Designing Social Inquiry week 15 Gender Balance in Politics: Female Political Representation Comparative Study of three Democratic Countries I36005 Soohyung Ahn

Hillary Clinton Front-runner for the 2016 Democratic Primary in the United States Americans seized with the notion that they finally arrive at mature vi rtue of democracy by ac hieving the equality bet ween men and women in p olitics

The Puzzle Literature Review The Test Contents

The Puzzle According to the United Nations, the United States falls behind other countries in terms of its proportion of women politicians Rwanda (63.8% in the Lower House and 38.5% in the Upper House) Bolivia (53.1% in the Lower House and 47.2% in the Upper House) Andorra (50%), Cuba (48.9%) Cf. US (19.4%) in the 114 th Congress

The Puzzle (cont'd ) Compared to even other full- democracies such as Germany and Spain, the United States falls quite behind them In 2015, female participation in parliament worldwide: - Germany: 21 th / Spain: 12 th / the US: 73 th

German: 36.5 % for lower house and 40.6 % for upper house in 2015 Spain: 41.1 % for lower house and 33.8 % for upper house in the same year America: 18.3 % for the House and 20 % for Senate in 2014 American Congress participation rate for women is 19.4 % in 2015 (19.3 % for the House of Representatives and 20% for the Senate)

the US scores high on economic opportunity and education for women America has not only had no female president in its history, but women still make up far less than half of Congress In contrast, Germany and Spain, similar to the US in socio-economy, population, sex ratio, and democracy level, rank higher level for political empowerment of women than the US

All the three countries rank high in 2015 GDP—Germany, 4 th ; Spain, 14 th ; the US, 1 st Population: the US ranked 3 rd in 2014, followed by Germany (17 th ) and Spain (28 th ) The three countries showed the same sex ratio of o. 97 male to 1 female. Democracy level: Germany ranked 13 th, followed by the US (19 th ) and Spain (22 nd )

WHY, Federal level? (puzzle cont'd ) Female participation rates for politics are low at both local and federal levels However, US congress has shown much lower women participation than statewide elective offices and state legislatures since 1979

The Puzzle (cont'd ) Why the US has relatively fewer f emale politicians at the federal le vel than Germany and Spain eve n though they are all similar in s ocio-economy, population, se x ratio, and democracy level?

Literature Review The most dominant factors include political socialization, prejudice of political elites, lack of party support, traditional sexual roles, and the role of the mass media However, these independent variables, perfectly correlated, can be indeterminate They are equally consistent with male- centered culture

A few researches combine the male-centred culture and female political ambition to explain the phenomenon Jennifer and Richard combined the concepts of the male-centered culture and psychological involvement to conclude that American women have low political ambition from the beginning Insufficient social welfare in the US also restricts women’ roles to housework and causes them to reduce their ambition and interest in politics. Therefore, women give up on running for office from the beginning. Literature Review (cont'd )

However, female representation at local levels is not as low as that at federal levels In 2015, women have held 19.4 % in the 114 th Congress, 24.8 % at statewide elective executive offices and 24.2 % at state legislatures. Female participation rate just decrease as it involves the higher level—federal level The theory women give up on running for office from the beginning because of less ambition is not persuasive enough

Germany and Spain, having high female representation in politics, are similar to the US in cultural factors In particular, although both Spain and the US have male-dominant political culture, Spain shows much higher female political participation rates than the US Male-centered culture cannot give reasonable explanation to the female under-representation in US politics. Therefore, socio-cultural factors are not valid enough to explain the low female political participation rates in the US. Literature Review (cont'd )

Gender quotas and electoral systems Countries where quotas for female candidates are presently mandated at the federal and local levels have achieved noticeable success in increasing female representation in politics There have also been arguments regarding whether the quotas are a protection policy for women and minority groups or unfair systems Therefore, the discussion about quotas will be excluded and the main focus will be put on electoral systems Literature Review (cont'd )

The types of electoral systems in a country play an important role in women’s political representation The US adopts winner-take-all or single- member system Germany and Spain adopt the multimember- district system It is necessary for the US to reform the fundamental ground which is related electoral systems in order to achieve gender balance in politics Literature Review (cont'd )

The Test (cont'd ) The aim of this paper is to examine the variable “electoral systems” with its focus on female political representation through comparative study among the three democratic countries: Germany, Spain, and the United States My dependent variable is the low political representation of women in the US

Proportional representation (PR) system is believed to contribute to more balanced proportions in politics When the focus is no longer on a single candidate, parties are freed to nominate candidates. Therefore, I can establish the hypothesis that PR systems can enhance the representation of women The Test (cont'd )

In particular, Germany and Spain, which adopt the mixed system or proportional representation system respectively, show difference in female political participation rates. Female representation in Spain is greater than that in Germany. In addition, Vermont in the US, one of the two states that adopt PR system, shows much higher female participation rates than the other states.

A majority of researches regarding female political representation combine electoral systems and culture theory as intervening variables. However, there are not many researches that study female political representation using electoral system as a single variable Therefore, I will test the electoral system as a single variable to prove its effect on female political representation The Test (cont'd )

Conclusion One of the barometers of legitimacy of democracy is whether a country creates a society where all citizens, regardless of gender, are encouraged to run for public office and represent themselves Therefore, electing men and women equally is a national as well as a global imperative.