Parliamentary seniority in Europe and beyond: Understanding the gendered nature of career trajectories

Abstract

This panel brings together scholars working to describe and understand gendered patterns of parliamentary seniority. We know that seniority, defined as the endurance in politics beyond just one and two terms comes with a range of benefits, such as access to positions, detailed knowledge of the policy process, and media savviness. However, this seniority is unevenly distributed among men and women MPs in contemporary democracies, severely disadvantaging women in parliament, and contributing to perpetuate historical gender imbalances. Building on research conducted within the SUCCESS project at the University of Bergen (Norway) documenting that gender gaps in parliamentary seniority exist, this panel invites papers that push forward the state of the art on gender and parliamentary seniority, by addressing one or more of the following questions: - How does the gender gap in parliamentary seniority look in contexts beyond established democracies in the West? Does the gender gap manifest itself in recently democratized contexts often associated with high fragmentation and electoral volatility, such as in African, Asian or Latin-American countries? And if yes, how do the gendered seniority patterns differ/align with the gender gaps documented to exist in the European and North American countries? - How do system-, party- and individual level factors contribute – either in isolation or conjunction – to shape the gender gap in seniority currently seen today? We welcome papers that theoretically engage with the literatures on electoral systems, gender quotas, political party selection mechanisms, individual level motivations and ambitions, harassment and political violence, to explore novel theories or test existing ones concerning the premature exit of women from legislatures – resulting in gendered seniority gaps. We invite papers that tackle these questions from different methodological perspectives, drawing on either quantitative or qualitative data or both. We also welcome different designs, as both single case and comparative studies, can provide different – yet equally valuable – contributions on the specificities of gendered parliamentary seniority patterns in contemporary democracies.

Title	Details
Legislative Career Differentials between Men and Women	View Paper Details
Beyond Entry: Affirmative Action and Parliamentary Seniority in Senegal, South Africa, Malawi, and Uganda	View Paper Details
Why Women Leak Out: Issue Specialization, Clientelism, and Gendered Political Career in South Korea and Taiwan	View Paper Details
An institutionalist perspective on gendered legislative careers in Latin America	View Paper Details
Demand-Side Explanations for Gender Gaps in Political Endurance: The role of parties’ candidate selection, equality commitment and size	View Paper Details