From Suffrage To Representation: Women, Suffragists and Politicians upon Enfranchisement in the U.S., U.K, Norway and Chile

从选举权到代表权：美国、英国、挪威和智利的妇女、选举权主义者和政治家的选举权

• 批准号: ES/T01394X/2
• 负责人: Mona Morgan-Collins
• 金额: $ 21.8万
• 依托单位: King's College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FT01394X%2F2
• 关键词: Suffrage; Representation; Women; Suffragists; Politicians

How do women achieve representation of shared interests? Scholars often emphasize the importance of voting rights for representation, while practitioners call for the removal of voting barriers as a means to group empowerment. Yet politicians often fail to represent women's interests despite women's equal access to the polls. This project will challenge conventional narratives, shared by scholars and practitioners alike, wherein the acquisition of voting rights 'automatically' improves the representation of women's interests. While de jure electoral inclusion of women is clearly a necessary condition for de facto representation of women's interests, the gender deficit in most legislatures today demonstrates that it is hardly sufficient. Through an analysis of the electoral processes that materialised in the aftermath of women's suffrage in four distinct countries (U.K, U.S., Norway and Chile), this project will develop new understanding of how and when access to the polling booth improves the representation of women's interests. Undertaking the study of historical suffrage reforms to understand the pathways towards representation has several advantages. It provides the best environment in which to uncover how women's interests came to be represented despite women's virtual absence in legislatures. This is especially relevant given that women remain underrepresented in most legislatures across the world. It also provides an environment in which to observe both the immediate and the long-term impact of women's entry to politics. This enhances the understanding of the extent to which women came to be represented, but also how such representation was sustained over time. Methodologically, it provides the best natural laboratory in which to derive robust answers relevant to academics and practitioners. This methodological advantage reflects the fact that the adoption of suffrage in a single year - as opposed to across different countries over time - was an exogenous shock to all politicians, whether they liked it or not.Central to this project is an original proposition that politicians' responsiveness to women's interests is primarily determined by an electoral dynamic: vote-seeking politicians may not represent women's interests if women's reluctance to vote disincentivizes politicians to mobilise them, or if women forgo their gender identity and vote on other non-gendered identities. This project thus formulates and tests an original hypothesis: successful representation of women's interests stems from politicians' electoral need to engage women voters and the ability of women's organised groups to enhance women's capacity to demand better representation of women's interests. To this end, this project will create an original data set that tracks the behaviour of voters, organised women's groups and politicians. The micro-level character of this rich data supports the implementation of robust research designs and therefore enables the provision of rigorous answers that maximise the benefit to both academics and practitioners.Beyond scholarly merits, understanding the origins of women's representation in legislatures is highly relevant for practitioners. Given that the representation of women's interests is not automatically secured even under universal suffrage - otherwise there would be no complaints from scholars and advocacy groups that women's interests are not sufficiently represented by politicians today - practitioners' efforts to remove voting barriers as a means to women's empowerment may improve electoral justice without challenging politicians' unwillingness to represent women's interests. This project thus seeks to map the electoral conditions under which the acquisition of the vote improves the representation of women's interests and therefore provide direct recommendations to practitioners who seek to address the gender deficit in legislatures.

妇女如何获得共同利益的代表？学者们经常强调投票权对代表权的重要性，而从业人员则呼吁删除投票障碍作为赋予权力的手段。然而，尽管妇女平等获得民意调查，但政客们通常无法代表妇女的利益。该项目将挑战学者和从业人员所共有的传统叙事，其中收购投票权“自动”改善了妇女利益的代表。尽管妇女的选举纳入妇女显然是事实上代表妇女利益的必要条件，但当今大多数立法机关的性别赤字表明这几乎是不够的。通过分析在四个不同国家（英国，美国，挪威和智利）妇女选举权后实现的选举过程，该项目将对如何以及何时获得投票站的方式有了新的了解来提高对妇女利益的代表性。对历史选举改革进行研究以了解代表性的途径有几个优势。它提供了最佳的环境，即使立法机关中妇女的缺席，尽管妇女缺席，但如何揭示妇女的利益如何得到代表。这尤其重要，因为在世界上大多数立法机关中妇女的代表性不足。它还提供了一个环境，可以观察妇女进入政治的直接和长期影响。这增强了人们对妇女的代表程度的理解，同时又如何随着时间的流逝而维持这种代表。从方法上讲，它提供了最佳的自然实验室，以获取与学者和从业者相关的强大答案。这种方法上的优势反映了以下事实：一年中的选举权（随着时间的流逝）是对所有政客的外在冲击，无论他们是否喜欢，这是一个外源性的震惊。 ``对妇女利益的反应主要取决于选举的动态：如果妇女不愿投票表决，寻求投票的政治家可能不会代表妇女的利益，这不愿使政治家动员她们，或者妇女放弃其性别认同并对其他非性别身份投票。因此，该项目制定并检验了一个原始的假设：成功代表妇女利益的原因是政治家的选举需要吸引女性选民，以及妇女有组织团体的能力增强妇女要求更好地代表妇女利益的能力。为此，该项目将创建一个原始数据集，以跟踪选民，有组织的妇女团体和政客的行为。该丰富数据的微观特征支持强大的研究设计的实施，因此可以提供严格的答案，以最大程度地提高学者和从业者的好处。BEYOND学术性的优点，了解妇女代表在立法机关中的起源非常重要，这与从业者。鉴于即使在普选中，对妇女利益的代表也没有自动确保 - 否则，就没有学者和倡导组织的投诉，即当今政客们的利益不足以代表妇女的利益 - 从业人员努力消除投票障碍作为对妇女的一种手段的努力赋权可以改善选举正义，而无需挑战政治家不愿代表妇女利益。因此，该项目旨在绘制选举条件，在这些条件下，对投票的获取改善了妇女利益的代表，因此向寻求解决立法机关性别赤字的从业人员提供了直接的建议。