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

从选举权到代表权：美国、英国、挪威和智利的妇女、选举权主义者和政治家的选举权

• 批准号: ES/T01394X/2
• 负责人: Mona Morgan-Collins
• 金额: $ 21.8万
• 依托单位: King's College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FT01394X%2F2
• 关键词: Suffrage; Representation; Women; Suffragists; Politicians

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.

女性如何实现共同利益的代表？学者往往强调投票权对于代表权的重要性，而实践者则呼吁消除投票障碍，以此作为群体赋权的手段。然而，尽管女性有平等的投票机会，但政客们往往不能代表女性的利益。该项目将挑战学者和实践者所共有的传统说法，即获得投票权“自动”提高了妇女利益的代表性。虽然在法律上将妇女纳入选举显然是事实上代表妇女利益的必要条件，但今天大多数立法机构中的性别不足表明，这还远远不够。通过对四个不同国家（英国、美国、挪威和智利）妇女获得选举权后的选举过程的分析，本项目将对如何以及何时进入投票站改善妇女利益的代表产生新的理解。通过研究历史上的选举权改革来理解代表制的途径有几个好处。它提供了最好的环境来揭示尽管妇女在立法机构中几乎缺席，但妇女的利益如何得到代表。鉴于妇女在世界各地大多数立法机构中的代表性仍然不足，这一点尤其重要。它还提供了一种环境，可以观察妇女参政的直接和长期影响。这加强了对妇女在多大程度上得到代表的理解，以及这种代表是如何随着时间的推移而持续下去的。在方法上，它提供了最好的自然实验室，从中得出与学者和从业者相关的可靠答案。这种方法上的优势反映了这样一个事实，即在一年内采用选举权——而不是在不同的国家长期实行选举权——对所有政客来说都是一种外生冲击，不管他们喜欢与否。这个项目的核心是一个原始的主张，即政治家对妇女利益的反应主要取决于选举动态：如果妇女不愿投票，政治家就不愿动员她们，或者如果妇女放弃自己的性别认同，投票给其他非性别认同，寻求选票的政治家可能不代表妇女的利益。因此，本项目提出并检验了一个最初的假设：成功地代表妇女的利益源于政治家在选举中需要吸引妇女选民，以及有组织的妇女团体有能力提高妇女要求更好地代表妇女利益的能力。为此，该项目将创建一个原始数据集，用于跟踪选民、有组织的妇女团体和政治家的行为。这些丰富数据的微观层面特征支持稳健的研究设计的实施，因此能够提供严格的答案，最大限度地提高学者和从业者的利益。除了学术价值之外，了解妇女在立法机构中代表的起源对从业人员非常重要。鉴于即使在普选制度下，妇女的利益也不会自动得到保障——否则学者和倡导团体也不会抱怨今天的政治家没有充分代表妇女的利益——实践者努力消除投票障碍，作为赋予妇女权力的一种手段，可能会在不挑战政治家不愿代表妇女利益的情况下改善选举公正。因此，本项目力求描绘选举条件，在这些条件下，获得投票权可以改善妇女利益的代表性，从而向寻求解决立法机构中性别不足问题的从业人员提供直接建议。