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When Do Men MPs Claim to Represent Women in Plenary Debates—Time-Series Cross-Sectional Evidence from the German States

Bibliographic Data

ID6340258
AuthorsCorinna Kroeber (0000-0002-9712-1647, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume76
Issue2
Pages1024-1037
Publication date2023-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Research Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1065-9129 • E-ISSN: 1938-274X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/10659129221119199
OpenAlexW4293458150
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited61

Extensive scholarly work engages with the growing number of women in legislatures around the world and highlights their role as advocates of women’s interests during parliamentary decision-making processes. This article sheds light on the reactions of men MPs (members of parliament) to this trend by uncovering how women's numerical strength in party parliamentary groups shapes the issues that their men colleagues emphasize when speaking about women during plenary debates. I argue that, the higher the share of women in a party parliamentary group, the more will men representatives emphasize women’s interests in the context of issues they can easily relate to—either because the issues lie in men’s area of responsibility according to ideas about traditional role distributions in the society, for example, the financing of gender equality projects, or because they are part of broader patterns of societal inequality, such as poverty or health. I provide empirical evidence for this argument based on original time-series cross-sectional data from plenary debates in six German states between 2005 and 2021 using a structural topic model. These findings shed light on men’s role as critical actors and have implications for gender equality and the functioning of representative democracy more broadly

Argument (complex analysis · Context (archaeology · Democracy · Geography · German · Inequality · Legislature · Parliament · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Studies · Law · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies

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Unique citing works15
Citations per year3,75
Citation span2022 - 2026 (5)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 15
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