What effect do different electoral systems have on women’s legislative representation? How do increased political participation and the accumulation of experience facilitate the political empowerment of women? This article from the journal Studies in Comparative International Development demonstrates the value of studying gender relations under democratisation. It shows that electoral institutions can travel across cultures with constant effects.
Mainstream theories in comparative politics suggest that the choice of electoral system, popular participation by women and increased political experience affect women’s political empowerment. Empirical analysis, based on a data set of 127 African parliamentary elections, suggests that all three factors are strongly related to women’s legislative representation in Africa:
- Majoritarian electoral systems discriminate against the representation of women in legislatures. It seems that the more proportional the electoral system, the greater the share of the legislature occupied by women members of parliament (MPs).
- No cross-national evidence supports the hypothesis that women enjoy greater legislative representation in proportional representation (PR) systems with at least one large party. Within-country comparisons, however, do support this hypothesis.
- The level of turnout has a significant positive effect on women’s legislative representation. Assuming that higher turnout is driven by an increasing number of women voters, this suggests that women vote for women more than men do.
- Economic development increases the effect of turnout on women’s legislative representation, but does not cancel out popular participation as an explanatory factor.
- Opposition parties have no more positive effect on women’s representation than do incumbent parties. The presence of old authoritarian rulers and patronage networks in democratic systems does not prevent an increase in women’s legislative representation.
- Women’s representation increases with experience gained through electoral cycles, although this process is incremental rather than dramatic.
This analysis provides a basis for optimism about women’s legislative representation in Africa. There may be value in studying gender relations under democratisation, even with a narrow institutionalist focus using an elitist perspective. Meanwhile, it may be possible to increase women’s legislative representation with relatively few resources and capabilities and through relatively simple changes:
- The choice of electoral systems has important implications for women’s political empowerment in African legislatures. This is significant since electoral systems can be changed relatively easily in comparison to societal norms and economic inequalities.
- It takes relatively few resources and capabilities to increase the number of women voters. Increased efforts, together with increased experience and organisation, can increase women’s legislative representation.
- Imported electoral institutions have had the same effects on women’s representation in Africa as in the established, industrialised democracies. It thus remains to be seen whether other institutions can travel across cultures and maintain constant effects.
