From women’s presence to feminist representation: second-generation design for women’s group representation

Karen Celis, Sarah Childs

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)
32 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Feminist democratic representation is a new design for women’s group representation in electoral politics. We build on the design principles and practices of the 1990s’ presence theorists, who conceived of political inclusion as the presence of descriptive representatives and advocated for gender quota. Our second-generation design foregrounds women’s ideological and intersectional heterogeneity, and details a representative process that enacts three feminist principles: inclusiveness, responsiveness and egalitarianism. A new set of actors – the affected representatives of women – play formal, institutionalised roles in two new democratic practices: group advocacy and account giving. Together, these augmentations incentivise new attitudes and behaviours among elected representatives, and bring about multiple representational effects that redress the poverty of women’s political representation: elected representatives now know more, care more and are more connected to diverse women, including the most marginalised; and the represented are now more closely connected with, more interested in and better represented through democratic politics.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)359–376
JournalEuropean Journal of Politics and Gender
Volume6
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, Bristol University Press. All rights reserved.

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