Women in Politics: Lecture Notes and Vocabulary Review

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts, theories, and historical milestones from Chapters 1-7 regarding women's representation in global politics.

Party Leadership Pathway

The gateway to political office that is often difficult for women due to strong gatekeeping and gendered expectations.

The Glass Cliff

A phenomenon where women are promoted to leadership during times of crisis, resulting in a higher risk of failure and less institutional support.

Double Bind

A gendered leadership predicament where women are judged more harshly, often being viewed as either "too soft" or "too aggressive."

Cabinets

Institutions representing core executive power and serving as a pathway to higher office.

Inner vs. Outer Cabinet

The division between high-prestige portfolios like finance and defense (Inner) versus social or "soft" ministries (Outer).

"Women’s Seat" Norm

The informal political expectation that at least one woman should be appointed to a cabinet, which can sometimes lead to tokenism.

Social/Soft Ministries

Portfolios such as Women’s Affairs, Education, and Health, in which women cabinet ministers are often overrepresented.

High-Power Ministries

Sectors like Finance ($most powerful$) and Defense ($hardest to access$) that remain male-dominated.

Women in Cabinets globally ($2023$)

Women made up approximately $22.8\%$ of cabinet ministers worldwide as of that year.

Suffrage

The legal right to vote, which historically was viewed as a threat to political order.

Finland ($1907$)

The historical milestone when the first woman was elected to a national parliament.

Rwanda ($2008$)

The year this country breached the $50\%$ threshold for women in parliament; it now leads the world at approximately $$61\%.

Gender Quotas

Affirmative action tools designed to disrupt old barriers and enable rapid gains in women's political representation.

Unicameral vs. Bicameral

The difference between lawmaking institutions with one chamber (Unicameral) versus two chambers (Bicameral).

Passive vs. Active Representation

A public administration distinction where representatives either mirror the population's characteristics (Passive) or actively advocate for their group's interests (Active).

Dual Leaders

National structures where power is shared between two top executives.

Ceremonial Leaders

Heads of state with symbolic visibility rather than real authority.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike

The first woman prime minister of Sri Lanka ($1960–65 , 1970–77$), who rose as a surrogate for her husband.

Widow’s Walk to Power

A limited access route common before $1995$, where women ascended to leadership as surrogates for husbands or fathers.

Path Dependency

The trend where countries that have had one woman leader are often more likely to have more in the future.

Descriptive Representation

The concept that the makeup of political bodies should numerically mirror the demographic traits, like gender or race, of the population ($50\%$ women in population → $50\%$ in office).

Substantive Representation

The process of politicians effectively advocating for and supporting specific women's interests and policies in the political arena.

Symbolic Representation

The psychological effect where the presence of women in office creates a feeling of being fairly represented among women citizens.

Justice Argument

The claim that women and men should be equally represented in politics because democracy requires inclusion and equal opportunity.

Utility Argument

The claim that diverse legislatures improve deliberation, reduce groupthink, and increase policy innovation.

Max Weber's Definition of Power

The ability to impose one’s will on others, even in the face of opposition.

Steven Lukes’ Three Dimensions of Power

A framework consisting of prevailing in conflict ($Dimension 1$), agenda-setting ($Dimension 2$), and shaping others' preferences ($Dimension 3$).

Feminist Institutionalism

The theory that political institutions are gendered and that formal and informal rules are shaped by masculine norms.

Sex vs. Gender

The distinction between biological characteristics (Sex) and socially constructed, fluid identities (Gender).

Gender Stratification

A system where gender is socially ranked and unequal, resulting in different levels of prestige and power.

Patriarchy

A social system of men’s domination over women built into social, political, and economic institutions.

Public vs. Private Sphere

The traditional divide placing men in public leadership and confining women to home and care roles.

Intersectionality

A justice-oriented framework coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw explaining how systems of power like race, class, and gender intersect.

Double and Triple Barriers

Compounded levels of exclusion faced by women from marginalized groups ($Gender + Race$, $Gender + Class$, $Gender + Sexuality$).

Intersectional Invisibility

The political erasure of individuals with multiple subordinate identities, often framing women as only White and minorities as only men.

Hypervisibility

The scrutiny and targeting of marginalized women who stick out in political spaces, such as hijab-wearing Muslim women in Europe.

Complementarity Advantage

A strategic logic where parties recruit minority women to "tick multiple boxes" of diversity without threatening dominant power structures.

Indigenous Women’s Exclusion

Historical marginalization where settler societies negotiated solely with men, often continuing even within Indigenous movements.

Georgina Beyer

The world's first openly transgender parliamentarian, elected in New Zealand in $1999$.

Supply-Side Factors

Explanations for underrepresentation focusing on resources like education, political ambition, confidence, and experience.

Demand-Side Factors

Explanations focusing on party recruitment, gatekeepers, electoral systems, and voter attitudes.

Political Recruitment Model

The Norris & Matland framework showing the stages from Eligibles to Aspirants, Candidates, and finally Legislators.

Gendered Media Coverage

The tendency of media to use trait-based framing and stereotypes while judging women leaders more harshly than men.

Political Ambition Gap

The finding that women are less likely to run for office than equally qualified men, a gap that starts early in socialization.

Role-Model Effects

The phenomenon where visible women leaders inspire others, boosting political ambition and increasing the number of women candidates.

Modernization Theory

The expectation that economic development and urbanization lead to weakened traditional gender roles and more women in politics.

Resource Model Theory

The idea that political participation depends on an individual's access to money, free time, and civic skills.

Elite Theory

The perspective that political power is held by highly educated, professionally connected elites who dominate law and business.

Second Shift

The unequal share of household labor and care work that women perform in addition to their formal jobs.

Time Poverty

A structural barrier where women have fewer hours for political activities due to disproportionate caregiving burdens.

Homosocial Capital

Resources and networks built through same-gender socialization, which predominantly benefit men's political advancement.

Clientelism and Patronage

Resource-based networks and exclusionary systems that generally facilitate male dominance in politics.

Violence Against Women in Politics (VAWIP)

A widespread structural barrier involving physical, psychological, sexual, economic, and symbolic harm.

Chilling Effect

The result of harassment and violence that silences women and reduces their participation in democratic processes.

Plurality-Majority Systems

Electoral systems that tend to disadvantage newcomers and women because zero-sum competition favors incumbents.

Proportional Representation (PR) Systems

Electoral systems where parties win seats based on their share of the vote, which typically elect more women.

District Magnitude

The number of representatives elected in a district; higher magnitude increases women's chances of selection.

Closed Lists

Party lists where the order of candidates is fixed by the party, which often favors women by reducing direct voter bias.

Open Lists

Party lists where voters can influence the order of candidates, potentially exposing women to voter gender bias.

Candidate Quotas

National laws requiring all political parties to include a certain percentage of women on their lists of candidates.

Reserved Seats

Seats set aside specifically for women, guaranteeing their representation but sometimes acting as a ceiling.

Political Party Quotas

Voluntary rules adopted by individual political parties to increase women's representation.

Quota Thresholds

Mandated percentages for representation, with common benchmarks around $30\%$ and a growing trend toward $50\% (parity)$..

Placement Mandates

Rules that prevent women from being buried in unwinnable positions on candidate lists.

Zipper Lists

An effective placement mandate in PR systems that alternates between men and women on the party list.

Juanitas loophole (Mexico)

The $2009$ scandal where women resigned after being elected so their male substitutes could take the seats.

Critical Mass Theory

The idea that women need a certain numeric strength (often $30\%$) to possess agenda-setting powers and effect change.

First-Wave Feminism

The historical wave focused on achieving suffrage in the late $19th$ and early $20th$ centuries.

Second-Wave Feminism

The movement in the $1960s–1970s$ focused on women’s liberation and broader social rights.

Kate Sheppard

The leader of the suffrage movement in New Zealand, the first country to grant women full voting rights in $1893$.

Lydia Chapin Taft

The first woman known to vote in Colonial America ($1756$) because she represented her wealthy household.

$14th$ Amendment ($1868$)

The first explicit gender exclusion in the US Constitution, which defined voters as "male."

Seneca Falls Convention ($1848$)

The first formal demand for women’s suffrage in the United States, attended by $300$ people.

Expediency Frames

Suffrage framing used in the US West that emphasized women's morality and order as tools for social reform.

Justice Frames

Suffrage framing used in the US East that emphasized fundamental rights and democratic equality.

Silent Sentinels

Picketers who stood in front of the White House in $1917$, marking the first nonviolent civil disobedience campaign in the US.

$19th$ Amendment

Ratified on August $18, 1920$, granting US women the constitutional right to vote.

WSPU Militancy

High-confrontation tactics used in Britain, including window-breaking, arson, and hunger strikes.

Protestantism Early Gains

The regional trend where majority-Protestant countries, like those in Scandinavia, achieved higher women's representation earlier.

Genderless Languages

Languages that do not designate gender for objects (like English), which are associated with more gender-egalitarian attitudes.

Political Efficacy

The belief that one can effectively participate in and affect the outcomes of the political system.

Breadwinner Mothers

The subgroup of women least likely to run for office due to high social and emotional care burdens and financial responsibility.

Homophily

The tendency of individuals to associate and bond with similar others, which often keeps women out of informal male networks.

Semiotic Violence

A form of VAWIP using images, symbols, and body language to reduce women to objects or infantilize them.

Economic Violence in Politics

The destruction of a woman's campaign materials or property to limit her political access and viability.

Psychological Violence

The most common form of VAWIP, including threats, harassment, and attacks on a woman's reputation or mind.

Zebra Systems

An African term for placement mandates requiring alternating male and female candidates on an electoral list.

Nested Quotas

Provisions that regulate representation for multiple identities at once, such as requiring a share of reserved ethnic seats for women.

Tandem Quotas

The use of gender quotas and ethnic/minority quotas simultaneously within the same political system.

Diffusion Effect

The extra-national process where countries adopt gender quotas after seeing neighboring countries in their region do so.

Contagion Effect

The phenomenon where a political party adopts a gender quota to avoid losing votes, forcing rival parties to do the same.

Inclusion Calculation

The strategic estimation by party elites of the potential electoral benefits versus the costs to their own power when adding women.

Muxes (Oaxaca Loophole)

The case where cisgender men self-identified as a third gender to dodge Mexico's gender parity rules in $2018$.

Leaky Pipeline

A metaphor describing how the proportion of women decreases at higher levels of hierarchy, particularly in the judiciary.

Civic and Political Skills

Resources such as public speaking and organizing knowledge that are essential for candidate viability.

Status Quo Bias

The institutional preference for established norms, which traditionally define male standards as the measure of merit.

Gender Power Index ($2024$)

An updated system used to measure woman's political power and track progress toward a $50–50$ world.

Sojourner Truth

A prominent Black woman who delivered the "Ain’t I a Woman?" speech to challenge the intersectional exclusion of Black women.

Standard Scientific Process in Politics

A methodology involving observation, formulating research questions, developing hypotheses, data collection, and analysis.

Endogeneity Challenges

The methodological difficulty in isolating independent effects when institutions, culture, and economics are all interacting.