Does Descriptive Representation of Women in Parliament make Women Citizens more Politically Active? Survey Evidence form Central and East European Transition Countries.

This paper investigates the emerging claim in the literature that descriptive representation of women in parliaments leads to changes in the political participation of women. It is assumed that women’s presence in parliament makes women more aware of their potential role as political individuals in society. Scholars who have investigated this claim, however, have found rather mixed results. In order to investigate the influence of institutional factors on women citizens’ political engagement, this paper uses survey data collected for the Central Eastern and Eastern European region to explain if and why women’s descriptive representation in parliament makes women more likely to, for example, engage in political protests or to inform themselves about politics. The use of survey data allows for understanding dynamics on the individual level across and within countries. In addition, the paper not only investigates the influence of institutional factors like representation, but also cultural ones such as religion and civil society on a woman’s likelihood to become politically engaged. By examining individual level data through regression analysis, this paper provides new inputs and findings on the likelihood of women’s descriptive representation leading, in the long-run, to more political participation of women in Eastern European countries. Our results show that civil society has a considerable impact on respondents' political attitudes.