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

尽管法律保障男女平等，但在世界各地的民主国家，男女在政治参与和代表权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，当更多的女性作为选民（例如，在延长选举权之后）参与投票时，就会产生符合她们政治偏好的政策转变。然而，尚不清楚在发展中国家是否也会出现类似的结果。美国的投票权在宪法中得到保障是精英的结果，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提取了证据，以表明妇女行使投票权最多是不平衡的。必须具备某些附加条件才能增加参与，从而改善代表性：特别是妇女的独立投票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，项目结果可以为旨在实现妇女政治平等和改善边缘化声音在政治中的代表性的政策提供信息。技术摘要：本项目解决的问题是民主代表制政治学理论的核心问题，也是政策制定者和妇女权益倡导者的实质性利益所在。S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？虽然这是研究民主的一个典型问题，但很少在发达国家之外对其进行研究。这个项目通过产生关于女性实际内容的证据来填补这一经验上的空白。并通过确定一个群体增加选举参与导致他们在政策决策中更直接地代表他们的偏好的条件，对民主理论做出了贡献。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当地非政府组织收集的妇女动员数据来验证理论预测。PI还利用与地方政府代表、政党工作人员和民间社会成员的半结构化访谈，制定关键概念的适当措施，并将定量调查结果纳入背景。

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.