Women’s Representation: Supply, Mass and Elite Demand, and Regime Type

• In Event: Comparative Politics of Gender and Politics

Abstract

What explains variation in the level of women’s representation? Scholars recognize that women’s representation involves  demand- and supply-side factors. Demand factors capture preferences voters have for women legislators, while supply-side factors determine the size of the pool of women with the resources to compete effectively for office. While women’s representation is not necessarily low in dictatorships, the supply and demand framework, as it relates to mass demand, is unlikely to be the primary driving force behind women’s representation in dictatorships. Dictatorships should depend upon elite demand for women legislators. There are, after all, mechanisms by which authoritarian elites can, if they wish, increase the percentage of women legislators even when mass demand is low and/or the supply of qualified female candidates is low. While elites in democracies have  tools with which they can increase the percentage of women legislators, we would not expect the level of elite demand to depart as significantly from mass demand due to the fact that democratic elites are electorally accountable to the masses. In line with my theory, I find (1)little evidence that mass demand or the supply of qualified female candidates ever matters in dictatorships, (2) that elite demand matters in democracies above and beyond mass demand, and (3) that the substantive impact of elite demand is significantly larger in dictatorships than democracies.

Author

• Kostanca Dhima, Texas A&M University