Need for gender perspectives in parliament in the era of coronavirus

GenParlnet members have been grappling with the gendered impacts of the pandemic, which make the work of gender-focused parliamentary bodies more important than ever;

https://research.uta.fi/eugendem/the-politics-of-the-missing-gender-perspective-responding-to-the-coronavirus-pandemic-through-parliamentary-politics/

http://www.broadagenda.com.au/home/specialised-gender-focused-parliamentary-bodies-matter-more-than-ever/

Forthcoming GenParlNet publication

March 2020

A collection of recent GenParlNet papers, 'New Critical Actors: Gender-focused parliamentary bodies', has been published as a Dialogue section in the journal Politics, Groups and Identities. This is the journal of the Western Political Science Association and it will follow nicely on previous PGI Dialogues such as one edited by Amy Mazur in 2016 on 'New Directions on Studying Women's Movements'. The GenParlNet Dialogue is edited by Marian Sawer and Sonia Palmieri and other authors are Lenita Freidenvall, Josefina Erikson, Melinda Adams and Kristin Wylie.

Latest (January 2020) IPU Data on Specialised Parliamentary Bodies on Gender Equality

March 2020
 

It is currently not possible to do chamber comparison on the reconfigured IPU Parline database - it is only possible to access data through individual chamber pages. However, the IPU has kindly made available the data (Microsoft Excel file, zipped) on 155 chambers, of which  89 have at least one specialised body on gender equality. 

These include both permanent or ad hoc committees, updated to January 2020.

Is Parliament a Gender Equal Workplace?

July 2019

4- year research project financed by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (FORTE) 2020-2023

Josefina Erikson and Cecilia Josefsson, Department of Government Uppsala University, Sweden

The Swedish Riksdag is known for being one of the world’s most gender equal legislatures. Yet, beyond the high share of women MPs and women’s impact on policy, we know little about what obstacles and opportunities men and women face in their work as political representatives. The scholarship on gender and legislatures has mainly focused on the variation in the numbers of women MPs elected or on what impact women MP’s have on policy output. This project approaches political representation from a new perspective, viewing the legislature as a workplace. Drawing on institutional and organizational research, we will develop how to conceive of and study gendered working conditions in legislatures. The starting point is that MPs’ possibilities to act in the legislature on equal terms is conditioned by aspects of the workplace such as power relations, formal and informal rules and gendered scripts about how one shall appear and act. Based on our conceptualization of the legislative work environment we will explore if and how, the working conditions for men and women differ in the Riksdag, and how terms and conditions influence male and female legislators’ performance. We will take a mixed-methods approach including interviews, observations in the Parliament and statistical analyses of survey, debate, and performance data.

Gender, party politics and democracy in Europe

December 2018

The research project 'Gender, party politics and democracy in Europe: A study of European Parliament’s party groups' (EUGenDem) began on 1 August 2018.

The five-year (2018-2023) research project is funded by European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant (PI Professor Johanna Kantola). It is located in Gender Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tampere, Finland. Dr Anna Elomäki and Dr Petra Ahrens are the Senior Researchers in the project, Dr Cherry Miller a Postdoctoral Researcher and Valentine Berthet a Dissertation Researcher.

EUGenDem provides a systematic analysis of the gendered policies and practices of European party politics. The research comprises a comparative study of the European Parliament’s (EP) party groups and generates empirical findings about the significance of gender in the current party political transformations in Europe. Available here.

New case studies

September 2018

Two new case studies of interest to GenParlNet members have just been published as part of the Gendered Excellence in the Social Sciences project at the Australian National University.

They are:

'Parliaments as gendered workplaces' by Sonia Palmieri

• By focusing on the contribution of feminist scholarship to the understanding of parliament as a gendered workplace, this case study explores the debates and policy reforms that can make parliament a more ‘attractive’ career option for women. » read more

'Violence against women in politics: Rethinking definitions of political violence' by Mona Lena Krook

• Feminist scholarship has highlighted the need to adopt broader definitions of ‘violence,’ as well as to recognise that the motives and means of political violence may be deeply gendered. » read more

Mandates of gender equality committees in the parliaments of OECD countries

March 2018

The OECD has released comparative data on the mandates of gender equality committees in the parliaments of OECD countries: available here.

Only four have a mandate to examine all (rather than selected) draft laws from a gender equality perspective. Needless to say, one of these is Sweden.

New book

March 2018
Performing Representation: Women Members in the Indian Parliament has just been published by GenParlNet members Shirin Rai and Carole Spary. Here's what Pippa Norris had to say about it: 'This terrific new study provides fresh insights into issues of representation and representativeness, gender and power, and the role of women in parliament – both within India and more broadly. Drawing upon qualitative and quantitative evidence, this book provides an essential contribution towards the literature on women in politics'.

Read what the authors themselves say about the book and the narratives framing the issue of representativeness in the Indian parliament here.

News from GenParlNet member, Sarah Childs