Women, Political Leadership and Substantive Representation: the Case of New Zealand

Transcription

1 Parliamentary Affairs Vol. 61 No. 3, 2008, Advance Access Publication 16 March 2008 Women, Political Leadership and Substantive Representation: the Case of New Zealand BY JENNIFER CURTIN ABSTRACT The descriptive representation of women in cabinet is a necessary but not sufficient condition to achieve women-friendly policy outcomes. Rather, substantive representation of women by women political leaders also requires women s political activism. In this article, I explore the idea that institutionalised separate spaces are important sites of labour women s activism which promote and sustain women s policy leadership and the substantive representation of women. Through an examination of the New Zealand Labour Women s Council and four Labour women ministers who have used this space to pursue positions of influence and implement women-friendly policies, it becomes evident that it is not always possible for women leaders to publicly represent a feminist claim, but this does not diminish their attempts at substantive representation. Rather, I suggest that an active and influential feminist reference group is a necessary supplement to women s executive presence. FEMINIST research on the representation of women has burgeoned in recent years, with considerable attention given to the links between the descriptive and the substantive. Many of these analyses focus on women s preferences and performances as legislators, and the constraints and opportunities they face in seeking to advance women friendly positions. Gendering legislatures is a desirable end in itself, but is also seen to be a means by which women s interests can become more visibly represented. While there is a body of evidence to suggest this may occur, more tenuous is the causal link between the numbers of women elected and the substantive representation of women. 1 Yet, we have only recently reached a time where women s place in parliament has become accepted or normal, meaning it is too soon to abandon the analysis of the performance of women politicians. In addition, the focus of research to date has tended to be on women as legislators, rather than members of the executive. 2 This is not surprising. It takes time for any politician, male or female, to build a political career to the point where they have the capacity to influence directly the government s policy agenda, that is, to become part of the Parliamentary Affairs Vol. 61 No. 3 # The Author [2008]. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Hansard Society for Parliamentary Government; all rights reserved. For permissions, please journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org Downloaded from doi: /pa/gsn014

2 Women, Political Leadership and Substantive Representation 491 leadership group or the executive. Political leadership depends on at least: selection to a safe seat to ensure incumbency over time; professional development through strategic service within party executives and caucuses; practiced performances in parliamentary committees and the debating chamber; party in government; intra-party political or factional machinations and, possibly, the (in)visibility of ones own feminist positioning. Thus a mix of factors, individual, structural and politico-cultural constrain and/or expand the opportunities for women politicians to enter the executive of government where there is arguably considerable potential to act for women. In the past, studying women s political leadership in ways that yielded generalisable results has been difficult because of the dearth of women who held such positions. 3 The rarity of seeing women in political leadership positions has tended to lead to case study research which concentrates on individual women, highlighting the unique characteristics that led them to assume political leadership. 4 However, in recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of women political leaders around the globe. 5 While perhaps the most renowned female prime minister is Britain s Margaret Thatcher, there are contemporary challengers. In New Zealand, Helen Clark has been prime minister for nine years and Labour Party leader since There has also been an increase in the descriptive representation of women in cabinet in a number of Westminster democracies; in some cases the proportion of women in Cabinet has been at least as high as, if not higher than, the proportion of women in the parliament. 6 The translation of these numbers into policy outcomes for women is evident in some countries, such as Scotland and Wales, but appears at least partly dependent on the complexion of party in government, with Labour-led governments more women-friendly. 7 While a focus on the descriptive representation of women in cabinet is necessary to reveal the extent to which power is shared between women and men, the numbers of women in the executive may not be the true test of women s acceptance and influence within political elites. What also matters, according to Baer, is the extent to which these women leaders are able to capitalize on their leadership posts as progressive stepping stones to greater political influence. 8 In other words, it is important to examine what women in political leadership positions are able to pursue in order to advance the substantive representation of women. This reflects the desire of Childs and Krooks to see more micro-level analyses of who is making the difference, what critical acts are being performed and the contexts in which they occur. 9 The issue of context is an important one. It is argued that the effectiveness of candidate gender quotas requires women s activism as well as party compliance; 10 similarly, the effectiveness of women s policy agencies requires women s activism as well as feminist bureaucrats. 11

3 492 Parliamentary Affairs Here I suggest that the descriptive representation of women in cabinet is a necessary but not sufficient condition to achieve women-friendly policy outcomes. Rather, substantive representation of women by women political leaders also requires an organised feminist political activism. Increasingly much is made about the importance of an autonomous women s movement and state feminism in the pursuit of the substantive representation of women, but this work has tended to overlook other, overlapping, branches of the women s movement, such as labour movement feminism (industrial and political). 12 In this article, I explore the idea that institutionalised separate spaces are important sites of labour women s activism which promote and sustain women s policy leadership and the substantive representation of women. The New Zealand Labour Women s Council (LWC) has operated as such a site since 1975, supporting the descriptive representation of women through what others have called soft affirmative action policies 13 that have led to women s election to both marginal and safe seats; and the substantive representation of women through the development of women s policies, and then ensuring these are adopted by the party. I also examine how Labour women ministers have used this space to pursue positions of influence and implement women-friendly policies derived from the policy work of the Council. I review the careers of four women ministers from two Labour governments spanning 25 years: Margaret Shields and Ann Hercus from the fourth Labour government ( ) and Margaret Wilson and Helen Clark 14 from the fifth ( þ ) Labour-led government. Because the deliberations undertaken by ministers within cabinet are not public, this analysis draws from newsletters of the LWC, policy speeches, parliamentary performances and secondary sources including published interviews. I briefly examine the feminist positionings of these ministers and explore how these have informed their policy actions once entering the executive. I am interested in identifying when women s interests are claimed or named as such by these women ministers, and when there is a silence around women s interests, with a more general constituency interest being championed, potentially masking a feminist representative claim. Choosing to speak for selective groups in making public policy might continue to foster the backlash politics already identified around women s issues in a number of nation states. 15 As such, critical acts may be taken by women on behalf of women, but without women as subjects featuring in the performance of representation. I suggest this is possible, in part, because the presence of the LWC acts as a reference group, or an alternative women s movement, that supports, encourages, and holds accountable (feminist) women ministers in their pursuit of women-friendly policies.

4 Women, Political Leadership and Substantive Representation 493 Gendering descriptive and substantive representation through separate spaces New Zealand makes for an interesting case in an examination of gender and political leadership. Women s descriptive representation, even before the shift to a proportional system in 1996 stood at more than 20 per cent, and was largely a result of the election of Labour Party women. 16 After the 2005 election, the proportion of women in the NZ parliament was 33 per cent. The feminisation of political leadership that has become a feature of the New Zealand polity began in earnest 1993 when Helen Clark became leader of the opposition Labour Party. Then, in 1997, Jenny Shipley of the conservative National Party became the country s first woman Prime Minister. At the 1999 election, Clark and Shipley campaigned against each other as leaders of the country s two major parties, with a Labour-led Government headed by Helen Clark elected. Helen Clark has been prime minister ever since. In 1999, seven women were given Ministerial positions, constituting 35 per cent of Clark s first Cabinet (this dropped to 30 per cent in 2006, with one ex-cabinet Minister taking the role of first woman Speaker of the House). In an attempt to explain the success of New Zealand Labour women in both getting elected and selected for cabinet, (most often in comparison with Australia), much is made of the lack of formalised factions and the more secular Labour membership in New Zealand. 17 However, by making such a comparison, much of what is unique to women s participation in the New Zealand Labour Party is lost: that is, the legacy of organising separately in order to advance women s political (descriptive) and policy (substantive) representation. The Labour Party in New Zealand was established in 1916, and the first executive of the Party included two women, one of whom was Elizabeth McCoombs, who went on to become the first woman elected to NZ s parliament in From the outset, Labour women demanded the opportunity to organise separately, in ways that went beyond the traditional auxiliary function. As a result, women-only branches were established throughout the country, and still exist today. The idea of separate spaces for women as a feminist strategy aimed at including women and their interests is not new. Elsewhere I have identified how this strategy has advanced women s interests in trade union movements, where women s networks, committees and councils pre-dated the rise of the women s movement, but have continued to increase in number and strength since the 1970s. Similarly, a significant number of political parties have had internal women s sections which aimed to increase the presence of women and their issues within the party, and which gained a new lease of life with the rise of the women s movement. 18

5 494 Parliamentary Affairs In New Zealand, in the 1960s and 1970s, the women s liberation movement helped to revitalize a Labour Party that had become elderly, male-dominated and trade-union conservative... and organisationally schlerotic. 19 The movement s processes of politicisation and mobilisation led many women to join the Labour Party and with this an activism that demanded the Party enhance their commitment to an identifiable women s presence. These women supported broad Party reform, and initiated the (re)invention of critical feminist spaces, most significantly the LWC in The LWC comprised women elected from the Party membership, all women MPs, plus minority group representatives and the Party s Women s Organiser. It reported directly to the NZ Party Council, and women from the LWC were also elected to Labour s influential Policy Council. The LWC promoted and supported women into Party executive positions, including the Party Presidency; since 1984, there have been three women elected as Party President, all of whom were members of the LWC and all have gone on to become politicians. Two of the four women profiled here were actively involved in the LWC during its early years. Margaret Shields helped establish the LWC, was its President in 1977 and 1978 and went on to become a member of the Labour Party s central Policy Council from 1979 to She was elected to parliament in a marginal seat in 1981, entered cabinet in 1984 and remained a minister until Shields was openly feminist and was committed to the substantive representation of women: I feel very strongly that because of the specific problems for women in politics, unless they are committed to real change in the system, to facilitate not only the entry of other women, but the conditions of other women, then there is very little point in their being around at all. 21 Margaret Wilson joined the LWC in 1977 and in 1979 was elected as one of two women s representative on the Labour Party Council. She was elected junior vice president in 1983 and was Party President from 1984 to Wilson did not stand for parliament until 1999 and upon her election immediately entered cabinet. She acknowledged the importance of the LWC as vital in the strengthening of women s voices within the Party. I have always supported the need for a separate women s section because it enables us to participate more effectively within mainstream party affairs. 22 Research shows that women s sections or divisions can play multiple roles: attracting women voters and women members, encouraging women to stand for election to party leadership positions and legislatures, acting as a support network for women politicians and creating women s policy. 23 Thus, while women s divisions or auxiliaries were often tolerated (or marginalised) by parties as an acceptable means

6 Women, Political Leadership and Substantive Representation 495 of incorporating women, this did not render women passive. Rather women s activism within such institutionalised separate spaces generated opportunities to redefine the party s position on women. From its inception, the LWC became an important site for the development of ideas and policies relating to women s interests. These ideas were fed into the LWC Conferences which were held every three years (the year before the general election). The women involved in the LWC were relentless in their demands, unafraid of conflict, to the point of picketing their own Party s conference in 1974, in protest that the women s report was always considered last at Labour s Party Conference. 24 As a result, at the 1975 Annual Party Conference, the women s report featured immediately after that of the President of the Party. By the 1981 election, the LWC had provided the Party with a comprehensive policy on women which, for the first time, ranged across economic, social and legal issues. This policy was extended and revamped in advance of the 1984 election, and included a commitment to establish a stand-alone Ministry of Women s Affairs, with its own Minister in Cabinet. Separate, autonomous spaces have the capacity to provide women politicians and party activists with the opportunity to organise themselves as a non-hegemonic counterpublic where women can safely frame and formulate their feminist representative claims. 25 The LWC aimed to provide Labour women with an opportunity to debate and offer criticism of mainstream Labour policy. For example, at seminars and conferences throughout , Labour women expressed concern over the economic, social and education policy directions being taken by their Labour government. The LWC made submissions to government-sponsored bills and criticised the government over proposed public sector reforms including corporatisation and privatisation. 26 The impact of this internal criticism of government policy should not be under-estimated. While the government s radical reform agenda was achieved in many areas, there were some policy wins for the LWC especially in the areas of social policy. 27 Academic commentators noted that by the mid-1980s, the LWC was very influential in its use of networking techniques both to mobilise women outside the party and to coordinate the power of the women s lobby within it. 28 Michael Cullen (currently New Zealand s Treasurer) has also recognised the power of the LWC to provoke Labour s leaders. He [Prime Minister Lange] could say some awful things sometimes about people. His love-hate relationship with the LWC was a wonder to behold and gave some of us with similar mixed non-politically Correct feelings a great deal of pleasure and joy over a number of years. 29 Not all Labour women ministers have built their political careers through their membership of the LWC. Ann Hercus began her parliamentary career after her appointment to the Government s Price

7 496 Parliamentary Affairs Tribunal and Trade Practices Commission ( ) and her involvement with the LWC began only after she was elected to Parliament in 1978, participating as an ex-officio member. However, Hercus considered herself to be a mainstream feminist: she believed in working within the system to build opportunities for women to take part in decision making. 30 She became a caucus representative on the Labour Policy Council from 1981 to 1984 and her membership of both Councils was to prove critical in influencing the party s adoption of the LWC s proposed policies for women. Similarly, Helen Clark joined the Labour Party in 1972, but did not come in from the women s movement. Her early involvement was primarily through the youth wing of the Party, and it was in her capacity as a member of the Party s National Executive that she became involved in the LWC. It wasn t that she was opposed to feminism but she had a more mainstream, socialist analysis. 31 Over the course of the 1980s Clark participated in several UN women s conferences, reported back to the LWC on various Socialist International Women s Conferences and was involved in a range of LWC-sponsored regional seminars. Once elected to parliament, Clark s consciousness on the importance of women s issues was raised in two ways: she received considerable feedback from women in the community who raised a range of women s issues with her because she was a woman MP. She came to see acting for women as a necessary part of job: when I came here [the women in parliament] did feel there was a women s constituency that was genuinely underrepresented. Once you got the opportunity to be a Minister you set about righting a few wrongs of long standing. 32 Secondly, when she entered parliament in 1981, Clark found herself isolated, treated with suspicion and hostility; in 1986 she publicly named sexist members of Labour s male leadership team. 33 While overlooked for a cabinet position in 1984, she entered cabinet in 1987 and gained the deputy leadership late in Thus, in addition to viewing separate spaces as an arena for the pursuit of policies and practices which advance the representation, we might also think about such spaces as an alternative reference group for women leaders. Githens suggests that the term reference group describes a social group used by individuals as a standard for evaluating their behaviour. In electoral politics, the reference group of the politician has been based on male norms and values. Githens argues that while the politician reference group may be amenable to the entry of women, the set of behaviours women then measure themselves against are often alien, and may prevent these women politicians experiencing a sense of effectiveness. While part of the critical mass literature has been dedicated to how the increased number of women elected might alter the legislative culture, Githens suggests there is also the possibility that women may choose to create their own hybrid, sheltering, alternative culture. 34 She views legislative caucuses for

8 Women, Political Leadership and Substantive Representation 497 women as one example, but the notion of an alternative reference group could apply equally well to women s sections within extraparliamentary wings of political parties, such as the LWC. Gendering policy leadership and substantive representation Just as the number of women elected to parliament may not in itself lead to an increase in the substantive representation of women s interests, nor can we assume that an increase in the number of women in political leadership positions, such as cabinet will do likewise. In a sense, cabinet is equivalent to a black box in our attempts to causally link the descriptive and substantive representation of women. For example, it could be argued that women as backbenchers have some liberty to speak for women as a group, especially if the discourse of women s interests sits easily alongside their party s broader platform. However, once they enter the leadership group of the governing party, that is the cabinet, women come up against one aspect of the leadership dilemma. For political leaders there is often an imperative to speak for the public interest over private or sectional interests. But defining the public interest is not an uncontested (or gender-neutral) process, and many have written of the way in which leaders should, or do, aggregate, deliberate, educate and persuade citizens and/or represent a moral constituency. 35 Moreover, we cannot always see the representation of women by women who are located within cabinet because they are bound by the secrecy and collective responsibility conventions that bind the inner leadership group. Thus, we can only reveal the substantive representation of women by women ministers from a historical perspective, and speculate on the substantive representation of women in the contemporary context. The fourth Labour Government was elected in 1984 and this meant that, for the first time in New Zealand s history, a comprehensive women s policy got the attention of policy makers. However, this was also to become a period of radical economic reform. There was a section of the core (male) leadership group, who elsewhere might be seen as a right faction, that was committed to significant deregulation of the labour market, financial and taxation systems and an overhaul of state administration. By contrast, the four women profiled here were connected to the left group and all voiced their resistance (within caucus and through the LWC) to this policy direction, although they were ultimately unable to stop the overarching agenda of reform. It was within this context that the LWC and Labour women ministers looked to advance women s substantive representation. Ann Hercus and Margaret Shields were both elected to cabinet in 1984 and were, in a sense, charged with pursuing the implementation of Labour s comprehensive women s policy. Hercus was considered one of the more senior figures in cabinet. She was given the portfolios of Social Welfare and Police as well Minister of Women s Affairs, and in

9 498 Parliamentary Affairs her latter role, Hercus was charged with establishing New Zealand s first, independent, free-standing women s department. At the time of its establishment, client-oriented ministries were not uncommon in New Zealand, yet the Ministry s creation was not a fait accompli. Hercus not only had to convince the public and feminist critics of the necessity of a Ministry; her colleagues within cabinet maintained a resistance to its creation. We knew that big boys in Cabinet were against it. The Cabinet minute establishing the Ministry stated that it had to be reviewed after one year. 36 Her first battle had been to resist pressure for it to be just a section attached to another department: she was determined for it to be genuinely independent, and Hercus is credited with using her leadership and influence to ensure this occurred. 37 There were several other policy successes to which the Ministry of Women s Affairs contributed under Hercus s leadership as Minister ( ). Administrative reforms enabled part-time positions in government, (and later in state schools) to be made permanent, rape law reform was completed, with additional funding provided to rape crisis centres and refuges, and work was undertaken to change (unpaid) maternity leave legislation to parental leave (1987). A start was also made on measuring and valuing unpaid work through the inclusion of a specific question on this included in the 1986 census, and work began on new regulations around child protection. 38 Elsewhere it has been argued that the capacity of a women s policy agency to work effectively on behalf of women is enhanced when it is led by a minister whose other portfolio responsibilities give her influence within the cabinet environment that would be unlikely to accrue from leadership of the women s agency alone. 39 In other words, it might be the combination of critical actors and critical junctures that enable the performance of substantive representation. Certainly Hercus was able to use her multiple ministerial responsibilities to advance legislation in the area of child protection, which cut across Police, Social Welfare and Women s Affairs and she drew on her dual role of Minister of Social Welfare and Women s Affairs to advance significant child care reforms. Policy leadership across two portfolios was again evident during Margaret Shield s term as Minister of Women s Affairs ( ). As Associate Minister of Education ( ), Shields was an important advocate for the advancement of early childhood services. She lobbied hard in cabinet for the early childhood funding increases (outlined above), and for changes to improve regulations and training within the industry, but also in ways that supported growth in Kohanga Reo. 40 In addition, from , Shields held the portfolio of Statistics, reflecting her professional experience prior to entering parliament: from the mid-1970s through to 1981, Shields was a statistician in the department of statistics, and had taken an interest in time-use surveys.

10 Women, Political Leadership and Substantive Representation 499 While Shields did not have the same seniority as Hercus within Cabinet, she believed passionately in the importance of recognising women s unpaid work, and the influence she exerted through holding both portfolios ensured a pilot time-use survey was undertaken in Helen Clark entered the Cabinet in 1987, and while she participated in the consultations with community women in the process of establishing the Ministry of Women s Affairs, she never held the Women s Affairs portfolio. Her spoken claims around women s equality have been much less visible than those of Hercus and Shields. However, women s interests in her portfolio of Housing were addressed with the establishment of a new unit to deal with the rental housing needs of women, with research on Maori women s needs feeding into new funding commitments. After becoming Minister of Health in 1989, she oversaw the Nurses Amendment Bill which removed restrictions on midwifery practice and, as Minister of Labour, she was integral to the passage of Employment Equity Legislation in 1990, outlined below, which provided for equal pay for work of equal value. 42 Margaret Wilson was also a critical actor in influencing the pay equity agenda. While she did not become an elected politician until 1999, Wilson was Party President from 1984 to 1987, after which time she was made chair of the Interdepartmental Working Party set up to advance employment equity legislation. Wilson herself has documented the details of the protracted campaign that eventually led to the enactment of legislation. 43 She recognised that the pursuit of women s policy around labour market regulation was difficult because of the broader shift in government policy from an active to a passive role for the state. Partial labour market deregulation had occurred in 1987, and the (male) Ministers of Finance and Labour (prior to 1989) had consistently and actively opposed any state intervention around employment equity. Yet, the combination of Wilson s Working Party Report, Wilson s own influence within the Party and the mobilisation of LWC and women members in advance of the 1987 election, alongside the positioning of Helen Clark as Deputy Leader and Minister of Labour, and women s support from community and trade union organisations, led to a successful passage of the legislation in 1990 (although it was repealed later in 1990 by the incoming National Government). Labour remained in opposition until 1999, but the LWC continued its pursuit of increasing the descriptive and substantive representation of women. In 1999, a Labour-led Government was elected, headed by Helen Clark. Seven women were given Ministerial positions, constituting 35 per cent of Clark s first Cabinet and including Margaret Wilson, who became Minister of Labour and Attorney General. There were no doubt heightened expectations among feminists in the

11 500 Parliamentary Affairs community that with so many women in cabinet from the left, women s issues would be substantively and visibly represented. However, commitment to women s policy and women s interests appears less explicit compared to Labour s previous term in government. For example, Grey has demonstrated that fewer overt claims were made by female politicians in New Zealand from 2000 to 2005, despite women s representation in the House having increased. 44 In terms of policy leadership, in its first term, the Clark government allocated the Ministry of Women s Affairs portfolio to a Minister from the junior Coalition partner, the Alliance. And although employment equity had been important to both Helen Clark and Margaret Wilson in the 1980s, the Clark government did little to redress the issue during its first term. 45 Subsequently there was action with the creation within the Department of Labour of a Pay and Employment Equity Unit. However, unlike the fourth Labour Government s legislative initiative in 1990, the policy instrument adopted in 2004 is much more voluntary in nature. Margaret Wilson did oversee a reinstatement of the role of trade unions when the Employment Contracts Act (1991) which had promoted individual bargaining was replaced with the Employment Relations Act in The ERA did not return New Zealand to centralised wage bargaining but it did reinstate the right of unions to negotiate collective contracts and required parties to bargain in good faith. In addition, commitments were made to incrementally increase the minimum wage. While union bargaining and minimum wage increases disproportionately favoured the low-paid, and thereby women, neither policy initiative was framed as addressing women s interests in mainstream policy statements. When women s policy was discussed by the government, the focus tended to be on women s labour force participation; providing women with economic independence, supported through early childhood services, out of school care, retirement savings reform and paid parental leave. The framing of these choices for women has been couched within a discourse of serving the national interest by the Clark leadership team: that is, contributing to economic growth, prosperity and moving New Zealand forward as a highly skilled, innovative economy. 46 Even the Ministry of Women s Affairs reporting requirements under CEDAW, and the various policy commitments that have been promised, have been framed in terms of advancing New Zealand s national interest and identity. 47 Why is the substantive representation of women by women less explicit in recent years, despite the descriptive representation of women having increased substantially in New Zealand under Labour? Part of the answer may lie in expecting women leaders to be able to pursue openly a feminist agenda, when leadership requires the creation and representation of a national constituency. While some groups may be

12 Women, Political Leadership and Substantive Representation 501 favoured by leaders (business is the oft-cited example), it is unlikely that the increased number of women in cabinet would have bode well for Labour had they chosen to pursue vigorously the substantive representation of women in the name of women. Moreover, the broader political context has changed. The women s movement in the late 1990s was much more fragmented than in the early 1980s; the Ministry of Women s Affairs had become institutionalised as the vehicle for ensuring gender audits occurred while a broader backlash politics that had been evident elsewhere had begun to take hold in New Zealand. In 2003, the conservative opposition party Leader proclaimed that he didn t see the need for a Ministry of Women s Affairs and would not be appointing a spokesperson for the portfolio. During the 2005 election campaign, suggestions were made that Clark s Cabinet was part of a broader feminist mafia. 48 So perhaps it is not surprising that we see less speaking for women, and different ( possibly more strategic) ways of acting for women, that continue to involve an internal, less visible feminist reference group such as the LWC. 49 Conclusions Dahlerup argues that the opportunity for women to make a difference, through the adoption of feminist public policies depends largely on a range of factors: the political context, state feminist machineries, prevailing discourses, framing of the issue, coalition building and movement strength, among others. 50 In the case of New Zealand, the political context has become hostile to the broader interests of women, prevailing discourses have been less than enthusiastic about women s claims as women, and feminist positions have never been totally acceptable to many men within the Labour Party. State feminism in New Zealand has persisted institutionally, but its policy impact has been more variable and the women s movement has at best become inactive, at worst, disappeared. And yet, women s descriptive representation in parliament and cabinet has increased and, under the political leadership of the four women profiled here, there have been specific policy gains for women. These are not isolated case studies. Rather, these women are connected to each other, in various ways, and through various networks, including through the LWC. They do not all position themselves similarly as feminists, but there exists a broad commitment from each, to the importance of using their positions of influence to advance the interests of women. Their presence in parliament and cabinet has been important in embedding women s interests in the political and policy domain. Women s policy interests are not always framed in ways that identify women as the core interests group being represented, especially in more recent years. In Saward s terms, the constituency being created is almost purposively not a women s or feminist constituency. 51 There appears to have been a strategic decision not to speak for women, but

13 502 Parliamentary Affairs this does not necessary preclude acting for women. As such, we should not read silence in the public domain as a broader silence on women s policy interests. Much of the speaking has occurred in alternative forums, like LWC, where women control the agenda, can articulate freely and safely, before moving out into the parliamentary and leadership domains. As such, the presence of an institutionalized separate space for women is important in a range of ways. It can actively promote the descriptive representation of women, support them while they once they are elected but also in providing women with an alternative reference group, an environment where feminist positionings are validated. Thus, in terms of future research, we need to think about performance as more than the articulated representative claim: it may also be that the representative claim is created in such a way that masks the group that will most identify or benefit from the policy representation taking place. For women in political leadership, who must act for for the people, this masking may indeed be a necessity to advance women s substantive representation. 1 See the contributions in M. Sawer, M. Tremblay and L. Trimble (eds.), Representing Women in Parliament. A Comparative Study, Routledge, One exception is R. Howard Davis, Women and Power in Parliamentary Demcoracies, University of Nebraska Press, S. Thomas, The Impact of Women in Political Leadership Positions in S. Carroll (ed.), Women and American Politics. New Questions, New Directions, Oxford University Press, For example M.A. Genovese (ed.), Women as National Leaders, Sage, United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report, 2006, http ://hdr.undp.org/ hdr2006/statistics/indicators/259.html, accessed 10 September J. Curtin, Conclusion: Gendering political representation in the old and new worlds of Westminster, in M. Sawer, M. Tremblay and L. Trimble (eds.), Representing Women in Parliament. A Comparative Study, Routledge, F. Mackay, Descriptive and substantive representation in new parliamentary spaces: the case of Scotland ; P. Chaney, Women and constitutional reform: gender parity in the National Assembly for Wales, in M. Sawer, M. Tremblay and L. Trimble (eds.), Representing Women in Parliament. A Comparative Study, Routledge, D.L. Baer, Women, Women s Organisations and Political Parties, in S. Carroll (ed.), Women and American Politics. New Questions, New Directions, Oxford University Press, 2003, p S. Childs and M.L. Krooks, Should Feminists Give Up on Critical Mass? A Contingent Yes, Politics and Gender, 2(4), 2006, R. Matland, Electoral quotas. Frequency and effectiveness in D. Dahlerup, Women, Quotas and Politics, Routledge, L.S. Weldon, Protest, Policy, and the Problem of Violence Against Women: a Cross-national Comparison, University of Pittsburgh Press, For exceptions see for example D.S. Cobble, The Other Women s Movement, Princeton University Press, 2004; J. Curtin, Women and Trade Unions: A comparative perspective, Ashgate, M.L. Krook, J. Lovenduski and J. Squires, Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand: gender quotas in the context of citizenship models in D. Dahlerup, Women, Quotas and Politics, Routledge, Helen Clark was also a cabinet minister in the 4 th Labour government ( ). 15 J. Lovenduski, Feminising Politics, Polity, See J. Curtin, Gendering parliamentary representation in New Zealand: a mixed system producing mixed results in M. Tremblay (ed.), Women, Electoral Systems and Legislative Representation, Palgrave Macmillan, J. Curtin and M. Sawer. Gender Equity in the Shrinking State: Women and the Great Experiment in F.G. Castles, R. Gerritsen and J. Vowles (eds.), The Great Experiment: Labour Parties and Public Policy Transformation in Australia and New Zealand, Auckland: Auckland University Press;

14 Women, Political Leadership and Substantive Representation 503 M. Sawer and S. Grey, Under the Southern Cross: Women s Political Representation in Australia and New Zealand in Y. Galligan and M. Tremblay (eds.), Sharing Power: Women in Parliament in Consolidated and Emerging Democracies, Ashgate, See for example I. Norderval, Party and legislative participation among Scandinavian women in Sylvia Bashevkin (ed.), Women and Politics In Western Europe Frank Cass, 1985; M. Sawer and M. Simms, A Women s Place, Allen and Unwin, 1993; S. Bashevkin, Toeing the Lines: Women and Party Politics in English Canada, University of Toronto Press, M. Shields, Women in the Labour Party during the Kirk and Rowling Years in M. Clark (ed.), Three Labour Leaders, Victoria University of Wellington Press, M. Wilson, Women and the Labour Party in M. Clark (ed), The Labour Party after 75 years, Victoria University Press, 1992; Shields, J. McCallum, Women in the House: Members of Parliament in New Zealand, Cape Catley Press, 1993, p M. Wilson, Labour in Government , Allen and Unwin 1989, p J. Freeman, A Room at a Time: how Women Entered Party Politics, Rowman and Littlefield, 2000; R. Matland, Enhancing women s political participation: legislative recruitment and electoral systems in A. Karam (ed.), Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers, IDEA, 1998; L. Young, Feminists and Party Politics, UBC Press, Wilson, 1992, p M. Verloo, Displacement and Empowerment: Reflections on the Concept and Practice of the Council of Europe Approach to Gender Mainstreaming and Gender Equality, Social Politics, 12, (3) 2005, Labour Women s Council Newsletter, NZ Labour Party, June 1986; October, 1986; May 1987; December J. Curtin, The Ministry of Women s Affairs: Where Feminism and Public Policy Meet. M.A. thesis, University of Waikato, New Zealand 1992; J. Curtin and M. Sawer, B. Gustafson, Labour Party in H. Gold (ed.), New Zealand Politics in Perspective, Longman Paul, 1992, p M. Cullen cited at accessed on 10 September J. McCallum, M. Wilson cited in B. Edwards, Helen. Portrait of a Prime Minister, Exisle Publishing, Auckland, 2001, p Cited in McCallum, 1993, p V. Myers, Head and Shoulders, Penguin Books, M. Githens, Accounting for Women s Political Involvement: The Perennial Problem of Recruitment in S. Carroll (ed.), Women and American Politics. New Questions, New Directions, Oxford University Press, 2003, p For a summary see K.P. Ruscio, The Leadership Dilemma in Modern Democracy, Edward Elgar, J. Abigail, Letter to a New Friend in M. Cahill and C. Dann (eds.), Changing Our Lives: Women Working in the Women s Liberation Movement, , Bridget Williams Books, 1991, p J. McCallum, J. McCallum, 1993; see also J. Curtin and K. Teghtsoonian, The Ministry of Women s Affairs in Aotearoa/New Zealand: Twenty Years: Variable Fortunes, Viable Futures? Paper presented at the Rethinking Women and Politics Conference, Victoria University of Wellington, May, S. Burt and S. L. Hardman, The Case of Disappearing Targets: The Liberals and Gender Equality. in L.A. Pal (eds.), How Ottawa Spends : Power in Transition, Oxford University Press, 2001; J. Curtin and M. Sawer, A. Meade cited in McCallum, 1993, p J. Curtin, J. McCallum. 1993; B. Edwards, 2001; M. Wilson, Employment Equity Act 1990: A case study in Women s Political influence, in J. Deeks and N. Perry, Controlling Interests: Business, the State and Society in New Zealand, Auckland University Press, 1992a. 43 Wilson, 1992a; see also J. Curtin and Sawer, S. Grey, Numbers and Beyond: The Relevance of Critial Mass in Gender Research, Politics and Gender, 2(4) 2006, C. Briar New Zealand Conference on Pay and Employment Equity for Women, Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, 23, 2004, P. Skilling Trajectories of Art and Culture Policy in New Zealand, Australian Journal of Public Administration, 64(4),

15 504 Parliamentary Affairs 47 [MWA] Ministry of Women s Affairs, Report of the Ministry of Women s Affairs for the Year Ended 30 June 2006, MWA, H. Devere and S. Graham, The Don and Helen New Zealand Election 2005: A Media A-gender? Pacific Journalism Review, 12(1), 2006, Although the Labour Women s Council has never labelled itself a feminist organisation. 50 D. Dahlerup, The Story of the Theory of Critical Mass Politics and Gender 2(4), 2006, M. Saward, The Representative Claim, Contemporary Political Theory, 5(3), 2006,