What Drives High Female Cabinet Representation Globally –

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What Drives High Female Cabinet Representation Globally – Mittuniversitetet, avdelningen för samhällsvetenskap. What drives high female cabinet representation globally – The impact of women’s parliamentary representation over time and their status in national cabinets C-uppsats i statsvetenskap vid Mittuniversitetet, HT-VT 2020-21 Victor Spang Arthursson Abstract The aim of this study is to contribute to previous research by improving the time perspective when investigating what impact female parliamentary inclusion has on the levels of female ministers in national cabinets globally. In detail, it focuses on the impact a considerable level of women’s parliamentary representation over time and their status in national cabinets. Politicians’ experience and seniority is built up over time, and the hypothesis put forward is that when heads of states select their cabinet members the power exercised by ever larger numbers and more experienced women visible within parliaments will be difficult to ignore when selecting candidates for cabinet appointments. Using data from 2000 to 2019, this article shows that the longer parliaments have had considerable levels of female parliamentarians the more women will have minister positions. It also shows that there are differences between regions globally, with parts of Asia having a particularly weak performance. This article further demonstrates the importance of including a time aspect when investigating parameters that might need time before their impact is visible, and that testing against momentary data values risks producing inconsistent results. Page i Table of contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................ i Table of contents .......................................................................................................... ii List of tables .................................................................................................................iv List of figures ................................................................................................................iv 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 2. Previous research ....................................................................................................... 3 2.1. Female MPs ....................................................................................................................... 3 2.2. Development .................................................................................................................... 4 2.3. Democracy ........................................................................................................................ 6 2.4. Religion ............................................................................................................................ 7 2.5. Party ideology ................................................................................................................... 7 2.6. Gender equality ................................................................................................................. 8 2.7. Seniority and expertise ...................................................................................................... 9 2.8. Shortcomings and alternative findings .............................................................................. 10 3. Hypothesis and expectations ...................................................................................... 11 3. Method .................................................................................................................... 12 3.1. Methodology ................................................................................................................... 12 3.1.1. Research design ....................................................................................................................................... 12 3.1.2. Data ........................................................................................................................................................ 13 Main sources for dependent and independent variable ................................................................................ 13 Additional sources for control variables ........................................................................................................ 13 Validity and reliability................................................................................................................................... 15 Page ii Selection criteria .......................................................................................................................................... 16 Dependent variable ...................................................................................................................................... 16 Independent and control variables ............................................................................................................... 16 3.1.3. Model overview ...................................................................................................................................... 20 Model 1 – Basic (M1) .................................................................................................................................... 20 Model 2 – Basic controlled for Women’s suffrage (M2) ................................................................................. 21 Model 3 – Full (M3) ....................................................................................................................................... 21 Model 4 – Basic controlled for Extended periods (M4) .................................................................................. 21 Model 5 – Basic controlled for HDI (M5) ........................................................................................................ 21 Model 6 – Full controlled for Functioning state (M6) .................................................................................... 22 Model 7 – Full controlled for HDI + Functioning state (M7) ........................................................................... 22 Model 8 – Basic controlled Regions (M8) ..................................................................................................... 22 3.2. Results ............................................................................................................................ 22 4. Conclusion and discussion .......................................................................................... 31 5. References ............................................................................................................... 34 6. Datasets .................................................................................................................. 36 7. Appendix ................................................................................................................. 38 Page iii List of tables Table 1. Women in cabinet dataset example ..................................................................... 17 Table 2. Boxplot details ................................................................................................... 25 Table 3. Overview of results M1-M7 ..................................................................................26 Table 4. Overview of results M8 ........................................................................................29 List of figures Figure 1. Scatterplot Women in cabinet 2019 .................................................................... 23 Figure 2. Boxplot Women in cabinet 2019 ......................................................................... 24 Page iv 1. Introduction Much has been done since New Zealand became the world’s first self-governing country to introduce universal women’s suffrage in 1894. While the numbers of women participating in politics is on an upwards trajectory, much is still needed to be done before any claims to equality in politics can be made. As of 2020, women’s average worldwide inclusion in parliaments, upper and lower houses combined, stands at 24.9% only, with big variation between countries. The current average of ministerial positions held by women is 22.1%. Plenty of research has thoroughly investigated what factors might lead to a high level of representation of women within national parliaments (WIP). Certain factors seem consistent, such as a proportional elective system and quotas, leaving us with a good insight into what areas are important to focus on to achieve a greater parliamentary gender balance in the future. However, while numerous works have studied what leads to a high parliamentary inclusion of women, fewer studies have been focussing on how to achieve a high proportion of female members within national cabinets1 (WIC). And for the few that have, many outcomes have been inconclusive. Several study only limited number of cases or manage to explain only part of the observations2. Others are by now relatively dated3, and it’s questionable how well they still hold, especially since many indicate a shift in how party politics affect female cabinet inclusion since the late 1990s4. And yet others manage to show a connection only in certain political environments5. They tend to underline the importance of early women’s suffrage, the elective system and parliamentary representation as contributing factors to a high WIC, but none of the studies carried out has
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