Mina Seffers- Gender and Diversity
Gender, Diversity and Politics
Class 1: introduction
1. The democratic promise: equality and freedom
Democracy starts from the promise/key value that “Everyone is equal and free… to become a politician”
This is a central believe, almost an ideology. It’s part of the democratic ideology
➔ Numbers are a contradiction that we are all free & equal to be a politician. Equality is nowhere realized,
there is progress but there is no equality.
If women and men are equal and free:
• Why, then, are women underrepresented?
• Why, then, are women now better represented?
• Why do we have to understand that there is progress, because if you are equal, how can you be more/less
equal?
The ‘democratic’ answer:
• There is no problem. It’s normal to have more/less (in)equality
• To declare the inequality, it all depends on:
o Ambition
o Merit
• You can’t force someone to become a politician, because there is freedom. People have capacities and are
free to develop them in the direction they want. If woman don’t develop their capacity in the direction of
political skills, it’s their choice. It’s in line with the democratic promise of equality
What the research on women in politics learns us:
• It is not (only) about personal ambition; structural factors matter greatly
• Ambition and merit are gendered (structured along gender lines), and mediated by networks. If there is
now more equality, it’s because these structures have been changed. It’s not only an individual effort, but
the structures from are society have been changed intentionally through civil society organisations.
2. Is the democratic promise fulfilled?
• Research on when women run for office
• 3 concepts: ambition, merit, networks
1
,Mina Seffers- Gender and Diversity
2.1 When do women run for office?
When everything is okay for the democratic, woman would run for office when they wish so. Research shows
us STRUCTURAL FACTORS that define when woman run for office & it explains why woman run less for office.
Conditions related to elections and PP
• Party competition
• Party ideology
• Party organisation
• Formal rules
Party competition (1)
• When do PP put a woman on their list? When there is a political scandal & when they face an electoral failure
(= ‘glass cliff’ → they put woman up there for office when it’s going bad. They tend to protect what they
preheat to be their highest political potentials. They let them take a step back, so they stay out of the wind
generated by the political scandal & put newcomers to the front. If they lose the elections ore face
corruption, investigations,… their high potentials get damaged. The stay behind the scenes for a while & the
newcomers takes the accusations. If they lose the newcomers through the scandal, so be it & the good guys
are protected)
• Weak competition & low chances of assuming government → when they are entering an election & are
sure what the outcome will be like, then they open up to demand new, female candidates
• Contagion = when 1 party starts with letting woman run for office, other PP are incentivized to follow that
example. Because you don’t want the other PP to run off with woman’s votes. When 1 party puts a woman
on top of the list, other PP follow because they don’t want to leave or give away the woman-friendly label
to the other party. It’s more a competition between PP to be the most woman friendly. This is the reason
we see often woman leaders’ ore woman getting elected on conservative lists (extreme right). Those parties
are not a big fan of putting woman on their list.
➔ 3 reasons why PP let woman run office, it’s not about equality, ambition or merit. If this is what cause
inequality, it’s undemocratic. These practices are not in line with the democratic values
Party ideology (2)
• Left more women candidates, elected and party elites
• Historical connection between leftist parties and women’s movement
• But right-wing parties are catching up
➔ It’s a structural element that explains why we found woman in a certain place, it’s not about merit &
ambition
Party organisation internaly (3)
• Explains why PP let woman run for office or when they open up for woman
• Centralization (but only when party leaders believe in women’s qualities and the principle of gender
equality). When a PP is centrally organized = less democratic = we see that PP often are mare inclusive &
gender equal, but that’s contra intuitively. If the PP that it should be gender equal, it has the power &
capacity to enact that. In these centralized PP, it’s more difficult to push through the central policy on gender
equality
• Women party leaders and selectors: when you have more party leaders, when you have party selectors, we
refer to that group in a PP that have discission-making-power who has a place on the list (= gatekeepers).
It’s not always visible to the outside of the world that there is woman in that group in contrast to the party
leadership (= visible). This is because of networks, there are more men than woman in their professional
network. It’s important to have rolemodels because you can’t be what you don’t see. Otherwise, it feels as
you don’t belong here & this is not a place for you
2
,Mina Seffers- Gender and Diversity
Women sections within parties
• Sections are common practice & historically BV young people, minorities
• Sections are important to recruit the next generation of female politicians, because they became more and
more powerful in the PP & can push for woman issues on the political agenda
• Functions
o In the past: serve coffee, it’s an example for the entertainment function
o Mobilize female electorate & PP elites looked at woman sections to know how they can win their
votes → this is the moment that women’s issues were included in party platforms
o Intra party decision-making
• Effects
o Effective in promoting women for office and quota
o Channel for voicing women’s demands
o Group consciousness as resource for campaigns addressing party leaders
➔ This has nothing to with individual ambition & qualities, but with how we organize politics
RULES
• The more formal the better for newcomers (women, ethnic minorities,...) → related to centralization, is the
point that formal rules are good for inclusion & equality. The more formal the rules are about how people
are recruited & selected, the more transparent, the more equal & inclusive the outcome is
• Quota and reserved seats also have a positive impact of woman in politics. Quotas are a way to increase
representation for a certain group
2.2 Networks!!! (also very important)
Elin Bjarnegård (2013)
Gender, Informal Institutions and Political Recruitment. Explaining Male Dominance in Parliamentary
Representation
Merit & ambition are gendered and mediated through networks
Homosocial capital
• Networks of individuals who share norms, values and perceptions. People hand to come together to bound
with people, that look like them, that are familiar in a way and therefore are perceived as trustworthy and
predictable.
• These networks are important in unsafe situations & risky context. Politics is an unsafe situation, you have
conflicts, enemies,… then are the networks crucial because you want to be surrounded by people that you
believe are trustworthy.
• Old boys network = network, based to discriminate people, to keep people out.
• Instrumental side: access to resources = capital that is mobilized in politics, information about & support for
political mandates amongst others
• White privileged men historically dominate these networks. They benefit more strongly from these
networks (but also the underrepresented groups do)
o They have more knowledge about political position, information, contacts, access
o In the networks, there is political power through historical reasons
o Female party leaders, then the networks of those woman have political capital. That’s wider than just
woman running for office, this is how networks work
• These networks do not intend to exclude (no conspiracy) but do generate and maintain exclusion. But they
don’t do that intentional. Learns you to understand why inequality still exist in democracy & is maintain by
people who have no intention to exclude. You have to deal with the networks, it’s interesting to understand
3
, Mina Seffers- Gender and Diversity
why the networks are there in the first place. If you want access to the networks, you have to work on being
perceived as loyalty,… = strategical dealing with the phenomenon
2.3 Ambition
What motivates women (more than men) to run? Women are ambitious, want to go in politics, but they must be
approach in a different manor. They have to be more then man, persuaded to take political office, because
women are different socialized (education, through rol models,…). Women, less easy than men, think of
themselves as potential politician. This can be easy overcome through:
• Direct recruitment BV ask women to run for office because their capacities (= convincing) <→ forcing
women in political office
• Encouragement
• Exposure to women officeholders
• Organizations and programmes committed to women’s recruitment and training
• Sense of ‘usefulness of politics to solve problems’ before they enter politics. For men, the bar is lower, a
woman wants to have proof that they can achieve something. That’s because women have less time for
politics, because they must take care for their children
• Capacity to make substantive policy change. Can I change something when I go into politics?
2.4 Merit
Rainbow Murray (2014) Quotas for Men: Reframing GQs as a Means of Improving Representation for All
It explains why we must think about GQ in a different way, a way to limit overrepresentation. We have a much
more interesting debate on about what quality is in politics, who should be select into politics & what are the
criteria?
Quality criteria based on previous (male) examples
Men greater opportunity to demonstrate their worth
Men’s competence is rarely called into question - they benefit from the presumption of competence
Meritocratic argument assumes men’s overrepresentation as a correct & fair outcome
“women representatives find themselves faced with a triple whammy: They are expected to be as good as men
on traditional male-oriented criteria, while also providing added value, yet may still be perceived as inferior to
their male colleagues and have their competence constantly questioned” → the best way to show your
competence, is by doing the job, but the people who are in a position to show that they can do the job & have
the qualities, are the ones who are already there → structural disadvantaging the people aren’t doing the job
Individual qualities – characteristics:
• Resources: time and money to run a successful campaign
• Charisma
• Eloquence and the ability to defend an argument in public
• Media appeal
• Ability to work a crowd
• Intelligence
• Networks
• Party loyalty
4
Gender, Diversity and Politics
Class 1: introduction
1. The democratic promise: equality and freedom
Democracy starts from the promise/key value that “Everyone is equal and free… to become a politician”
This is a central believe, almost an ideology. It’s part of the democratic ideology
➔ Numbers are a contradiction that we are all free & equal to be a politician. Equality is nowhere realized,
there is progress but there is no equality.
If women and men are equal and free:
• Why, then, are women underrepresented?
• Why, then, are women now better represented?
• Why do we have to understand that there is progress, because if you are equal, how can you be more/less
equal?
The ‘democratic’ answer:
• There is no problem. It’s normal to have more/less (in)equality
• To declare the inequality, it all depends on:
o Ambition
o Merit
• You can’t force someone to become a politician, because there is freedom. People have capacities and are
free to develop them in the direction they want. If woman don’t develop their capacity in the direction of
political skills, it’s their choice. It’s in line with the democratic promise of equality
What the research on women in politics learns us:
• It is not (only) about personal ambition; structural factors matter greatly
• Ambition and merit are gendered (structured along gender lines), and mediated by networks. If there is
now more equality, it’s because these structures have been changed. It’s not only an individual effort, but
the structures from are society have been changed intentionally through civil society organisations.
2. Is the democratic promise fulfilled?
• Research on when women run for office
• 3 concepts: ambition, merit, networks
1
,Mina Seffers- Gender and Diversity
2.1 When do women run for office?
When everything is okay for the democratic, woman would run for office when they wish so. Research shows
us STRUCTURAL FACTORS that define when woman run for office & it explains why woman run less for office.
Conditions related to elections and PP
• Party competition
• Party ideology
• Party organisation
• Formal rules
Party competition (1)
• When do PP put a woman on their list? When there is a political scandal & when they face an electoral failure
(= ‘glass cliff’ → they put woman up there for office when it’s going bad. They tend to protect what they
preheat to be their highest political potentials. They let them take a step back, so they stay out of the wind
generated by the political scandal & put newcomers to the front. If they lose the elections ore face
corruption, investigations,… their high potentials get damaged. The stay behind the scenes for a while & the
newcomers takes the accusations. If they lose the newcomers through the scandal, so be it & the good guys
are protected)
• Weak competition & low chances of assuming government → when they are entering an election & are
sure what the outcome will be like, then they open up to demand new, female candidates
• Contagion = when 1 party starts with letting woman run for office, other PP are incentivized to follow that
example. Because you don’t want the other PP to run off with woman’s votes. When 1 party puts a woman
on top of the list, other PP follow because they don’t want to leave or give away the woman-friendly label
to the other party. It’s more a competition between PP to be the most woman friendly. This is the reason
we see often woman leaders’ ore woman getting elected on conservative lists (extreme right). Those parties
are not a big fan of putting woman on their list.
➔ 3 reasons why PP let woman run office, it’s not about equality, ambition or merit. If this is what cause
inequality, it’s undemocratic. These practices are not in line with the democratic values
Party ideology (2)
• Left more women candidates, elected and party elites
• Historical connection between leftist parties and women’s movement
• But right-wing parties are catching up
➔ It’s a structural element that explains why we found woman in a certain place, it’s not about merit &
ambition
Party organisation internaly (3)
• Explains why PP let woman run for office or when they open up for woman
• Centralization (but only when party leaders believe in women’s qualities and the principle of gender
equality). When a PP is centrally organized = less democratic = we see that PP often are mare inclusive &
gender equal, but that’s contra intuitively. If the PP that it should be gender equal, it has the power &
capacity to enact that. In these centralized PP, it’s more difficult to push through the central policy on gender
equality
• Women party leaders and selectors: when you have more party leaders, when you have party selectors, we
refer to that group in a PP that have discission-making-power who has a place on the list (= gatekeepers).
It’s not always visible to the outside of the world that there is woman in that group in contrast to the party
leadership (= visible). This is because of networks, there are more men than woman in their professional
network. It’s important to have rolemodels because you can’t be what you don’t see. Otherwise, it feels as
you don’t belong here & this is not a place for you
2
,Mina Seffers- Gender and Diversity
Women sections within parties
• Sections are common practice & historically BV young people, minorities
• Sections are important to recruit the next generation of female politicians, because they became more and
more powerful in the PP & can push for woman issues on the political agenda
• Functions
o In the past: serve coffee, it’s an example for the entertainment function
o Mobilize female electorate & PP elites looked at woman sections to know how they can win their
votes → this is the moment that women’s issues were included in party platforms
o Intra party decision-making
• Effects
o Effective in promoting women for office and quota
o Channel for voicing women’s demands
o Group consciousness as resource for campaigns addressing party leaders
➔ This has nothing to with individual ambition & qualities, but with how we organize politics
RULES
• The more formal the better for newcomers (women, ethnic minorities,...) → related to centralization, is the
point that formal rules are good for inclusion & equality. The more formal the rules are about how people
are recruited & selected, the more transparent, the more equal & inclusive the outcome is
• Quota and reserved seats also have a positive impact of woman in politics. Quotas are a way to increase
representation for a certain group
2.2 Networks!!! (also very important)
Elin Bjarnegård (2013)
Gender, Informal Institutions and Political Recruitment. Explaining Male Dominance in Parliamentary
Representation
Merit & ambition are gendered and mediated through networks
Homosocial capital
• Networks of individuals who share norms, values and perceptions. People hand to come together to bound
with people, that look like them, that are familiar in a way and therefore are perceived as trustworthy and
predictable.
• These networks are important in unsafe situations & risky context. Politics is an unsafe situation, you have
conflicts, enemies,… then are the networks crucial because you want to be surrounded by people that you
believe are trustworthy.
• Old boys network = network, based to discriminate people, to keep people out.
• Instrumental side: access to resources = capital that is mobilized in politics, information about & support for
political mandates amongst others
• White privileged men historically dominate these networks. They benefit more strongly from these
networks (but also the underrepresented groups do)
o They have more knowledge about political position, information, contacts, access
o In the networks, there is political power through historical reasons
o Female party leaders, then the networks of those woman have political capital. That’s wider than just
woman running for office, this is how networks work
• These networks do not intend to exclude (no conspiracy) but do generate and maintain exclusion. But they
don’t do that intentional. Learns you to understand why inequality still exist in democracy & is maintain by
people who have no intention to exclude. You have to deal with the networks, it’s interesting to understand
3
, Mina Seffers- Gender and Diversity
why the networks are there in the first place. If you want access to the networks, you have to work on being
perceived as loyalty,… = strategical dealing with the phenomenon
2.3 Ambition
What motivates women (more than men) to run? Women are ambitious, want to go in politics, but they must be
approach in a different manor. They have to be more then man, persuaded to take political office, because
women are different socialized (education, through rol models,…). Women, less easy than men, think of
themselves as potential politician. This can be easy overcome through:
• Direct recruitment BV ask women to run for office because their capacities (= convincing) <→ forcing
women in political office
• Encouragement
• Exposure to women officeholders
• Organizations and programmes committed to women’s recruitment and training
• Sense of ‘usefulness of politics to solve problems’ before they enter politics. For men, the bar is lower, a
woman wants to have proof that they can achieve something. That’s because women have less time for
politics, because they must take care for their children
• Capacity to make substantive policy change. Can I change something when I go into politics?
2.4 Merit
Rainbow Murray (2014) Quotas for Men: Reframing GQs as a Means of Improving Representation for All
It explains why we must think about GQ in a different way, a way to limit overrepresentation. We have a much
more interesting debate on about what quality is in politics, who should be select into politics & what are the
criteria?
Quality criteria based on previous (male) examples
Men greater opportunity to demonstrate their worth
Men’s competence is rarely called into question - they benefit from the presumption of competence
Meritocratic argument assumes men’s overrepresentation as a correct & fair outcome
“women representatives find themselves faced with a triple whammy: They are expected to be as good as men
on traditional male-oriented criteria, while also providing added value, yet may still be perceived as inferior to
their male colleagues and have their competence constantly questioned” → the best way to show your
competence, is by doing the job, but the people who are in a position to show that they can do the job & have
the qualities, are the ones who are already there → structural disadvantaging the people aren’t doing the job
Individual qualities – characteristics:
• Resources: time and money to run a successful campaign
• Charisma
• Eloquence and the ability to defend an argument in public
• Media appeal
• Ability to work a crowd
• Intelligence
• Networks
• Party loyalty
4
