Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T17:24:10.614Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sheer Numbers: Critical Representation Thresholds and Women's Political Representation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 August 2007

Karen Beckwith  and
Kimberly Cowell-Meyers
Karen Beckwith
Affiliation:
Case Western Research University and Politics & Gender ([email protected]
Kimberly Cowell-Meyers
Affiliation:
American [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Studies of women in legislatures indicate that achieving a “critical mass” of women may have the effect of changing the legislative priorities of women, increasing the number of legislative initiatives dealing with women and the passage rate of such initiatives, and altering the legislative priorities of men. In the absence of a critical mass, “token” women may be so constrained by their minority status as to be unable to respond proactively to their environment. Popular wisdom suggests that a critical mass may be necessary for women to make a difference as women in a legislature.

Yet, critical mass is both problematic and under-theorized in political science research. The critical mass threshold is debated, the mechanism of effect is unspecified, possible negative consequences are overlooked, and the potential for small numbers of elected women to effect political change on behalf of women is neglected. Beyond sheer numbers, what are the conditions that govern the ability of women legislators to make a difference? We argue that two major contextual factors beyond the sheer numbers are likely to govern the extent to which female legislators serve to represent women. Relying on the secondary literature, this article maps parliamentary and civil society contexts to sheer numbers of women to locate conditions in which female legislators are most likely to have policy successes.Karen Beckwith is the Flora Stone Mather Professor of Political Science at Case Western Research University and Editor, with Lisa Baldez, of Politics & Gender ([email protected]). Her published work includes Women's Movements Facing the Reconfigured State (Cambridge 2003, with Lee Ann Banaszak and Dieter Rucht), Political Women and American Democracy (forthcoming, with Christina Wolbrecht and Lisa Baldez), and articles on gender and politics in the European Journal of Political Research, Politics & Society, and Signs, among others. Kimberly Cowell-Meyers is Assistant Professor in the Department of Government at American University ([email protected]). She is author of Religion and Politics: The Party Faithful in Ireland and Germany (Greenwood, 2002) and articles published in Women & Politics, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, and Irish Political Studies among others. She has worked in the British Parliament and the United States Institute of Peace.

Type
Research Article
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 553 - 565
Copyright
© 2007 American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baldez, Lisa. 2002. Why Women Protest: Women's Movements in Chile. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Banaszak, Lee Ann. 1996. Why Movements Succeed or Fail: Opportunity, Culture, and the Struggle for Woman Suffrage. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Banaszak, Lee Ann, Karen Beckwith, and Dieter Rucht, eds. 2003. Women's Movements Facing the Reconfigured State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bashevkin, Sylvia. 1985. Women and Politics in Western Europe. London: Frank Cass.
Bashevkin, Sylvia. 1996a. Losing common ground: Feminists, conservatives and public policy in Canada during the Mulroney years. Canadian Journal of Political Science 29 (2): 211–43.Google Scholar
Bashevkin, Sylvia. 1996b. Tough times in review: The British women's movement during the Thatcher years. Comparative Political Studies 28 (1): 525–52.Google Scholar
Basu, Amrita, ed. 1995. The Challenge of Local Feminisms. Boulder: Westview Press.
Beckwith, Karen. 1987. Response to feminism in the Italian Parliament: Divorce, abortion, and sexual violence legislation. In The Women's Movements of Western Europe and the United States: Consciousness, Political Opportunity, and Public Policy, ed. Mary Fainsod Katzenstein and Carol McClurg Mueller. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Beckwith, Karen. 1996. Lancashire women against pit closures: Women's standing in a men's movement. Signs 21 (4): 1034–68.Google Scholar
Beckwith, Karen. 2000. Beyond compare? Women's movements in comparative perspective. European Journal of Political Research 37 (4): 431–68.Google Scholar
Beckwith, Karen. 2007. Numbers and newness: The descriptive and substantive representation of women. Canadian Journal of Political Science 40 (1): 27–49.Google Scholar
Black, Naomi. 1989. Social Feminism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Borchorst, Anette. 1994. The Scandinavian welfare sates: Patriarchal, gender-neutral or woman-friendly? International Journal of Contemporary Sociology 1 (8): 3–21.Google Scholar
Bratton, Kathleen. 2002. The effect of legislative diversity on agenda setting: Evidence from six state legislatures. American Politics Research 30 (2): 115–42.Google Scholar
Buechler, Steven M. 1990. Women's Movements in the United States. New Brunswick and London: Rutgers University Press.
Bystydzienski, Jill. 1988. Women in politics in Norway. Women & Politics 8: 73–95.Google Scholar
Bystydzienski, Jill, ed. 1992. Women Transforming Politics: Worldwide Strategies for Empowerment. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Bystydzienski, Jill 1995. Women in Electoral Politics: Lessons from Norway. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Carroll, Susan. 1994. Women as Candidates in American Politics. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Carroll, Susan. 2001. The Impact of Women in Public Office. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Chappell, Louise. 2002. Gendering Government: Feminist Engagement with the State in Australia and Canada. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Childs, Sarah. 2001a. Attitudinally ‘feminist’? The new Labour women MPs and the substantive representation of women. Politics 21 (3): 178–85.Google Scholar
Childs, Sarah. 2001b. In their own words: New Labour women and the substantive representation of women. British Journal of Politics and International Relations 3 (2): 173–90.Google Scholar
Childs, Sarah, and Mona Lee Krook. 2005. “The Substantive Representation of Women: Rethinking the ‘Critical Mass’ Debate.” Presented at the American Political Science Association meetings, Washington, DC, September 1–4.
Conover, Pamela. 1988. Feminists and the gender gap. Journal of Politics 50 (4): 985–1010.Google Scholar
Conover, Pamela, and Virginia Sapiro. 1993. Gender, feminist consciousness, and war. American Journal of Political Science 37 (4): 1079–100.Google Scholar
Considine, Mark, and Iva Deutchman. 1996. Instituting gender: State representation in Australia and the U.S. Women & Politics 16 (4): 1–19.Google Scholar
Cowell-Meyers, Kimberly. 2001. Gender, power and peace: A preliminary look at women in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Women & Politics 23 (3): 55–88.Google Scholar
Cowell-Meyers, Kimberly. 2003. Women in Northern Ireland: Gender and the politics of peace-building in the New Legislative Assembly. Irish Political Studies 18 (1): 72–97.Google Scholar
Cowley, Philip, and Sarah Childs. 2001. “Critical but not Rebellious? New Labour Women in the House of Commons.” Presented at the American Political Science Association Special Session on Women and Politics, San Francisco, August 29.
Cowley, Philip, and Sarah Childs. 2003. Too spineless to rebel? New Labour's women MPs. British Journal of Political Science 33(3): 345–65.Google Scholar
Crowley, Jocelyn. 2004. When tokens matter. Legislative Studies Quarterly 24 (1): 109–36.Google Scholar
Dahlerup, Drude. 1988. From a small to a large minority. Scandinavian Political Studies 11 (4): 275–98.Google Scholar
Dahlerup, Drude. 2005. “The Theory of a ‘Critical Mass’ Revisited.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, DC, September 1.
Dahlerup, Drude, and Brita Gulli. 1985. Women's organizations in the Nordic countries: Lack of force or counterforce? In Unfinished Democracy: Women in Nordic Politics, ed. Elina Haavio-Mannila. Oxford and New York: Pergamon Press.
Darcy, R., Susan Welch, and Janet Clark. 1994. Women, Elections and Representation. 2d ed. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
della Porta, Donatella. 2003. The women's movement, the Left, and the state: Continuities and changes in the Italian case. In Women's Movements Facing the Reconfigured State, ed. Lee Ann Banaszak, Karen Beckwith, and Dieter Rucht. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dobrowolsky, Alexandra. 2003. Shifting states: Women's constitutional organizing across time and space. In Women's Movements Facing the Reconfigured State, ed. Lee Ann Banaszak, Karen Beckwith, and Dieter Rucht. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dodson, Debra L. 2006. The Impact of Women in Congress. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Flammang, Janet. 1985. Female officials in the feminist capitol: The case of Santa Clara County. Western Political Quarterly 38: 94–118.Google Scholar
Gabel, Matthew J., and John D. Huber. 2000. Putting parties in their place: Inferring party left-right ideological positions from party manifestos data. American Journal of Political Science 44 (1): 94–103.Google Scholar
Gardiner, Frances, and Monique Leijenaar. 1997. The timid and the bold: An analysis of the women-friendly-state in Ireland and the Netherlands. In Sex Equality Policy in Western Europe, ed. F. Gardiner. London: Routledge Press.
Gelb, Joyce. 1989. Feminism and Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Gelb, Joyce, and Marian Palley. 1996. Women and Public Policies: Reassessing Gender Politics. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
Grey, Sandra. 2002. Does size matter? Critical mass and New Zealand's women MPs. Parliamentary Affairs 55: 19–29.Google Scholar
Grey, Sandra. 2006. “Numbers and Beyond: The Relevance of Critical Mass in Gender Research.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, DC, September 1–4.
Guenther, Katja. 2003. A case study of local feminist mobilization in Eastern Germany, 1990–2000. Journal of Women's History 15 (3): 143–49.Google Scholar
Haavio-Mannila, Elina. 1985. Unfinished Democracy: Women in Nordic Politics. Oxford and New York: Pergamon Press.
Heath, Roseanna Michelle, Leslie Schwindt-Bayer, and Michelle Taylor-Robinson. 2005. Women on the sidelines: Women's representation on committees in Latin American legislatures. American Journal of Political Science 49 (2): 420–36.Google Scholar
Hernes, Helga Maria. 1987. Welfare State and Woman Power: Essays in State Feminism. London: Norwegian University Press.
Hoskyns, Catherine. 1996. Integrating Gender: Women, Law and Politics in the European Union. London: Verso.
Howell, Jude, and Diane Mulligan. 2006. Gender and Civil Society. London: Routledge.
Htun, Mala. 2003. Sex and the State: Abortion, Divorce, and the Family Under Latin American Dictatorships and Democracies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jeydel, Alana, and Andrew J. Taylor. 2003. Are women legislators less effective? Evidence from the U.S. House in the 103rd-105th Congress. Political Research Quarterly 56 (1): 19–27.Google Scholar
Jones, Kathleen B. 1990. Citizenship in a woman-friendly polity. Signs 15 (4): 781–813.Google Scholar
Kanter, Rosabeth Moss. 1977. Some effects of proportions on group life: Skewed sex ratios and responses to token women. American Journal of Sociology 82 (5): 965–90.Google Scholar
Kathlene, Lyn. 1994. Power and influence in state legislative policy-making: The interaction of gender and position in committee hearing debates. American Political Science Review 88 (3): 560–76.Google Scholar
Kathlene, Lyn. 1998. In a different voice: Women and the policy process. In Women and Elected Office: Past, Present and Future, ed. Sue Thomas and Clyde Wilcox. New York: Oxford University Press.
Katzenstein, Mary Fainsod, and Carol McClurg Mueller, eds. 1987. The Women's Movements of the United States and Western Europe. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Kenney, Sally. 1996. New research on gendered political institutions. Political Research Quarterly 49: 445–66.Google Scholar
Kittilson, Miki Caul. 1999. Women's representation in Parliament: The role of political parties. Party Politics 5 (1): 79–98.Google Scholar
Lovenduski, Joni. 1986. Women and European Politics: Contemporary Feminism and Public Policy. Sussex: Wheatsheaf.
Lovenduski, Joni. 2001. Women and politics: Minority representation or critical mass? Parliamentary Affairs 54: 743–58.Google Scholar
Lovenduski, Joni, and Pippa Norris. 1993. Gender and Party Politics. London and Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Lovenduski, Joni, and Pippa Norris. 2002. Westminster women: The politics of presence. Political Studies 51 (1): 84–103.Google Scholar
Luker, Kristin. 1984. Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Mansbridge, Jane. 1986. Why We Lost the ERA. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Mansbridge, Jane. 1999. Should blacks represent blacks and women represent women? A contingent “Yes.” Journal of Politics 61 (3): 628–57.Google Scholar
Mansbridge, Jane. 2005. Quota problems: Essentialist dangers and potential safeguards. Politics & Gender 1 (4): 622–38.Google Scholar
Matland, Richard E. 1998. Women's Representation in National Legislatures: Developed and Developing Countries. Legislative Studies Quarterly 23 (1): 109–125.Google Scholar
Matland, Richard E,., and Kathleen A. Montgomery, eds. 2003. Women's Access to Political Power in Post-Communist Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Matland, Richard E., and Donley Studlar. 1996. The contagion of women candidates in single-member district and proportional representation electoral systems: Canada and Norway. Journal of Politics 58 (3): 707–34.Google Scholar
Mazur, Amy. 2002. Theorizing Feminist Policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Meyer, David S., and Suzanne Staggenborg. 1996. Movements, countermovements, and the structure of political opportunity. American Journal of Sociology 101: 1628–60.Google Scholar
Mohanty, Chandra. 2003. Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Mohanty, Chandra, A. Russo, and L. Torres, eds. 1991. Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Molyneux, Maxine. 1985. Mobilization without emancipation? Women's interests, the state, and revolution in Nicaragua. Feminist Studies 11 (2): 227–54.Google Scholar
Molyneux, Maxine. 2003. Women's Movements in International Perspective: Latin America and Beyond. London: Institute of Latin American Studies.
Mueller, Carol McClurg, ed. 1988. The Politics of the Gender Gap: The Social Construction of Political Influence. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Nechemias, Carol. 1994. Democratization and women's access to legislative seats: The Soviet case, 1989–1991. Women & Politics 14 (3): 1–19.Google Scholar
Nelson, Barbara J., and Najma Chowdhury, eds. 1994. Women and Politics Worldwide. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Norris, Pippa. 1993. Conclusions: Comparing legislative recruitment. In Gender and Party Politics, ed. Joni Lovenduski and Pippa Norris. London: Sage.
Phillips, Anne. 1995. The Politics of Presence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Phillips, Anne. 1998. Democracy and representation: or, Why should it matter who our representatives are? In Feminism and Politics, ed. A. Phillips. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Reingold, Beth. 2000. Representing Women. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press.
Rosenthal, Cindy Simon. 1998. When Women Lead. New York: Oxford.
Saint-Germain, Michelle. 1989. Does their difference make a difference? The impact of women on public policy in the Arizona legislature. Social Science Quarterly 70 (4): 956–68.Google Scholar
Sigurdjarnardóttir, Sighrúdur Helga. 1998. On their own premises: The political project of the Icelandic Women's Alliance. In Is There a Nordic Feminism? ed. Drude von de Fehr, Bente Rosenbeck, and Anna G. Jónasdóttir. London: UCL Press.
Skard, Torild, and Elina Haavio-Mannila. 1985. Women in Parliament. In Unfinished Democracy: Women in Nordic Politics, ed. Elina Haavio-Mannila. Oxford and New York: Pergamon Press.
Staggenborg, Suzanne. 1991. The Pro-Choice Movement: Organization and Activism in the Abortion Conflict. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Studlar, Donley T., and Richard E. Matland. 1996. The contagion of women candidates in single and multimember district systems: Canada and Norway. Journal of Politics 58 (3): 707–33.Google Scholar
Studlar, Donley T., and Ian McAllister. 2002. Does a critical mass exist? A comparative analysis of women's legislative representation since 1950. European Journal of Political Research 41 (2): 233–53.Google Scholar
Swers, Michele L. 2002. The Difference Women Make: The Policy Impact of Women in Congress. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Tarrow, Sidney. 1998. Power in Movement. 2d ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thomas, Sue. 1991. The impact of women on state legislative policies. Journal of Politics 53 (4): 958–76.Google Scholar
Thomas, Sue. 1994. How Women Legislate. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Thomas, Sue, and Susan Welch. 1991. The impact of gender on activities and priorities of state legislators. Western Political Quarterly 44: 445–56.Google Scholar
Thomas, Sue, and Clyde Wilcox. 1998. Women and Elected Office: Past, Present and Future. New York: Oxford.
Threlfall, Monica, ed. 1996. Mapping the Women's Movement. London: Verso.
Tremblay, Manon. 2005. “Understanding Women's Descriptive and Substantive Representation: Critical Mass or Surrogate Representation?” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, DC, September 1–4.
Tremblay, Manon, and Rejean Pelletier. 2000. More feminists or more women? Descriptive and substantive representations of women in the 1997 Canadian Federal Elections. International Political Science Review 21 (4): 381–405.Google Scholar
Wägnerud, Lena. 2000. Testing the politics of presence: Women's representation in the Swedish Riksdag. Scandinavian Political Studies 23 (1): 67–91.Google Scholar
Waylen, Georgina. 1996. Gender in Third World Politics. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.
Welch, Susan, and Donley T. Studlar. 1990. Multi-member districts and the representation of women: Evidence from Britain and the United States. Journal of Politics 52 (2): 391–412.Google Scholar
Welch, Susan, and Donley T. Studlar. 1996. The opportunity structure for women's candidacies and electability in Britain and the United States. Political Research Quarterly 49 (4): 861–74.Google Scholar
Weldon, S. Laurel. 2002. Protest, Policy and the Problem of Violence against Women. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Weldon, S. Laurel. 2006. The structure of intersectionality: A comparative politics of gender. Politics & Gender 2 (2): 235–248.Google Scholar
White, Anne. 2000. “New Mothers' Campaigning Organizations in Russia.” In Feminisms and Women's Movements in Contemporary Europe, ed. Anna Bull, Hanna Diamond, and Rosalind Marsh. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Yoder, Janice D. 1991. Rethinking tokenism: Looking beyond numbers. Gender & Society 5 (2): 178–92.Google Scholar
Youngs, G., K.B. Jones, and J.J. Pettman. 1999. New spaces, new politics: International feminist directions. International Feminist Journal of Politics 1 (1): 1–13.Google Scholar