SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN POL612 April 17, 2018 TWO BASIC SET OF FACTORS •Demand factors: characteristics of the country, factors making it more likely that women will be elected •Supply factors: determine the pool of women with the will and experience to run •Social structure as one of the key supply variables •Where social structure treats both genders equally, women compete with men •Family, education system, labor force etc. • THEORETICAL TRADITIONS •THE RESOURCE MODEL OF POLITICAL PARTICIPATION •Individual inequalities in prerequisites such as money, time, skills •ELITE THEORIES •Research of political decision-making and characteristics of elites (education, profession) •GENDER STRATIFICATION THEORIES •Inequality as a result of economic power, economic control before political power SEVEN STRUCTURAL FACTORS •1) Money •2) Time •3) Civic skills and community participation •4) Education •5) Work and Economic power •6) Informal networks •7) Media and pop culture MONEY •Campaigns are expensive •Wealthy and well-connected people (Trump? Babiš?) •Pinto-Duschinsky 2002: 104 countries, 59% no limits on campaign spending, 72% no limits on financial contributions by individuals •In general, women have less money •Less full time jobs, lower income • GLOBAL GENDER PAY GAP http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2017/dataexplorer/ ADRIANA MUNOZ (MP IN CHILE, PPD): •“Being a candidate is difficult for a woman because you need to have a lot of money. We have little help economically. Men have access to circles or networks where money is let – they are friends with bank managers. But we are not supported this way. For us, it’s pretty complicated, this arena of power and money.“ (quoted in Franceschet 2001). FACTORS PROMOTING EQUALITY: •Public financing of elections •Subsidies for campaigns •Free allocated broadcast time •NGOs • •Most famous organization: EMILY‘s list (Early Money Is Like Yeast ) •https://www.emilyslist.org/pages/entry/women-we-helped-elect •Shifts in strategies, nowadays they choose already viable candidates TIME •Valuable resource •Political involvement is time demanding •Women‘s burden: care, child bearing, housework, family responsibilities •Second shift (Arlie Hochschild 1989) •Is politics a third shift? • TIME •Women are afraid to “sacrifice” their families •Golda Meir (PM, Israel): “At work, you think of the children you’ve left at home. At home, you think of the work you’ve left unfinished. Such a struggle is unleashed within yourself, your heart is rent.” •Women politicians less often married, more often childless •Structural problem: differences across countries with different social welfare and culture GALAIS, OHBERG, AND COLLER, 2016. USA STATE LEGISLATORS (DODSON 1997) • FOX AND LAWLESS 2014: GLOBAL SOUTH •In developing countries women have significantly less free time •How could a typical woman in Sierra Leone enter politics? CIVIC SKILLS •Abilities that allow citizens to use time and money effectively in political life •Ability to speak in public •Run a meeting •Understanding budgets •Navigate through parliamentary procedures CIVIC SKILLS •Through employment •Activity in non political organizations •Unequal distribution •For women voluntary work is more important •Different impact of voluntary associations on men‘s and women‘s political participation (US data) •Also networking, motivation to enter politics (as a next step?) •Typical also for developing countries (Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda etc.) •What is the effect of PROFESSIONALISATION of politics? • EDUCATION •Elites = educated •Where women have access to education = more women in politics •True? •Developed world, usually graduate and postgraduate degrees (also Latin America), not much educational gender gap, sometimes women better educated (CR) •Developing world: situation serious •Women more likely to be illiterate then men EXAMPLE: INDIA (AFTER 1993 QUOTA RULE) UGANDA 1997 LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT •Requirement of secondary education excluded most rural women •Protests and change of the law UNESCO 2015 •In developing world: •90% of boys are literate, 85% of girls are literate •Regional differences (e.g. Nigeria: only 80% of boys and 65% of girls are literate) WORK •Elites = educated and SUCCESSFUL in professions •Latin America: Law, medicine, business •Czech Republic: • •If women have limited access to prestigious and highly skilled position in labor force they will fail to be represented politically • CINGRANELLI AND RICHARDS: HUMAN RIGHTS DATASET HUMAN RIGHTS DATASET PROBLEMS •We don‘t have enough information •What are the pipeline jobs? •Do women have sufficient human capital and just work too many hours? •Women‘s career paths to politics are different, their resources my be different •Work and position on the labor market is not sufficient •ECONOMIC POWER: control over means of production and allocation of surplus •Control over labor and income matters (as the gender stratification theorists say) • INFORMAL NETWORKS •Statistics sometimes does not work •Can‘t capture informal structures •Results of many experiences (education, organization membership, profession etc.) •Revealed in qualitative intervies: •The old boys‘ network in New Zealand local politics (Marianne Tremaine) •“Another woman mayor was concerned about the existing culture of having the “real'' meeting over drinks after the meeting, so she stopped the restocking of the drinks cabinet and caused a furore. She had support from the other women on council, but not from the men.” • INFORMAL NETWORKS •Informal structures in form of clientelism •Informal structures influence candidate selection processes •Male dominance reproduces through informal structures MEDIA •Reproductions of stereotypes •Reduction of female political efficacy and motivation (see you at the next session for more) • •http://l23movies.com/watch/pxwDo9Gz-miss-representation.html