This chapter has analysed Feminist Institutionalist and Political Socialization approaches in the prior sections to understand how these concepts can be applied to study women’s substantive representation with a principal focus on individual and contextual aspects influencing women’s substantive representation. The concept of women’s substantive representation and its relationship with descriptive representation requires an understanding of both the gendered life experiences and the way different socialization processes influence women’s representation. Also, the usage of institutional, contextual, and individual dimensions of socialization as analytical tools informs the formation of an analytical framework to conduct further empirical investigation. The thematic categorisation into macro and micro level factors offers a framework for integrating factors proposed in the literature with new factors which are expected to have an impact on women legislators in developing countries.
The first section in this chapter argued that women legislators are central players in this process. However, other considerations must be included in order to achieve an in-depth understanding of women legislators’ abilities and willingness to achieve SRW. For this reason, if policy changes do not happen despite the presence of women, we can hardly argue that this means women legislators are ineffective (Lovenduski, 2005). This study assumes that substantial policy change would not have happened without the work of women legislators, while acknowledging the existence of other associated institutional and contextual factors that can positively connect women’s presence with their substantive representation. This dissertation seeks to show how women legislators act for women directly by addressing/advocating/bringing attention to issues pertinent to women. Furthermore, variation among women legislators and their life experiences are discussed to benefit the policy- making process by providing a richness of attitudes and insights. To make further contributions to the existing debate, this study provides broader insights on the content of women issues coming up on the floor of the parliament, and the variation in selection of women issues. This helps comprehending the importance of women’s presence, compared to that of men, in generating more attention to women issues. Chapter 5 of this study will present empirical evidence on this aspect of the framework.
This study of women’s substantive representation in the context of a developing country offers broader insights into the adoption of legislation benefiting women. It assumes that women legislators use the limited tools available to them in an attempt to influence policy outcomes within a gendered institution. Contextual and institutional factors influence women legislators’ ability to act as ‘critical actors’ in the process of enactment of SRW. Essentially, if women legislators can initiate a policy for women and push it through within their capacities in a certain political context, it can be seen as evidence for an emerging relationship between women’s presence and their policy representation. This relationship might get complicated when women being backbench legislators have limited policy- making authority. Chapter 6 of this study discusses empirical findings concerning this aspect of the analytical framework.
The second part of the analytical framework is focused on explaining women legislators’ engagement in substantive representation by looking at variation among women themselves. While some are successful in their efforts to contribute substantively, others are unable or unwilling to do so. In an attempt to grasp this feature of women’s representation on behalf of women, this part of the analytical framework maps out two levels of factors that are assumed to influence women’s representation in national parliament. Being influenced by the Feminist Institutionalist and Political Socialization approaches, macro and micro level factors capture the individual and the greater political and institutional dimension. The empirical discussion is elaborated in Chapter 7 of this dissertation.
Being influenced by the understanding of FIA, this study intends to examine macro level factors that incorporate formal and informal rules of the institution, formal and informal aspects of the electoral system (directly elected vs. indirectly elected/quota), and political environment (i.e., women friendly political environment). This research also includes other macro factors, such as involvement of multiple external actors and contexts in the process of enactment of substantive representation (Celis et al., 2008; Escobar-Lemon and Taylor-Robinson, 2014; Hoekstra et al., 2014; Kang, 2014). The external actors, as discussed in section 2.3.1.1.3, might be influential and seem necessary to understand substantive representation. Their activities could involve advocating for more women’s presence in parliament and motivate women legislators to act on behalf of women. On the other hand, the absence of such advocacy groups may reduce women legislators’ participation on women issues in the parliament, hence, influence the process of substantive representation.
The prior sections have discussed informal aspects, such as domination of executives, perceptions about quota women, and the formal aspects, such as position within parliament and its influence on women’s ability to represent (discussed in section 2.3.1.1.1). In addition, the mode of selection of women legislators (under the factor electoral system) was identified as an influential aspect in many regions. The formal and informal aspects of the electoral system, such as the label effect and the mandate effect, are hypothesised to exert more influence in the context of Bangladesh, where women have used two distinct modes of entry into parliament i.e. direct election and selection in quota (see: Chapter 3). Similarly, the types of government/political leaders in power, electoral pressure, partisan politics, and patronage political culture might influence women legislators’ ability to act independently which limit representation for women (see section 2.3.1.1.2).
Table 2.1: Factors Affecting (constraining and facilitating) Women’s Substantive Representation
Levels Factors Aspects
Macro Institutional Informal aspects: domination of executives
Informational aspects: perceptions about women from quota provision Formal aspect: position within parliament
Longer experience as legislator
Electoral System The provision of quota
The mode of selection process Political Atmospheres Types of political party in power
Electoral pressure Partisan politics
Patronage political culture
External Actors Connection with women’s movement and rights organization
Micro Individual Dimension Particular life experiences
Pro-feminist and pro-equality Shared life experience
Pathways to
Parliament Kinship ties
Influence of political apprenticeship
Sources: Prepared by the researcher based on the factors identified by different authors (used in this chapter)
The micro level factors include specific types of individual resources, such as socio-political status, education, training within and outside of the families, and skills developed over time. Women legislators bring micro level factors along with them to political office, where they interact with various external conditions. Together these are analytically categorised as micro level factors. Table 2.1 summarises these factors. The existing literature (mentioned under 2.3.2.1.2), especially on Western
contexts, has shown the relevance of individual or shared life experience and values such as pro- feminist or pro-equality stances, and how these attributes impact women’s level of motivation to speak up for women. Along with these factors, this study on women’s representation considers other associated individual dimensions, such as perception on women issues, education, professional experiences, early involvement with politics (discussed in section 2.3.2.1.1), and the pathways to parliament (discussed in 2.3.2.1.2) as influential factors to understand substantive representation.
This dissertation seeks to demonstrate the relevance of these macro and micro level factors to understand women’s substantive representation. At the same time, it remains open to explore other associated factors or circumstantial evidence that may limit and/or facilitate women legislators in their attempts to achieve substantive representation on women issues.