"I'll Make a Male Ally Out of You": Women's Impact on Men in Parliaments

• In Event: Becoming Representative

Abstract

Accounts of descriptive and substantive representation in legislative politics tend to focus on the relationship between the represented and the representative, with a focus on how representatives might advocate for the substantive interests of the represented. This paper expands this view of processes of representation, by considering how relations between representatives – i.e. amongst legislators - shapes the representation of substantive interests. I focus on the substantive representation of women’s interests, and consider how the presence of women legislators can change the actions of male legislators.
The paper uses the UK Parliament as a case study, drawing on analysis of legislative behaviour over a 25-year period and interviews with 30 Members of Parliament. I find that, for some male MPs, interactions with women MPs created in them an understanding and/or interest that led them to become what I term ‘ancillary representatives’ for the substantive interests of women. Ancillary representatives play a secondary role, bringing with them distinct advantages and perspectives – including credibility and legitimacy, ‘mainstreaming effects’, and a male perspective on gendered issues – that can contribute markedly to the substantive representation of women.
Though focused on the substantive representation of women, I also discuss more broadly how minority legislators might create ancillary representatives out of their colleagues. For example, Tom Cole, in describing his experience as only one of only two Native American members of the US House of Representatives, said: “[a] lot of the role I end up playing is educating other members” - suggesting that, particularly for the acutely underrepresented, creating ancillary representatives may be an important tool. Ancillary representation is an important yet to date understudied tool for minority groups seeking to obtain substantive representation, and developing theories of ancillary representation can give us a fuller picture of the ways that representation is both relational and ever evolving.

Author

• Mary Nugent, Rutgers University, New Brunswick