What shapes politicians’ propensity to advocate for gender equality? An analysis of contributions to gender equality policy debates in democratic Spain

Abstract

Literature on the political representation of women has focused on questions surrounding the relationship between presence of women (descriptive representation) and women´s issues (substantive representation). The question whether women represent women in politics served as the starting point in for the literature, which has since Hanna Pitkin scrutinised the concept of political representation back in 1963 undergone reformulations and has been approach from different methodological perspectives. This heterogeneity addresses the need of an intersectional view on key questions on women’s representation, elaborating its arguments on to scholars who argue for a ‘thick’ concept of substantive representation of women (Mackay, 2008) and a reconsideration of what constitutes women’s interests (Tremblay and Pelletier, 2000; Weldon, 2002; Celis, 2009; Celis and Erzeel, 2013). This thesis avoids a reductionists perspective by asking: who speaks for women during gender equality policy debates? And what do unusual suspects, such as conservative women and left-wing male MPs do during parliamentary discussions over gender equality policies. The project also sets out to outline the socio-demographic profiles of representatives who participate during debates, in order to find out who they are. The empirical chapters show how the defence of women´s rights in politics does not only belong to female advocates, nor to left wing groups (despite actors belonging in those categories taking the front seat when defending gender equality in parliamentarian settings). It has also unravelled uninspected strategies for advocacy; despite conservatives being against certain aspects of the Bills discussed they (a) opt not to vote against it, but call for abstain of vote allowing for the passing of the Bill or (b) do not implement changes once they re-gain power which translates as passively supporting policies they were initially against. It also provides examples of male representatives who shared gender equality perspectives on policies affecting women and delivered their support to the cause as representatives of their groups, their female colleagues and the women in their lives. The profile analysis of the information gathered provides data supporting that the participants on gender equality debates in the Spanish Parliament provide a divergent profile from the average Spanish MP. In summary, a ‘thick’ concept of what constitutes substantive representation of women’s interest allows for a deeper understanding of the representation of women in politics. The thesis findings also point at how gender equality policy making benefits from ‘unusual suspects’.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Francesca Gains (Supervisor) & Adrienne Roberts (Supervisor)