Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x24gv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-01T08:32:23.520Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - Theorizing Women's Representation in the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2012

Christina Wolbrecht
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Karen Beckwith
Affiliation:
Case Western Reserve University, Ohio
Lisa Baldez
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
Suzanne Dovi
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of Political Science and Philosophy, University of Arizona
Get access

Summary

From the perspective of women's experiences, it is easy to see that democratic representative institutions can be tools of oppression. After all, formal democratic institutions have been either a form of governance that has only ruled over women (e.g., women were formally prohibited from holding elected offices) or a form of governance in which women have ruled and been ruled unequally (e.g., the number of female representatives have been significantly lower than the number of male representatives). Moreover, there is good reason to believe that informal representative institutions, such as interest groups, do not work as well for multiply disadvantaged groups (Strolovitch 2007). These facts suggest that democratic representative institutions need to be viewed with suspicion. We need to know why democratic representative institutions do not work for women as well as they work for powerful men, and we need to know what conditions contribute to those institutions working better for women. We also should not assume that representative institutions in democracies necessarily benefit all women. In fact, we need to recognize how representative institutions can divide women, pitting some women's interests and preferences against other women's interests and preferences. Democratic representative institutions can function to preserve the status quo, distributing benefits unjustly and inequitably among different groups of women.

Knowing if and how well representative institutions are working for women in democracies depends, in part, on one's understanding of what counts as the adequate representation of women in a democracy. Does the adequate representation of women require female representatives?

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×