Gender and Political Effectiveness in the Azerbaijani Parliament: Neutrality, Difference and Solidarity

Drawing on in-depth interviews with Azerbaijani male and female MPs, this paper examines how gender is both denied and asserted in legislative activity. The analysis identifies three main viewpoints. The first viewpoint asserts that gender has little impact on legislative activity. Many male MPs took a ‘meritocratic’ approach, where gender was considered irrelevant and professionalism in a context of legal equality was the only personal trait to impact legislative effectiveness. The second viewpoint challenges the irrelevance of gender, particularly when issues concerning women are raised. Female MPs emphasised the importance of lived experience and emotional affinity that offer distinctive perspectives on issues concerning women. They saw their shared gendered experiences as making them more approachable and providing them with insights that male colleagues were less likely to have. These perspectives align with theories of the politics of presence (Phillips, 1995), which suggest that shared experience enhances the ability to represent marginalised concerns. The third viewpoint centres on female solidarity. Women MPs described supporting each other through formal and informal ways, including voting, mentoring and cross-party cooperation on gender-related issues. Such solidarity was framed as both a strategic necessity and a moral commitment. The paper shows that gender in the Azerbaijani Parliament is simultaneously minimised and mobilised. While discourses of neutrality obscure structural barriers, women MPs draw on lived experiences and solidarity networks to legitimise their role and advance issues of concern to women. The findings contribute to comparative debates on gender, institutions, and representation, and shed new light on gendered dynamics in post-Soviet legislatures.