Parity legislation and the symbolic representation of gender in Spain

Women’s political presence has increased in the last decades mainly due to the use of gender quotas. Legislation on parity has often been justified by the positive effect on the quality of democracy and the linkage process between representatives and the represented. In this vein, the normative case for women’s descriptive (numerical) representation is very often made in terms of its effects on symbolic representation. However, symbolic representation is the most under researched dimension of political representation, both theoretically and empirically. Also, it is usually conceived of as the by-product of descriptive representation. Following Lombardo and Meier (2014) in this paper we consider symbolic representation as a dimension on its own right and adopt a discursive approach to the study of women and gender as political symbols. More specifically, by examining policy documents and parliamentary debates on gender quotas in Spain through the lenses of Critical Frame Analysis, we seek to identify the social construction of the symbols, the meaning of parity, and the ways in which the discursive construction of men and women lead to a particular representation of gender. Paper prepared for the ECPR General Conference, S24 Gender Equality in the 21st Century Gendering Equality in Practice Chair: Joni Lovenduski Discussant: Isabelle Engeli Prague, 7-10 September 2016.