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Decentralization and Women's Status in Regional Polis

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Decentralization and Women's Status in Regional Polis Masculinized or Marginalized: Decentralization and Women’s Status in Regional Polish Institutions SUMMARY. Research on gendered institutions reveals that women often face a dilemma of being masculinized or marginalized. Female politicians downplay gender differences to fit in or risk sanction for highlighting women’s issues. Sub-national institutions are closer and less prestigious, so decentralization may facilitate women’s participation and gender equality. Examining Poland’s 1998 decentralization, I analyze 40 semi-structured interviews with male and female regional political elites using a mixed-methods approach to test five hypotheses about gender attitudes. Women initially respond “no gender inequalities” but change their answers; many support the notion of more women in politics, but not quotas or women’s policy machinery. KEYWORDS. Decentralization, gendered institutions, post-communist, Poland, state feminism, qualitative methods, quotas Masculinized or Marginalized Page 1 of 35 “Even when women win a place in the institutions, they are faced with a catch –22 dilemma: they can perform the masculine better than males and in the process reinforce the masculinist preferences that make it hard for them to succeed, or they can remain outsiders and face enormous challenges to being effective. ” – Georgia Duerst-Lahti 2005 More than a decade of feminist scholarship identifies a “theory of gendered institutions,” mapping “the manifold ways in which gender power and disadvantage are created and maintained not only through law but also through institutional processes, practices, images, ideologies and distributional mechanisms” (Hawkesworth 2003). Male politicians often still view female politicians as outsiders and react to their presence by adopting a more aggressive style of deliberation (Kathlene 1994) or by dismissing women’s legislative accomplishments (Kenney 1996). Devaluing women’s contributions can lead to women’s exclusion from visible positions of authority as well as informal social activities that reinforce the male members’ power and influence (Considine and Deutchman 1996). To be treated as men’s equals, women need to achieve more than their male counterparts (Kanter 1977; Thomas 1994) and to prove they are “one of the guys.” Women in many political institutions 1 therefore face a dilemma, one of being masculinized or marginalized . “Masculinized” women, typically from rightist parties, work as much as possible to blend in with their male counterparts and avoid challenging the gendered norms of an institution. “Marginalized” women, often from leftist parties, voice concerns specific to women, but, as a consequence, are shunned by other politicians or lose institutional prestige. One widespread reform that has the potential to expand women’s participation and improve women’s status in political institutions is decentralization. Decentralization is “the assignment of fiscal, political, and administrative responsibilities to lower levels of government” (Litvack, Ahmad and Bird 1998), and it has been implemented in countries around the globe 2. By pushing political decision-making to more accessible, lower levels of government, Masculinized or Marginalized Page 2 of 35 decentralization should lead to greater participation of women in politics and therefore greater gender equality within institutions (Banaszak, Beckwith and Rucht 2003; Greenberg 2001). We expect decentralized or sub-national institutions 3 to be more open to women for four reasons. Sub-national governments are closer to women and their familial responsibilities (Johnson 2003; Neylan and Tucker 1996; Darcy, Welch and Clark 1994). They are usually lower status than national-level posts (Luciak 2006; Lovenduski and Norris 1993). The working environments tend to be less conflictual and more cooperative (Beck 2001). Finally, regional politicians focus on social welfare issues of direct concern to women (Phillips 1995). The advent of new sub-national institutions in Poland in 1998 offers a notable opportunity to test whether decentralization facilitates women’s participation as equals in the political process or whether women are masculinized or marginalized. This article analyzes interview data with Polish sub-national elite attitudes to gain an understanding of three specific questions. First, in recently decentralized Poland, do sub-national political elites 4, both male and female, generally support women’s participation in political life? Second, do they support institutions that empower women, such as quotas for women and regional equal-status machinery? Third, do regional elites view sub-national government as responsive to women’s groups in civil society? Answers to these questions will lend insight into the gendered impacts of decentralization and women’s status within institutions. In brief, this research indicates that sub-national governments in Poland are not accessible. Secondly, this research joins an emerging body of work on non-western democracies that argues that decentralization does not necessarily lead to more women in office or more women-friendly governments. Although interviewees initially state that women enjoy equality in sub-national institutions, their subsequent remarks reveal that regional institutions are male- Masculinized or Marginalized Page 3 of 35 dominated. Despite women’s statements of gender-based inequality and support for increasing the number of women in regional politics, hypothesis tests reveal that women are no more likely to support regional-level quotas or women’s policy machinery. Male and female elites do not view decentralization as empowering to women’s groups in civil society. Overall, this analysis of interviewees’ statements about gender and status within sub-national institutions in Poland instead suggests that female politicians are masculinized or marginalized. Though women of right and left parties describe experiences of gender inequalities in the interview setting, right-leaning females in sub-national political institutions tend to downplay gender inequalities and tend to reject quotas and regional women’s agencies. Left-leaning females in regional politics are more likely to point out gender inequalities, but also they tend to be marginalized from positions of political power. Decentralization and Women’s Status in Regional Politics Research on women in regional politics has yielded important insights which have thus far focused on women within a single pathway of women’s representation. Vengroff, Nyiri and Fugiero (2003) demonstrate that, on average, more women serve in regional parliaments than in national-level office. Banaszak, Beckwith and Rucht (2003) argue that sub-national institutions tend to be more accessible to women’s movements arguing “as states decentralize their power, feminist organizing, as well as feminist office seeking, is likely to increase at the local level” (22). However, women’s representation can occur throughout the policymaking process, from the articulation of interests by groups and social movements to lawmaking and oversight in the legislature through policy implementation and feedback in bureaucracies. A fuller account of decentralization’s impacts on women’s representation requires a cross-institutional analysis (Rincker 2006). Masculinized or Marginalized Page 4 of 35 Studies of gender and decentralization also present contradictory expectations for advanced industrial democracies compared to new and developing democracies. Banaszak, Beckwith and Rucht (2003) find in Western Europe that decentralization’s effects on women’s movements are largely positive. Decentralization boosted state grants to women’s groups in Italy (Della Porta 2003) and helped women’s groups in American states and Canadian provinces, although it impeded the formation of umbrella women’s groups (Valiente 2003). Among advanced industrialized countries, Vengroff, Nyiri and Fugiero (2003) show that more women serve in regional parliaments than at the national level. However, the trend is reversed for many new democracies in their sample, including Poland. (Insert Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4) 5. Emerging studies of decentralization focused in Africa and Asia show that fewer women hold office and that women face patriarchal forces at the local level (Beall 2005; Ohene-Konadu 2001; Siahaan 2004). Beall argues that 1994 decentralization in South Africa had negative implications for women because “the informal institutions in which local [South African] governments are often embedded are hostile to women” (257). Similarly, Siahaan (2004) posits that local-level decentralization has been harmful to women’s interests because local governments are characterized by stronger patriarchy, lower levels of literacy among women, and higher unemployment. Ohene-Konadu’s (2001) study of Ugandan municipalization shows that despite a 33% quota for women in district councils, only 7% of seats are held by women. Surveyed female politicians indicated that the top two reasons for low female participation in district councils were a shortage of funds for campaigns and gender barriers. Although studies of decentralization in African and Asia are suggestive; countries of Central and Eastern Europe have a history of state socialism that sets them apart from other countries, requiring us to extend studies of decentralization to this region 6. From 1945 to 1989, Masculinized or Marginalized Page 5 of 35 the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) were dominated from abroad by the Soviet Union, controlled by often
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