Exploring sex differences in attitudes towards the descriptive and substantive representation of women
Year: 2016
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: This article unpacks the rationales that might be behind individual-level support for the idea that there ought to be more women present in political institutions. We outline two distinct rationales: the substantive position that sees an increase in women’s descriptive representation as important in bringing about a subsequent improvement in women’s substantive representation, or the justice-plus position that sees an increase in the descriptive representation of women as important for reasons of justice or other symbolic benefits. We find that women are more likely than men to support an increase in descriptive representation and that women are more likely to hold both the view that an increase in descriptive representation was desirable and that such an increase would improve the representation of women’s political interests. Men are found to be more likely to support an increase in descriptive representation but not relate descriptive representation to substantive representation in any way: the justice-plus rationale.
Authors: Peter Allen, David Cutts
Institutions: Queen Mary University of London, University of Bath
Language: English
Subfield: Gender Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2525405688