Box 1. The Effect of Development and Culture on Women’s Representation

One characteristic of development that has proven particularly important for women’s representation in Western countries is higher rates of women’s participation in the labour force (Anderson, 1975; Welch, 1977; Togeby, 1994 see References and Further Reading Chapter 3). Moving out of the house and into the workforce appears to have a consciousness-raising effect on women; they become politicized. Greater development increases the number of women who are likely to have formal positions and experience, for example in labour unions or professional organizations.

Culture is related to development, and as development increases women’s standing in society relative to men becomes more equal. Culture can also have an independent effect. Two countries could be quite similar in terms of development, but women may have come substantially farther in terms of equality in one country than in another.

While culture consistently has been believed to be important, it has been difficult to directly test for an effect. As a possible proxy for culture, in some recent research I developed a measure using a cluster of variables, specifically the ratio of women’s literacy to men’s literacy, the ratio of women’s labour force participation to men’s labour force participation, and the ratio of university-educated women to university-educated men (Matland, 1998a see References and Further Reading Chapter 3). The assumption was that when women approach men in levels of literacy, work-force participation, and university education – and thus become men’s equal in social spheres – they are more likely to be seen as men’s equals in the political sphere, and therefore their representation will increase. This hypothesis holds, as the described cultural measures very strongly correlate with women’s representation.

It is important to note that while research modelling women’s representation in established democracies has been quite successful at identifying causes for variations, attempts to model women’s representation in developing countries has been much less successful. Factors driving variations in representation in the developed world are clearly understood. We have a much poorer understanding of representation in the developing world. In the developing world, none of the variables found significant among established democracies, nor several other plausible variables, are found to have a consistent effect (Matland, 1998b see References and Further Reading Chapter 3).

These findings indicate that there is a threshold, a minimum level of development that is needed to create the foundation for other variables, such as electoral systems and women’s labour force participation, to have an effect. Below that development level, the factors that assist women in gaining representation in more developed countries simply have no effect. It appears that in most lesser developed countries the forces aligned against female political activity are so great as to permit only minimal representation. As development increases, however, cultural changes start to occur. In addition, more women start to acquire the resources needed to become politically powerful – resources such as education, salaried labour force experience, and training in the professions that dominate politics. This leads to the formation of a critical mass. When the number of women with the necessary resources becomes substantial, they then start to become an effective interest group demanding greater representation. Development is a crucial part of this process.

Richard E. Matland