Making Supply Meet Demand: Gender Representation and Lobbying

• In Event: Democracy and Administration: Accountability, Representation, Capacity and Power

Abstract

Gender equality in political representation is crucial in contemporary democracies. While scholars have addressed gender inequality in government, less is known about gender representation in civil society. We argue that interest groups use gender representation to gain access and influence the decision-making. We employ a unique dataset with the gender composition for the entire population of government officials and interest group representatives, as well as information on more than 4000 consultation meetings, in the European Union. We use a fixed effects approach, validated by instrumental variable designs. We find that interest groups are more likely to employ female lobbyists where they deal with more diverse legislators. Moreover, this effect is stronger where interest groups are 'outsiders' and hence have to compensate their lack of access. Conceptually, we contribute to the discussion on political representation and gender mainstreaming. Empirically, we provide the first analysis on gender representation in civil society.

Authors

• David Coen, University College London

• Alexander Katsaitis, University of Oslo

• matia vannoni, KCL