Breaking Male Dominance in Old Democracies

Abstract

Until the 1960-70s, an all male political leadership was taken for granted and the few women in politics were strangers in a male political order. This panel will identify historical turning points and discuss which factors have contributed to (partly) breaking male dominance in politics in old democracies. In some countries and in some political parties incremental models of development can be identified, whereas in other countries and parties we find fact track models, often by the use of electoral gender quotas. This indicates that there are different routes to changing male dominance, different trajectories for the inclusion of women. Backlash may even occur. This panel will look at when and how male dominance has been broken – the actors, the discourses and the institutional changes. The role of male leadership in terms of resistance to or support of women’s access is a neglected perspective which could be taken up here. Also, the international diffusion of ideas and of practical solutions seems important. Can we identify formative moments of change? The sequence of changes and the importance of various actors are central themes. Breaking male dominance is not a history of a common pathway with a given and irreversible ending: that of complete gender balance in politics. However, one may ask if some changes have become irreversible, such as an ‘acceptable minimum’ of women in any party leadership and any cabinet today? By now it should be possible to synthesize the last decades’ research on gender and politics, filling out the gaps and testing well-known theories about how male dominance is reproduced and how it can or cannot be broken - such as theories of the glass ceiling, the critical mass, the critical acts/actors, the increased acceptable minimum, the increasing disproportion (the higher up, the fewer women), the theory of shrinking institutions (women in: power out, or power out: women in), the importance of the electoral system and the salience of the left-right divide, new parties alleged higher openness to women than that of old parties, the diffusion and importance of gender quotas, the importance of women’s organizations within and outside the political parties. Both papers dealing with the historical development in one country or party and papers with a cross-national perspective are welcome.

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