A bill of their own: collaboration of women in European parliaments

Author:
Jens Wäckerle University of Cologne, Germany

Search for other papers by Jens Wäckerle in
Current site
Google Scholar Close
Article Category:
Research Article
Copyright:
© European Conference on Politics and Gender and Bristol University Press 2023
Online Publication Date:
14 Apr 2023
Pages:
308–327
Publisher:
Bristol University Press
Volume/Issue:
Volume 6: Issue 3
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1332/251510821X16782058189028
Restricted access
Get eTOC alerts
Rights and permissions Cite this article
Buy article/chapter (
GBP  £25.00
)

Research on representation is increasingly concerned with substantive questions, such as how women members of parliament are acting for women in parliament. To understand the substantive impact women have, we need to understand the power structure in parliament and how women members of parliament use collaboration to represent their constituents. Using a data set of cosponsorship data from 14 European parliaments between 1987 and 2021, and taking advantage of the range of electoral systems, quotas and levels of women’s representation present in these countries, I find that women are more likely than men to collaborate on bill cosponsorship and cosponsor more bills with other women, especially when there are few women in parliament. An analysis of bills cosponsored by women reveals that women members of parliament use the tool of cosponsorship to substantively represent women.

  • Aléman, E. et al. (2009) Comparing cosponsorship and roll-call ideal points, Legislative Studies Quarterly, 34(1): 87–116.

  • Anzia, S.F. and Berry, C.R. (2011) The Jackie (and Jill) Robinson effect: why do congresswomen outperform congressmen?, American Journal of Political Science, 55(3): 478–93. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00512.x

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bäck, H. and Debus, M. (2016) Political Parties, Parliaments and Legislative Speechmaking,  New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Bäck, H. and Debus, M. (2019) When do women speak? A comparative analysis of the role of gender in legislative debates, Political Studies, 67(3): 576–96.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bäck, H., Debus, M. and Müller, J. (2014) Who takes the parliamentary floor? The role of gender in speech-making in the Swedish Riksdag, Political Research Quarterly, 67(3): 504–18.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bailer, S. et al. (2022) The diminishing value of representing the disadvantaged: between group representation and individual career paths, British Journal of Political Science, 52(2): 535–52. doi: 10.1017/S0007123420000642

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Baltrunaite, A. et al. (2014) Gender quotas and the quality of politicians, Journal of Public Economics, 118: 62–74. doi: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2014.06.008

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Barnes, T.D. (2016) Gendering Legislative Behavior, New York: Cambridge University Press.

  • Barnes, T.D. and O’Brien, D.Z. (2018) Defending the realm: the appointment of female defense ministers worldwide, American Journal of Political Science, 62(2): 355–68. doi: 10.1111/ajps.12337

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bergqvist, C., Bjarnegård, E. and Zetterberg, P. (2018) The gendered leeway: male privilege, internal and external mandates, and gender-equality policy change, Politics, Groups, and Identities, 6(4): 576–92.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bratton, K.A. (2002) The effect of legislative diversity on agenda setting: evidence from six state legislatures, American Politics Research, 30: 115–42. doi: 10.1177/1532673X02030002001

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bratton, K.A. and Haynie, K.L. (1999) Agenda setting and legislative success in state legislatures: the effects of gender and race, The Journal of Politics, 61(3): 658–79. doi: 10.2307/2647822

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bratton, K.A. and Rouse, S.M. (2011) Networks in the legislative arena: how group dynamics affect cosponsorship, Legislative Studies Quarterly, 36(3): 423–60. doi: 10.1111/j.1939-9162.2011.00021.x

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Briatte, F. (2016) Network patterns of legislative collaboration in twenty parliaments, Network Science, 4(2): 266–71. doi: 10.1017/nws.2015.31

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Campbell, J.E. (1982) Cosponsoring legislation in the U.S. Congress, Legislative Studies Quarterly, 7(3): 415–22. doi: 10.2307/439366

  • Carey, J.M. and Shugart, M.S. (1995) Incentives to cultivate a personal vote: a rank ordering of electoral formulas, Electoral Studies, 14(4): 417–39. doi: 10.1016/0261-3794(94)00035-2

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Carnes, N. (2012) Does the numerical underrepresentation of the working class in congress matter?, Legislative Studies Quarterly, 37(1): 5–34. doi: 10.1111/j.1939-9162.2011.00033.x

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Caul, M. (2001) Political parties and the adoption of candidate gender quotas: a cross-national analysis, The Journal of Politics, 63(4): 1214–29. doi: 10.1111/0022-3816.00107

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Celis, K. et al. (2014) Constituting women’s interests through representative claims, Politics & Gender, 10: 149–74.

  • Childs, S. and Withey, J. (2004) Women representatives acting for women: sex and the signing of early day motions in the 1997 British Parliament, Political Studies, 52: 552–64. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9248.2004.00495.x

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Clayton, A. and Zetterberg, P. (2018) Quota shocks: electoral gender quotas and government spending priorities worldwide, The Journal of Politics, 80(3): 916–32. doi: 10.1086/697251

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Clayton, A., Josefsson, C. and Wang, V. (2017) Quotas and women’s substantive representation: evidence from a content analysis of Ugandan plenary debates, Politics & Gender, 13(2): 276–304.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Collier, C.N. and Raney, T. (2018) Understanding sexism and sexual harassment in politics: a comparison of Westminster parliaments in Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada, Social Politics, 25(3): 432–55. doi: 10.1093/sp/jxy024

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Devlin, C. and Elgie, R. (2008) The effect of increased women’s representation in parliament: the case of Rwanda, Parliamentary Affairs, 61(2): 237–54. doi: 10.1093/pa/gsn007

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • De Vries, E., Schoonvelde, M. and Schumacher, G. (2018) No longer lost in translation: evidence that Google Translate works for comparative bag-of-words text applications, Political Analysis, 26(4): 417–30. doi: 10.1017/pan.2018.26

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Diekman, A.B. and Schneider, M.C. (2010) A social role theory perspective on gender gaps in political attitudes, Psychology of Women Quarterly 2, 34(4): 486–97. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-6402.2010.01598.x

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Döring, H., Huber, C. and Manow, P. (2022) Parliaments and governments database (ParlGov): information on parties, elections and cabinets in established democracies, Development version, https://www.parlgov.org/.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Dovi, S. (2002) Preferable descriptive representatives: will just any woman, black or Latino do?, American Political Science Review, 96(4): 729–43. doi: 10.1017/S0003055402000412

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Eagly, A.H. and Karau, S.J. (2002) Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders, Psychological Review, 109(3): 573–98. doi: 10.1037/0033-295X.109.3.573

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Erikson, J. and Verge, T. (2022) Gender, power and privilege in the parliamentary workplace, Parliamentary Affairs, 75(1): 1–19. doi: 10.1093/pa/gsaa048

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Erzeel, S. and Rashkova, E. (2022) The substantive representation of social groups: towards a new comparative research agenda, European Journal of Politics and Gender, Early View, doi: 10.1332/251510821X16635712428686.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Gerrity, J.C., Osborn, T. and Mendez, J.M. (2007) Women and representation: a different view of the district?, Politics & Gender, 3(2): 179–200.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Greene, Z. and O’Brien, D.Z. (2016) Diverse parties, diverse agendas? Female politicians and the parliamentary party’s role in platform formation, European Journal of Political Research, 55: 435–53. doi: 10.1111/1475-6765.12141

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Hargrave, L. and Blumenau, J. (2022) No longer conforming to stereotypes? Gender, political style and parliamentary debate in the UK, British Journal of Political Science, 52(4): 1584–601.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Holman, M.R. and Mahoney, A. (2018) Stop, collaborate, and listen: women’s collaboration in US state legislatures, Legislative Studies Quarterly, 43(2): 179–206. doi: 10.1111/lsq.12199

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Homola, J. (2019) Are parties equally responsive to women and men?, British Journal of Political Science, 49(3): 957–75. doi: 10.1017/S0007123417000114

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Hughes, M.M. and Paxton, P. (2019) The political representation of women over time, in S. Franceschet, M.L. Krook and N. Tan (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Women’s Political Rights,  London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp 33–51.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Kanthak, K. and Woon, J. (2014) Women don’t run? Election aversion and candidate entry, American Journal of Political Science, 59(3): 1–18.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Kittilson, M.C. (2006) Challenging Parties, Changing Parliaments, Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press.

  • Koger, G. (2003) Position taking and cosponsorship in the U.S. House, Legislative Studies Quarterly, 28(2): 225–46. doi: 10.3162/036298003X200872

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Krook, M.L. (2018) Violence against women in politics: a rising global trend, Politics and Gender, 14(4): 673–701. doi: 10.1017/S1743923X18000582

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Krupnikov, Y. and Bauer, N.M. (2014) The relationship between campaign negativity, gender and campaign context, Political Behavior, 36: 167–88. doi: 10.1007/s11109-013-9221-9

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Lovenduski, J. and Norris, P. (2003) Westminster women: the politics of presence, Political Studies, 51: 84–102. doi: 10.1111/1467-9248.00414

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Mansbridge, J. (1999) Should blacks represent blacks and women represent women? A contingent ‘yes’, The Journal of Politics, 61(3): 628–57. doi: 10.2307/2647821

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Mavisakalyan, A. and Tarverdi, Y. (2019) Gender and climate change: do female parliamentarians make difference?, European Journal of Political Economy, 56: 151–64. doi: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2018.08.001

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • McEvoy, C. (2016) Does the descriptive representation of women matter? A comparison of gendered differences in political attitudes between voters and representatives in the European Parliament, Politics and Gender, 12(4): 754–80. doi: 10.1017/S1743923X16000118

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Mendelberg, T., Karpowitz, C.F. and Goedert, N. (2014) Does descriptive representation facilitate women’s distinctive voice? How gender composition and decision rules affect deliberation, American Journal of Political Science, 58(2): 291–306. doi: 10.1111/ajps.12077

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • O’Brien, D.Z. (2018) ‘Righting’ conventional wisdom: women and right parties in established democracies, Politics & Gender, 14(1): 27–55.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • O’Brien, D.Z. and Piscopo, J.M. (2019) The impact of women in parliament, in S. Franceschet, M.L. Krook and N. Tan (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Women’s Political Rights, London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Osborn, T. and Mendez, J.M. (2010) Speaking as women: women and floor speeches in the Senate, Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 31(1): 1–21. doi: 10.1080/15544770903501384

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Pitkin, H. (1967) The Concept of Representation, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.

  • Prates, M.O.R., Avelar, P.H. and Lamb, L.C. (2020) Assessing gender bias in machine translation: a case study with Google Translate, Neural Computing and Applications, 32: 6363–81. doi: 10.1007/s00521-019-04144-6

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Raiber, K. and Spierings, N. (2022) An agnostic approach to gender patterns in parliamentary speech: a question of representation by topic and style, European Journal of Politics and Gender, Early View, doi: 10.1332/251510821X16539489608628.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Roberts, M.E. et al. (2014) Structural topic models for open-ended survey responses, American Journal of Political Science, 58(4): 1064–82. doi: 10.1111/ajps.12103

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Rocca, M.S. and Sanchez, G.R. (2008) The effect of race and ethnicity on bill sponsorship and cosponsorship in Congress, American Politics Research, 36(1): 130–52. doi: 10.1177/1532673X07306357

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Schmidt, G.D. (2008) The election of women in list PR systems: testing the conventional wisdom, Electoral Studies, 28: 190–203. doi: 10.1016/j.electstud.2008.08.002

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Schwindt-Bayer, L.A. (2006) Still supermadres? Gender and the policy priorities of Latin American legislators, American Journal of Political Science, 50(3): 570–85. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5907.2006.00202.x

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Swers, M.L. (2005) Connecting descriptive and substantive representation: an analysis of sex differences in cosponsorship activity, Legislative Studies Quarterly, 30(3): 407–33. doi: 10.3162/036298005X201617

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Swift, C.S. and VanderMolen, K. (2021) Marginalization and mobilization: the roots of female legislators’ collaborative advantage in the states, State Politics & Policy Quarterly, 21(4): 355–79. doi: 10.1017/spq.2020.9

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Van Aelst, P. and Louwerse, T. (2014) Parliament without government: the Belgian Parliament and the government formation processes of 2007–2011, West European Politics, 37(3): 475–96. doi: 10.1080/01402382.2013.832953

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Vega, A. and Firestone, J.M. (1995) The effects of gender on congressional behavior and the substantive representation of women, Legislative Studies Quarterly, 20(2): 213–22. doi: 10.2307/440448

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Volkens, A. et al. (2020) The Manifesto Data Collection. Manifesto Project (MRG/CMP/MARPOR). Version 2020b, Berlin: Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB).

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Wang, S. (2022) Do women always represent women? The effects of gender quotas on substantive representation, Political Behavior, Preprint, doi: 10.1007/s11109-022-09808-z.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Wängnerud, L. (2009) Women in parliaments: descriptive and substantive representation, Annual Review of Political Science, 12: 51–69.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Weeks, A.C. and Masala, F. (2022) Still ‘the domain of men?’ Gender quotas and women’s inclusion in local politics in Italy, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Online First, doi: 10.1111/lsq.12405.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
Jens Wäckerle University of Cologne, Germany

Search for other papers by Jens Wäckerle in
Current site
Google Scholar Close

jens.waeckerle@uni-koeln.de

Content Metrics

May 2022 onwards Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 1726 1320 24
Full Text Views 442 167 2
PDF Downloads 355 51 5

Altmetrics

Dimensions

Cover European Journal of Politics and Gender
European Journal of Politics and Gender