Previous studies of women’s substantive representation (SRW) have documented that, overall, leftwing MPs are more fervent than others in representing women’s interests. At the same time, little is known about the activities of rightwing MPs: when, to what extent and how do they contribute to the SRW? In this paper, we argue that previous research designs have often kept the activities of rightwing parties invisible. Since the number of women has grown at a faster pace in leftwing parties, the focus on women MPs in SRW has strengthened the focus on leftwing MPs (Childs 2001). Moreover, definitions of women’s interest have often met leftist feminist standards (Celis 2010). The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it wants to bring less obvious actors in the SRW to the fore. Rightwing parties have been overlooked in previous studies, but display a potential with regard to the SRW (Campbell, Childs & Lovenduski 2006; Celis 2004). However, these actors will not be uncovered by using the same old research concepts. The second aim of this paper is therefore to apply and test the added value of a new ‘inductive’ approach. This approach intends to capture the ‘critical actors’ in the SRW (Childs & Krook 2006). In order to do so, we make use of the 2009 PARTIREP study of legislators in 77 regional and national parliaments in Europe. In the first part of the paper, we consider the ideological relatedness of these critical actors. Our findings confirm that an open approach brings less obvious actors in SRW to the fore. In the second part, we take a closer look at the characteristics of rightwing critical actors. Previous research has found that women and feminists are more likely to act than men and non-feminists. We consider whether these hypotheses also hold for rightwing MPs.
