Gendered committee (re-)assignments in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives (1995-2024): Do parties reward men and women MPs differently?

Parliamentary committees are important arenas in democratic parliaments due to their key role in law-making, deliberation and oversight. For individual MPs, being selected to and gaining tenure in prestigious committees is considered a source of parliamentary power and influence, and an asset for further career advancement. Yet, previous studies show that committee assignments are (often) gendered, with women being less likely to have a seat on, and to obtain chairmanship of, prestigious and important committees (e.g. Heath et al., 2005; Murray & Sénac, 2018). And while gendered committee assignments may be voluntary or involuntary, the question remains why women would be (voluntary or involuntary) assigned to less important committees compared to men. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that gendered committee assignments are the result of how party leaders use (re-)assignments to important committees to reward men and women MPs differently in gendered institutions. The partisan theory of legislative organization (Cox & McCubbins, 1993) describes committee assignments as “structure(s) created to allow parties to influence members’ behaviour and control the agenda” (Martin & Mickler, 2019: 83). Especially in relation to committees whose policy competences concern important domains for the party, party leaders may use (re-)assignments strategically to reward MPs who are close to the party leadership, loyal to the party line, and important for the party’s electoral success (Mickler 2018, 2021). Operating within gendered institutions, such reward systems risk perpetuating gender biases when party leaders perceive men MPs as more deserving, qualified, and contributing to “collective party endeavours” than women MPs, all else equal (Kroeber, 2024: 629). This bias may not only manifest in the greater likelihood of men being (re-)assigned to important committees, but also in how MPs’ specific characteristics (such as electoral strength, party loyalty, and seniority) have a differential effect on the assignments of men and women MPs to these committees. We test these hypotheses in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, a parliament with strong committees (André et al., 2016) and strong partitocratic tendencies (De Winter, 2013). Data on committee (re-)assignments are collected over time (1995-2024), which allows us to consider whether changes in the gender composition of the parliament (in particular, an increase in the presence of women over time from 12% to 43%; IGVM, 2024) have altered the gendered reward system. With the inclusion of more women MPs, including those with greater experience and seniority, party leaders’ views towards women may become more conducive to rewarding them (Kroeber, 2024), and gendered committee (re-)assignments may diminish over time.