Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Gender Quotas and The Representation of Women: Empowerment, Decision-making, and Public Policy

本研究调查了性别配额对妇女实质性代表性的影响。性别配额是选举法，规定在一个政党的选举选票上必须占有最低比例的女性。实质性代表权是指妇女能够实现对妇女利益的显著代表权。该项目以三种具体方式为关于性别配额和妇女实质性代表性的文献作出贡献。首先，它为两种相互竞争的理论所衍生的假设提供了一个关键的检验，这些理论是关于立法机构中妇女人数如何影响妇女影响政策的能力的。第二，在现有理论的基础上，提出了新的假设，说明立法机关采用有效性别配额的时间长短如何影响妇女的实质性代表性。第三，开发一个原始数据集来检验这些假设。研究了性别配额对阿根廷（23个省和一个联邦首都）次国家一级妇女实质性代表性的影响。阿根廷提供了世界上唯一一个在各种选举制度（27个立法院有性别配额）中实施性别配额的漫长时间表（超过15年的时间跨度），以及存在从未实施性别配额的省份（或比其他省份晚得多）。在这些制度中，妇女所占立法席位的百分比差异很大，这是处理妇女在立法机构中的百分比与其对政策产出的影响之间的关系所必需的。要评估性别配额对实质性代表性产生重大影响所需的时间长度，就必须考虑到较长的时间范围。此外，次国家环境允许人们进行控制比较，这在跨国分析中是不可能的。世界上几乎所有的立法机构中，妇女的代表人数都不足。九十年代初，人们普遍呼吁各国政府采取行动，在各级政治代表中纠正性别差异（并促进性别平等）。迄今为止，98个国家采用了宪法、选举或政党性别配额。虽然已经证明（在某些条件下）配额增加了妇女在议会中的代表人数，其目的是实现立法权和决策方面的平等，但尚不清楚选举更多妇女进入立法办公室是否足以影响决策（特别是在对妇女特别感兴趣的政策领域）。现有文献有助于了解配额法与选举法相结合如何影响妇女立法者的选举。人们不太了解的是，由于使用性别配额，立法机构中妇女人数增加所产生的实质性影响。增加立法机构中的妇女人数是不够的；相反，妇女必须有平等的机会担任决策和领导职务。这项研究将帮助我们了解，适当实施的性别配额是否是促进民主的可靠工具，是否应该在更多与性别不平等作斗争的机构中加以考虑。

This research investigates the impact of gender quotas on women's substantive representation. Gender quotas are electoral laws that mandate a minimum percentage of females that must occupy a position on a political party's electoral ballot. Substantive representation refers to women's ability to achieve significant representation of women's interests. This project contributes to the literature on gender quotas and women's substantive representation in three specific ways. First, it offers a critical test of hypotheses derived from two competing theories about how the number of women in the legislature affects women's ability to influence policy. Second, building on existing theory, new hypotheses are developed on how the duration of time since a legislature has adopted effective gender quotas affects the substantive representation of women. Third, an original data set is developed to test these hypotheses. The effects of gender quotas on the substantive representation of women at the subnational level in Argentina (23 provinces and a federal capital) is examined. Argentina provides the only context in the world that offers a lengthy timeline of gender quotas (over a 15 year time span) implemented across a variety of electoral systems (27 legislative chambers with gender quotas) as well as the existence of provinces where gender quotas were never implemented (or adopted much later than in other provinces). This considerable variance in the percentage of the legislative seats occupied by women across these systems is necessary to address the relationship between the percentage of women in the legislature and their effect on policy outputs. The long temporal domain is necessary to assess the duration of time required for gender quotas to significantly affect substantive representation. Furthermore, the subnational setting allows one to make controlled comparisons that are not possible in cross-national analyses. Women are underrepresented in virtually all of the world's legislatures. In the early nineties, there was a widespread call for national governments to take action to correct gender disparity (and promote gender parity) at all levels of political representation. To date, constitutional, electoral, or political party gender quotas have been adopted in 98 countries. While quotas have been demonstrated (under certain conditions) to increase the numerical representation of women in parliament, and are designed to achieve equality in legislative power and decision-making, it is unclear if electing more women to legislative office is sufficient to influence policymaking (particularly in policy areas of particular interest to women). The extant literature has contributed to an understanding of how quota laws in combination with electoral laws affect the election of women legislators. What is less understood is the substantive impact of increased numbers of women in the legislature resulting from the use of gender quotas. Increasing the number of women in legislatures is not sufficient; rather, women must have equal access to decision-making and leadership positions. This research will help us understand if properly implemented gender quotas are reliable tools for promoting democracy and should be considered in more institutions struggling with gender inequalities.