Gender equality and political representation: A nordic comparison

Abstract

In this paper three main questions concerning women's parliamentarian representation will be addressed. First, to what extent are Nordic parliaments gender balanced today? Second, what factors characterise and explain the different Nordic gender profiles? Third, is it possible to identify any political impact of Nordic women? The discussion of these descriptive and substantive aspects of women's representation is related to the threshold approach and critical mass theory. Obtaining a critical number does not by necessity lead to uninterrupted progress in women's political integration through the different institutional thresholds in the parliamentary system. Critical numbers count, but so do critical acts. Furthermore, the threshold model, developed from studies of men, cannot be applied without amending the process of women's parliamentarian mobilisation. Strictly speaking, only Sweden has gender-balanced representation today. Due to different structural, cultural and political factors, the political integration of women has proceeded at different rates in the Nordic region. There is nevertheless reason to conclude that women's representation has affected both the recruitment of women into politics and women's situation in society.

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