Women and Legislative Representation

MANON TREMBLAY is a Professor at the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Her research interests are gender and women in politics, electoral studies, social movements and notably the lesbian and gay movement. Her most recent publications are Women in Executive Power. A Global Overview co-edited with G. Bauer (2011), and The Lesbian and Gay Movement and the State: Comparative Insights into a Transformed Relationship co-edited with D. Paternotte and C. Johnson (2011).

• PART I: MAJOITARIAN SYSTEMS Uganda: Reserved Seats for Women MPs: Affirmative Action for the National Women's Movement or the National Resistance Movement; G.Bauer United Kingdom: The Mother of All Parliaments: Westminster's Male Face; S.Childs, R.Campbell &  J.Lovenduski United States of America: Feminist Society, Paternalist Politics: How the Electoral System Affects Women's Representation in the United States Congress; D.T.Studlar Afghanistan: From Misogynist Theocracy to Gender-Inclusive Democracy?; A.Fleschenberg France: The Single Member District System: The Hidden Bonus for Notables; M.Sineau Australia: Early Promise Unfulfilled: The Electoral Representation of Women in Australia; I.McAllister PART II: PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION South Africa: Challenging Traditional Thinking on Electoral Systems; H.E.Britton Spain: Women in Parliament: The Effectiveness of Quotas; C.Valiente Belgium: The Collateral Damage of Electoral System Design; P.Meier Ireland: STV: A Gender-Proportional System?; Y.Galligan Peru: Success Under Open List PR: The Election of Women to the Congress; G.Schmidt PART III: MIXED-MEMBER SYSTEMS Mexico: Más Mujeres? Mexico's Mixed-Member Electoral System; M.Minojosa New Zealand: Gendering Parliamentary Representation: A Mixed System Producing Mixed Results; J.Curtin Hungary: The Impact of Early Party Consolidation on Female Representation and the Mixed Electoral System; G.Ilonszk Japan: Societal, Electoral, and Party Explanations for the Low Representation of Women in the House of Representatives; R.Christensen Conclusion

"Women and Legislative Representation assembles an outstanding group of scholars to assess the impact of voting systems on women's parliamentary representation around the world. It strikes an excellent balance between two interlocking goals: to present fascinating detail on a wide range of countries while facilitating comparison through a common analytical framework. A must read for scholars and practitioners who wish to understand the impact of constitutional or electoral design on women s access to political power."- Pamela Paxton, Associate Professor of Sociology, Ohio State University"Tremblay has assembled a broad set of carefully executed case studies and has masterfully drawn out the lessons from these disparate cases. This work hammers home the lesson that while electoral system engineering holds out the promise of improved representation, it cannot guarantee increases in women's representation. Rather, one must take into careful consideration several other contextual elements, with parties being an absolutely crucial part of the story. By providing such a careful set of studies that describe these interactions between electoral systems, parties, development, culture, and other relevant factors this work is assured of being a touchstone for work on women and electoral systems for years to come."- Richard Matland, Rigali Professor of Political Science, Loyola University Chicago