THE BRITISH REPRESENTATION STUDY, 2001/2: CRITICAL MASS THEORIES OF WOMEN S LEADERSHIP

Transcription

1 Date: May 23, 2000 Center for Public Leadership John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard University THE BRITISH REPRESENTATION STUDY, 2001/2: CRITICAL MASS THEORIES OF WOMEN S LEADERSHIP Executive Summary...2 Aims and Objectives...3 Theoretical Framework:...3 Curriculum Vitae...6 Pippa Norris...6 Joni Lovenduski...6 Timetable...7 Select Bibliography...7 Pippa Norris John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard University Cambridge MA Pippa_Norris@Harvard.edu 1

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In the post-war period the social background of legislative leaders has been transformed in many established democracies by the gradual decline in the proportion of elected representatives drawn from manual working class occupations, and the increase in the number of women and ethnic minority members. Previous research has analyzed the causes of this phenomenon, based on a supply and demand model of political recruitment, in Britain (Norris and Lovenduski 1995) and in other advanced industrialized societies (Norris 1997). But what are the consequences? In particular, critical mass theory suggests that there will be a qualitative change in the nature of group interactions, as the minority starts to assert itself and thereby transform the institutional culture, norms and values. Preliminary work has only started to explore this issue. Do more women leaders make a substantial difference to policy priorities, legislative behavior, or the parliamentary culture? Changes in female political leadership may matter, not just for backbench behavior, but more significantly for the composition of government, for party politics, and for public perceptions of representative democracy. The dramatic expansion in the number of women elected to the British House of Commons in the 1997 general election, rising from 60 to 120, makes Westminster a particularly good case study of the impact of women into legislative leadership testing critical mass theory. The British Representation Study 2001/2 aims to explore the relationship between the social characteristics and the parliamentary experience, attitudes and behavior of national politicians based on a large-scale quantitative survey of parliamentary candidates standing for all the major British parties in the next general election supplemented by a selected number of in-depth qualitative personal interviews. Duration Start Date PIs: 01/January/2001 Period 5 months Pippa Norris, Associate Director (Research) Shorenstein Center and Lecturer, John F. Kennedy School of Government. Joni Lovenduski, Professor of Politics, Birkbeck College, University of London. 2

3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The British Representation Study (BRS) has three main aims: (1) The study will provide a systematic analysis of the consequences of women s leadership for legislative life. This will contribute towards the debate about female representation and illuminate the broader implications of leadership change for representative democracy. (2) The study will analyze women and men leaders perceptions of political representation, evaluations of their roles, and understanding of the linkages between leaders and citizens, to understand the implications for democratic governance. (3) The study will compare change over time in political leadership based on comparing the 1992, 1997 and 2001 BRS surveys, to understand the dynamics of political representation. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: The core issue addressed by this research project is whether the entry of a critical mass of women leaders in the 1997 election altered the predominant culture of Westminster in terms of political attitudes, values, policy priorities, roles, workloads and legislative behavior. Critical mass theory, derived from nuclear physics, suggests that nuclear reaction can be a contained process. Beyond a certain point, however, when enough uranium is assembled, there will be an irreversible meltdown, or unstoppable chain reaction of nuclear fission multiplying upon itself, producing an impact far beyond the quantity of the original material. When applied to social science, the theory of critical mass suggests that the nature of group interactions depend upon size. When a group remains a distinct minority within a larger society, its members will seek to adapt to their surroundings, conforming to the predominant rules of the game. In many ways this is analogous to Noelle-Neuman s (1984) spiral of silence theory about the expression of dissonant views. But once the group reaches a certain size, critical mass theory suggests that there will be a qualitative change in the nature of group interactions, as the minority starts to assert itself and thereby transform the institutional culture, norms and values. Rosabeth Moss Kanter (1977) applied this account to gender relations in industrial corporations, identifying four categories. Uniform groups contain only men or women. Skewed groups contain a large imbalance of men or women, up to about 15 per cent of the minority group. Titled groups contain about percent of the opposite sex. Lastly, balanced groups contain percent of each sex. This theory can be applied to the position of women in public office. Drude Dahlerup 3

4 (1988) and Jill M. Bystydenski (1992) have argued that if women and men politicians differ in their underlying values, policy priorities and legislative styles, then when parliaments shift from skewed to tilted, or even balanced, groups there will be a transformation in the institutional culture, political discourse, and policy agenda. The expectations are implicit in Clare Short s claims: As more women come into the Commons, the culture will change, the agenda of politics will broaden, and the institution itself will be transformed. (Quoted in McDougal 1998). This theory suggests that in the past, we would expect few substantive differences between women and men MPs at Westminster, since, until recently, there have been so few female representatives. Previous research on parliamentary candidates and MPs in the 1992 and 1997 elections found that when compared with men within each party, women were slightly more supportive of feminist and leftwing values, expressed stronger concern about social policy issues, and gave higher priority to constituency casework. Yet in all cases the gender gap was modest, and overall party rather than gender proved the strongest predictor of values and attitudes (Norris and Lovenduski 1995; Norris 1996; Norris 2000). Has this situation changed by the entry of a new cohort of women politicians? The 1997 British general election, where the proportion of women MPs doubled overnight from 9.2 to 18.2 percent of the Commons (see Figure 1), provides an ideal test case for critical mass theory. Much of the popular rhetoric supporting the introduction of gender quotas has stressed that, although there is a clear case to be made on the grounds of equity alone, in addition the entry of more women into Westminster would help to change the mainstream policy agenda, and the public school/boys club atmosphere of Commons debate. A popular argument in favor of positive discrimination for women was that the new intake of female members would raise different types of concerns in the Commons, as well as in the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and the European parliament (see the discussion in Brooks, Eagle and Short 1990; Perrigo 1996; Phillips 1995; Short 1996; MacDougal 1998). Figure 1 Women MPs in UK Parliament N. of Women

5 Yet although there has been much popular controversy about the impact of the new intake of women politicians, so far there has been little previous systematic research on this topic in Britain. The theory of a critical mass depends upon the existence of underlying differences in the values, attitudes and behavior of the groups concerned. If women and men MPs are similar in these regards, then even if women gradually became the majority at Westminster, British parliamentary politics will continue in familiar ways. The public face of politics will change more than the political culture. Critical mass theory can only operate if female politicians differ significantly from men, for example if they give greater priority to public spending on education rather than defense, or if they raise more parliamentary questions about childcare rather than foreign policy, or if they pay more attention to constituency service rather than parliamentary debate. While some studies demonstrate that women do make a distinct contribution to the policy agenda in legislatures elsewhere, such as in North America, Western Europe and Scandinavia, the evidence remains under debate (see for example, discussions in Thomas 1994; Karvonen and Selle 1996; Tremblay 1998). Why does this issue matter? We know that the type of people elected as political leaders has changed over time. If the social background of politicians influences their attitudes and behavior, this change may have four significant consequences: (i) For the pool of political leaders: MPs constitute the pool from whom all elected political leaders including members of the government and the opposition front-benches - are drawn. Changes in the composition of parliament may ultimately be expected to percolate through to the highest offices of state. (ii) For the House of Commons: The most direct effects may be in legislative activities where backbenchers have considerable autonomy, such as in the choice of Parliamentary Questions or Private Members Bills. But elected leaders play a much wider role in developing and debating public policy, in shaping and revising legislation, in scrutinizing the actions of government departments, and in linking voters and government. Parliament operates within a wider context than simply law-making. (iii) For party policy: Perhaps most importantly, there may be an impact on the direction of party policy. Conservative MPs determine the party leader while Labour MPs help select the leader and shadow cabinet. Politicians play a leading role in determining official party policy, as well as shaping the nature of the party image. (iv) For public perceptions of representative democracy: Lastly, there may be a significant impact on trust in the political system and confidence in representative democracy, if voters feel they are most effectively represented by 5

6 'someone like themselves'. This study proposes new research to analyze the new cohort of women political leaders who entered in the 1997 general election to see whether they have made a substantive difference to Westminster politics. In particular, this study will draw on the 1992 and 1997 British Representation Studies, and collect data with the 2001/2 British Representation Study, to examine whether women and men MPs differ within each party in four dimensions: their underlying values, legislative activities and priorities, views of legislative leadership roles, and social background. The 1997 BRS survey attracted a response rate of 61% producing 1000 respondents. Appendix C provides technical details of the sample. The secondary function of the study will be to monitor and update previous research in the series of BRS studies to provide benchmark date for secondary analysis about the changing profile of legislative leaders in British politics. CURRICULUM VITAE PIPPA NORRIS Pippa Norris is Associate Director (Research) of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy and Lecturer in Public Policy at the John. F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Her research compares political communications, democratization and elections, and gender politics. She has published two-dozen books including: Critical Citizens (1999), On Message (1999), Critical Elections (1999), The Politics of News (1998), Elections and Voting Behaviour (1998), Britain Votes 1997 (1997), Electoral Change Since 1945 (1997), Women, Media and Politics (1997), Politics and the Press (1997), Passages to Power (1997), Comparing Democracies (1996), Women in Politics (1996), Political Recruitment (1995), Different Voices, Different Lives (1994), Gender and Party Politics (1993), British Elections and Parties Yearbook (1991, 1992, 1993), British By-elections (1990), Politics and Sexual Equality (1987). Recent research has focused on a new book A Virtuous Circle: Political Communications in Post-Industrial Democracies (forthcoming Fall 2000 with Cambridge University Press) and Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty and the Internet (also for Cambridge University Press). She has also published over 120 journal articles and book chapters, and serves on ten journal editorial boards. JONI LOVENDUSKI Joni Lovenduski is Anniversary Professor of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. Her teaching interests include Gender and Politics, British Politics and Comparative European Politics. She was Professor of Politics and head of Department at Southampton University from 1995 to She is author of Contemporary Feminist Politics (1993) (with Vicky Randall), Political Recruitment: Gender, Race and Class in the British Parliament (1995) 6

7 (with Pippa Norris), and High Tide or High Time for Labour Women (1998) (with Maria Eagle MP), as well as many articles and essays in edited collections on issues of Gender and Politics. Her current research is on Gender and the State, including political representation and public policy debates. She is currently working on a book on the Gendering of Contemporary Politics. Her BSc was from Manchester University and her PhD from Loughborough University. TIMETABLE Note: The following timetable assumes a general election at the earliest in the spring of 2001 (May 1 st?). Any alteration to this date would require an adjustment to the schedule. SURVEY DEVELOPMENT 1st January th February 2001 (2 months) Consultation with parties Collection and entry of mailing names and addresses. Piloting and questionnaire development Postal survey of candidates First copy of survey, postcard reminder, final reminder. Log replies and start data entry Start qualitative interviews with politicians. DATA ENTRY 1st March - 30th May 2001 (3 months) Data entry, cleaning and coding Continue qualitative interviews and transcription 'Mop-up' and data entry for remaining candidates SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY Brooks, Rachel, Angela Eagle and Clare Short Quotas Now: Women in the Labour Party. Fabian Tract 541. London: Fabian Society. Brown, Alice, David McCrone and Lindsay Paterson Politics and Society in Scotland. London: Macmillan. Bystydzienski, Jill M Women Transforming Politics: Worldwide Strategies for Empowerment. Indianpolis: Indiana University Press. Dahlerup, Drude From a small to a large minority: Women in Scandinavian politics. Scandinavian Political Studies. 11(4): Drude Dahlerup Using quotas to increase women s political representation. In IDEA: Women in Politics Beyond Numbers. IDEA: Stockholm. Eagle, Angela and Joni Lovenduski High Time or High Tide for Labour Women. London: Fabian Society. Equal Opportunities Commission. Facts about Women and Men in Great Britain EOC: Manchester. 7

8 Evans, Geoffrey and Pippa Norris Critical Elections: British Parties and Voters in Long-term Perspective London: Sage Publications. House of Commons Research Papers. Scottish Parliamentary Elections: 6 May 1999 House of Commons Research Paper 99/50. London: House of Commons Library. Welsh Assembly Elections: 6 May 1999 House of Commons Research Paper 99/51. London: House of Commons Library. Women in the House of Commons (Rev. August 1999). London: House of Commons Information Office. Lords Reform: Background Statistics. 15 December House of Commons Research Paper 98/104. London: House of Commons Library. Hewitt, Patricia and Deborah Mattinson Women Votes: The Key to Winning. London: Fabian Society. Jenkins Report, The. The Independent Commission on the Voting System. October Cm I. London: The Stationery Office. Kanter, Rosabeth Moss Some effects of proportion of group life: skewed sex ratios and responses to token women. American Journal of Sociology. 82(2): Karvonen, Lauri and Per Selle Women in Nordic Politics. Aldershot: Dartmouth. Keswick, Tessa, Rosemary Pockley and Angela Guillame Conservative Women. London: Centre for Policy Studies. Lovenduski, Joni and Vicky Randall Contemporary Feminist Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lovenduski, Joni Sex, Gender and British Politics. In Women in Politics. Eds. Joni Lovenduski and Pippa Norris. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lovenduski, Joni and Pippa Norris Women in Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lovenduski, Joni, Pippa Norris, and Catriona Burness "The Party and Women." Conservative Century, eds. Anthony Seldon and Stuart Ball. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lovenduski, Joni and Pippa Norris Labour and the Unions: After the Brighton Conference. Government and Opposition Spring 29(2) pp MacDougal, Linda Westminster Women. London: Vintage. Noelle-Neuman, Elisabeth Spiral of Silence. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Norris, Pippa and Joni Lovenduski Political Recruitment: Gender, Race and Class in the British Parliament. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Norris, Pippa "Women in European Legislative Elites." West European Politics 8(4): Norris, Pippa 1996 "Women Politicians: Transforming Westminster?" Parliamentary Affairs 49(1): Norris, Pippa "The Puzzle of Constituency Service." The Journal of Legislative Studies 3(2):

9 Norris, Pippa. Ed Passages to Power: Legislative Recruitment in Advanced Democracies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Norris, Pippa Gender: A Gender-Generation Gap? In Critical Elections: British Parties and Voters in Long-term Perspective. Edited by Geoffrey Evans and Pippa Norris. London: Sage. Norris, Pippa New Politicians? Changes in Party Competition at Westminster. In Critical Elections: British Parties and Voters in Long-term Perspective. Edited by Geoffrey Evans and Pippa Norris. London: Sage. Norris, Pippa Gender and Contemporary British Politics. In British Politics Today, edited by Colin Hay. London: Macmillan. Norris, Pippa. The British Representation Study Perrigo, Sarah Women and Change in the Labour Party In Women in Politics, Eds Joni Lovenduski and Pippa Norris. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Short, Clare Women and the Labour Party. In Women in Politics, Eds Joni Lovenduski and Pippa Norris. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Stephenson, Mary-Ann The Glass Trapdoor: Women, Politics and the Media during the 1997 Election. London: Fawcett.. Thomas, Sue How Women Legislate. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Tremblay, Manon Do female MPs substantively represent women? Canadian Journal of Political Science. 31(3):