QUANtITATIVE METHODS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH

Quantitative Methods in the Social Science Research



Abstract

The entry of the 1997 cohort of Labour woMen into public life offers a test case of whether, and under what Conditions, Women politicians have the capacity to 'make a substantive difference'. We outline the theory of the politics of presence and discuss how to operationalise this in a testable model. We, use the British Representation Study survey of 1,000 National politicians (including parliaMentary candidates and elected Members of ParliaMent) conducted in the 2001 general election. The analysis centres on the impact of gender on five scales measuring attitudes and values on issues that commonly divide British party politics. Once we control for party, there are no significant differences among Women and Men politicians across the value scales concerning the free market economy, Europe, and Moral Traditionalism. Yet on the values most directly related to Women's interests - namely the affirmative action and the gender equality scales - Women and men politicians differ significantly within each party, even after controlling for other common social background variables that explain attitudes, such as their age, education, and income. The conclusion considers why these findings matter for the composition of parliament, the public policy agenda and for women's roles as political leaders.

Table of Content

Introduction4

Theoretical Framework6

Measures, Data and Methods7

MPs' Legislative Voting Record8

MPs' Political Roles and Activities9

Political Attitudes and Values11

The British Representation Survey, 200112

Results and Analysis13

Conclusions and Implications15

References17

Appedix19

Quantitative Methods in the Social Science Research

Introduction

The increasing surge of women in voted into agency agency has increased anticipations about their function as political leaders. Some wish, and other ones worry, that this development could adjust the predominant political heritage, the principle agenda, and the representation of women's concerns in public life. This development has appeared in numerous democracies and it is exemplified by spectacular expansion at Westminster where the June 1997 election glimpsed the application of 120 women constituents into the UK House of Commons (18 per cent), twice the number voted into agency in 1992 (Kathlene, 1994, 560). This tendency types part of a bigger occurrence apparent in the United Kingdom throughout the late-1990s where increasing figures of women went into other legislative bodies, thereby evolving 37 per hundred of the Scottish Parliament and 40 per hundred of the Welsh Assembly, 24 per hundred of British MEPs in the European assembly, 16 per hundred of the House of Lords, and 27 per hundred of localized councillors (see Figure 1). The change skilled in Britain comprises part of a bigger move in heritage mind-set in the direction of the political and communal functions of women that has been clearing through numerous post-industrial societies (Thomas, 1998, 54).

 

What are the political penalties that flow from this development? And, in specific, did the application of a considerable number of women MPs in the 1997 election, and their later re-election in 2001, adjust the predominant heritage at Westminster? This item compares review clues drawn from a agent experiment of nearly 1,000 nationwide political leaders in Britain (including parliamentary ...