyses of the development of domestic violence policy since the early 1970s would, with their emphasis on formal policy making roles tend to concur with this statement. However, if an approach that focuses on the impact of ideas on policy change is used, a different picture emerges; one of feminist driven change. The advocacy coalition framework is such an approach. Using the belief systems of public officials and policy advocates as its starting point, policy oriented learning as its motor of change and policy change as its measure of success the advocacy coalition framework is a pluralist approach to public policy analysis, with a built-in recognition that policy is carried out by a huge and complex array of networked actors.

State Feminism and Women's Movements

This article offers a brief reflection on the emergence of the study of gender and politics over the past 30 years and its influence on European political science. It goes on to discuss the early results of a recently completed comparative project, the RNGS project (Research Network on Gender and the State) on the influence of womens movements on public policy decisions. The RNGS project reflects both developments in the sub-field of gender and politics and the influences of changes in approaches to the study of politics of the last 30 years or so.

Sexing London: The Gender Mix of Urban Policy Actors

This article proposes an analysis of Londons gender system. First, it explores the relationship between gender and the local economy and culture. Second, it examines decision-making structures in the local state and how they are gendered. Third, the article investigates Londons autonomous womens movement and the extent to which its constituent groups possess the resources necessary to influence policy. Fourth, it looks at two issue areas, homelessness and hospital reorganization and the ways in which policy-making in these areas deal with gender issues. The authors conclude that women and particularly feminists can influence policy but the degree of influence varies by locality, organizational context and issue.