Do conservative women ministers represent women? A contingent yes.

Over the past decade we have seen a significant increase in the number and proportion of women being selected for ministerial positions (Bauer and Tremblay, 2011). Moreover, while it is often suggested that women’s promotion through the ranks is more likely to result amongst parties of the left, scholars are not in agreement on this point (Davis, 1997). Indeed in several countries, Canada and Australia included, it has been parties of the right that have taken the lead on sharing ministerial positions with women. This paper examines the rise of conservative women ministers and asks to what extent they could be considered to be ‘representing’ women once in government, drawing on pooled data from four Westminster countries over the past thirty years (NZ, Australia, Canada and the UK). Representation is not measured substantively (in terms of policy outcomes) – rather the focus is on examining how conservative women have fared in being selected for cabinet, what portfolios they have been allocated, and how long they have lasted as ministers. In this way the paper reviews the descriptive and symbolic dimensions of representation, and draws on Mansbridge (1999) in assuming descriptive representation matters to the process of deliberation as this is how alternative (gendered) perspectives can be shared and incorporated. Cabinet could be construed as a significant site of deliberation, meaning the selection of conservative women ministers could in itself count as intrinsically valuable to women (Sapiro, 1981). The paper concludes with a discussion of what these arguments mean for debates about who ‘should’ or ‘can’ best represent the ‘interests’ of women in government.