From Suffrage To Representation: Women, Suffragists and Politicians upon Enfranchisement in the U.S., U.K, Norway and Chile

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How do women achieve representation of shared interests? Scholars often emphasize the importance of voting rights for representation, while practitioners call for the removal of voting barriers as a means to group empowerment. Yet politicians often fail to represent women's interests despite women's equal access to the polls. This project will challenge conventional narratives, shared by scholars and practitioners alike, wherein the acquisition of voting rights 'automatically' improves the representation of women's interests. While de jure electoral inclusion of women is clearly a necessary condition for de facto representation of women's interests, the gender deficit in most legislatures today demonstrates that it is hardly sufficient. Through an analysis of the electoral processes that materialised in the aftermath of women's suffrage in four distinct countries (U.K, U.S., Norway and Chile), this project will develop new understanding of how and when access to the polling booth improves the representation of women's interests. Undertaking the study of historical suffrage reforms to understand the pathways towards representation has several advantages. It provides the best environment in which to uncover how women's interests came to be represented despite women's virtual absence in legislatures. This is especially relevant given that women remain underrepresented in most legislatures across the world. It also provides an environment in which to observe both the immediate and the long-term impact of women's entry to politics. This enhances the understanding of the extent to which women came to be represented, but also how such representation was sustained over time. Methodologically, it provides the best natural laboratory in which to derive robust answers relevant to academics and practitioners. This methodological advantage reflects the fact that the adoption of suffrage in a single year - as opposed to across different countries over time - was an exogenous shock to all politicians, whether they liked it or not.Central to this project is an original proposition that politicians' responsiveness to women's interests is primarily determined by an electoral dynamic: vote-seeking politicians may not represent women's interests if women's reluctance to vote disincentivizes politicians to mobilise them, or if women forgo their gender identity and vote on other non-gendered identities. This project thus formulates and tests an original hypothesis: successful representation of women's interests stems from politicians' electoral need to engage women voters and the ability of women's organised groups to enhance women's capacity to demand better representation of women's interests. To this end, this project will create an original data set that tracks the behaviour of voters, organised women's groups and politicians. The micro-level character of this rich data supports the implementation of robust research designs and therefore enables the provision of rigorous answers that maximise the benefit to both academics and practitioners.Beyond scholarly merits, understanding the origins of women's representation in legislatures is highly relevant for practitioners. Given that the representation of women's interests is not automatically secured even under universal suffrage - otherwise there would be no complaints from scholars and advocacy groups that women's interests are not sufficiently represented by politicians today - practitioners' efforts to remove voting barriers as a means to women's empowerment may improve electoral justice without challenging politicians' unwillingness to represent women's interests. This project thus seeks to map the electoral conditions under which the acquisition of the vote improves the representation of women's interests and therefore provide direct recommendations to practitioners who seek to address the gender deficit in legislatures.