The grit in the Oyster? Women’s parliamentary organizations & the substantive representation of women

Childs, Sarah and Allen, P. (2019) The grit in the Oyster? Women’s parliamentary organizations & the substantive representation of women. Political Studies 67 (3), pp. 618-638. ISSN 0032-3217.

Abstract

This article addresses a foundational question of political representation: how representatives act for those they represent. In a shift away from analyses of individual representatives’ attitudes and behaviour, we identify women’s parliamentary organizations (WPOs) as potential critical sites and critical actors for women’s substantive representation. Offering one of the most in depth studies todate, our illustrative case is the longstanding UK Parliamentary Labour Party’s Women’s Committee (WPLP). With a unique data set, and using both quantitative and qualitative methods, we systematically examine the WPLP’s efforts to substantively represent women over more than a decade. We find that the WPLP sustains its focus on a small number of women’s issues interacts with party leadership to advance women’s interests in a feminist direction. Our findings capture processes of political change, a frequently under-explored stage in studies of substantive representation. We close by identifying the potential for comparative research in this area.

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