The Underrepresentation of Women in Political Life
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Women in political life: the case of the Republic of Ireland Department of Political Science University of Dublin, Trinity College Candidate: Supervisor: Lisa Keenan Prof. Gail McElroy Dissertation Presented to the University of Dublin, Trinity College in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Dublin, Trinity College 2018 2 Declaration I declare that this thesis has not been submitted as an exercise for a degree at this or any other university and it is entirely my own work. I agree to deposit this thesis in the University’s open access institutional repository or allow the library to do so on my behalf, subject to Irish Copyright Legislation and Trinity College Library conditions of use and acknowledgement. Signed: _________________________________ Lisa Keenan Date: _________________________________ 3 4 Acknowledgements This project was made possible only through the generous contribution of the supporters of Trinity’s Grattan Scholars programme. Particular thanks must go to Mr. John Pearson whose funding of a project seven years ago introduced me to research and whose continued generosity has allowed me to stick with it. Prof. John O’Hagan too has been unstinting in his support first as a lecturer, then as a supervisor and a mentor. I am very grateful. I must also thank my supervisor, Prof. Gail McElroy, for her support and her unerring ability to identify exactly what was wrong with my work when I could no longer see the trees for the wood. Her calm in the face of the perpetual reconceptualization of my project was unparalleled. Thanks must also go to the academics across college who were kind enough to sacrifice some of their lecture time to allow me to survey their students: Dr. Michelle Darcy, Dr. Peter Stone, Dr. Gavin Morrison, Dr. Caroline McEvoy, Dr. Marco Ruffini, Dr. Mark Ward, and Prof. Sergey Frolov. Members of the Department of Political Science are unwavering in their support for and interest in the research of its postgraduate students. Over the course of the PhD, all of them – whether as Friday seminar discussants, questioners, or otherwise – have taken the trouble to provide comments and suggestions on my work. Particular thanks must go to Dr. Constantine Boussalis for his practical help with statistical software when all hope seemed lost. The Department’s administrators too – Jessie Smith, Tom Byrne, Raimonda Elvikyte, and Laura Oxford – have never been less than generous with their time when dealing with a litany of queries over the course of the four years. For the many distractions, I am grateful to Catherine, Clodagh, Derrie, Kim, Kristin, and Niamh. They tactfully talked about anything but the thesis in the final months before submission, while Liam and David fortunately talked about nothing else. Finally, I must thank my family. My sisters’ faith in my ability to produce has always been flattering if misguided. As for my father, for his unfailing support and his capacity to put any problem no matter how big into perspective I appreciate him more than I can say. 5 Table of Contents Declaration ....................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... 5 List of tables and figures ................................................................................................... 9 Summary .........................................................................................................................11 Chapter One: Introduction and literature review ..........................................................13 1.1 Motivation ............................................................................................................13 1.2 The case for researching women’s underrepresentation ....................................14 1.3 Explanations for women’s underrepresentation .................................................20 1.3.1 Structural and institutional accounts of women’s underrepresentation ......21 1.3.2 Individual-level accounts of women’s underrepresentation ........................26 1.3.3 Shortcomings of the existing research ..........................................................28 1.4 The Irish case ........................................................................................................31 1.5 Outline of the thesis .............................................................................................38 Chapter Two: On the campaign trail: are candidate experiences gendered? ................41 Abstract ......................................................................................................................41 2.1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................41 2.2 Literature and hypotheses ....................................................................................44 2.3 Local election analysis ..........................................................................................53 2.3.1 Local government in Ireland ..........................................................................53 2.3.2 Data ...............................................................................................................57 2.3.3 Results ...........................................................................................................63 2.3.3.1 Regression results ...................................................................................63 2.3.3.2 Controls ..................................................................................................63 2.3.3.3 Robustness checks ..................................................................................67 2.4 General election analysis ......................................................................................70 2.4.1 The 2016 Irish general election .....................................................................70 2.4.2 Data ...............................................................................................................72 2.4.3 Results ...........................................................................................................73 2.5 Discussion .............................................................................................................75 2.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................80 Chapter Three: Gender stereotyping and candidate evaluations: evidence from an experimental study of direct and indirect voter bias .....................................................82 Abstract ......................................................................................................................82 3.1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................82 3.2 Literature and hypotheses ....................................................................................86 6 3.3 Data collection: participants and procedure ........................................................ 94 3.4 Data .................................................................................................................... 101 3.5 Analysis ............................................................................................................... 102 3.5.1 Descriptive statistics .................................................................................... 102 3.5.2 Regression analysis ...................................................................................... 103 3.5.3 Robustness checks....................................................................................... 113 3.6 Discussion ........................................................................................................... 114 3.7 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 120 Chapter Four: Gender differences in political career progression: evidence from the Republic of Ireland ....................................................................................................... 122 Abstract .................................................................................................................... 122 4.1 Introduction........................................................................................................ 122 4.2 Literature review and hypotheses ..................................................................... 126 4.3 The Irish case ...................................................................................................... 138 4.4 Data .................................................................................................................... 142 4.5 Results ................................................................................................................ 150 4.5.1 Descriptives ................................................................................................. 150 4.5.2 Regression results ....................................................................................... 153 4.5.3 Controls ....................................................................................................... 153 4.5.4 Robustness checks....................................................................................... 158 4.6 Discussion 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