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

尽管法律的保障平等，但在世界各地的民主国家中，男女在政治参与和代表性方面仍然存在明显差距。来自发达工业化民主国家的证据表明，当妇女作为选民参加投票的人数增加时（例如在扩大选举权之后），就会产生符合其政治偏好的政策转变。然而，目前还不清楚是否类似的结果在发展中国家的情况下，妇女？美国的选举权在宪法中得到保障，这是精英阶层的结果，而不是大众的共识。在这个项目中，PI从一个持续存在性别不平等的发展中民主国家中汲取证据，以表明妇女在行使投票权方面充其量是不平等的。 要增加参与以提高代表性，还必须具备某些额外条件：特别是妇女投票的独立性和妇女采取集体行动的可信潜力。 通过确定妇女的偏好在决策中得到平等代表的条件，项目的研究结果可以为旨在实现妇女政治平等和改善政治中边缘化声音的代表性的政策提供信息。技术摘要：本项目解决了一个问题，这是民主代表的政治科学理论的核心，也是决策者和妇女倡导者的实质性兴趣。妇女的权利：在什么条件下平等行使法律上的参与权会产生事实上的妇女代表权平等？虽然这是民主研究中的一个典型问题，但很少在发达世界的背景之外进行研究。这个项目通过产生关于妇女实际内容的证据来填补这一经验空白？的偏好在发展中的民主，并作出了贡献的民主理论，确定在何种条件下，增加选举参与的一组导致更直接的代表他们的偏好在政策决定。PI使用从公民和代表那里收集的原始调查和行为数据，辅以从政府部门收集的选举和行政数据以及从地方非政府组织收集的妇女动员数据，以检验理论预测。PI还借鉴了与地方政府代表、政党工作人员和民间社会成员的半结构化访谈，以制定关键概念的适当措施，并将定量调查结果的结果纳入背景。

General SummaryDespite 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.