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

妇女如何实现共同利益的代表？学者们经常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一种手段。然而，尽管妇女有平等的投票机会，但政客们往往不能代表妇女的利益。这个项目将挑战学者和实践者都认同的传统说法，即获得投票权‘自动’改善了妇女利益的代表。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的性别赤字表明，这是不够的。通过对四个不同国家(英国、美国、挪威和智利)在妇女选举权之后实现的选举过程的分析，该项目将对进入投票站如何以及何时改善妇女利益的代表性产生新的理解。对历史上的选举权改革进行研究，以了解代表的途径有几个好处。它提供了最好的环境，以揭示妇女的利益是如何得到代表的，尽管妇女实际上在立法机构中缺席。鉴于妇女在世界各地大多数立法机构中的代表性仍然偏低，这一点尤其重要。它还提供了一个观察妇女参政的直接和长期影响的环境。这不仅加强了对妇女代表性程度的理解，也加深了对这种代表性是如何随着时间的推移而保持的理解。在方法论上，它提供了最好的自然实验室，在那里可以得出与学者和实践者相关的可靠答案。这一方法优势反映了这样一个事实，即在一年内实行选举权--而不是随着时间的推移在不同国家实行选举权--对所有政客来说都是一种外源性冲击，无论他们喜欢与否。这个项目的核心是一个原始命题，即政客对女性利益的回应主要由选举动态决定：如果女性不愿投票会阻碍政客动员她们，或者如果女性放弃性别认同而投票给其他与性别无关的身份，那么寻求选票的政客可能不代表女性利益。因此，该项目提出并检验了一个原始假设：妇女利益的成功代表源于政治家争取女性选民参与的选举需要，以及妇女组织团体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，跟踪选民、有组织的妇女团体和政客的行为。这一丰富数据的微观特征支持实施稳健的研究设计，因此能够提供严谨的答案，最大限度地造福于学者和实践者。除了学术上的优点，理解女性在立法机构中的代表性的起源对实践者来说非常重要。鉴于即使在普选下，妇女利益的代表也不会自动得到保障--否则，学者和倡导团体不会抱怨当今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正义。因此，该项目力求绘制选举条件图，在这些选举条件下，获得选票将改善妇女利益的代表性，从而向寻求解决立法机构性别缺失问题的从业人员提供直接建议。

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.