13:10 - 14:50
P8-S212
Room: 1A.11
Chair/s:
Clint Claessen
Discussant/s:
Isabelle Engeli
What Women Legislators Talk About and What It Means for Representation: A Text-as-data Study of Slovak Parliamentary Speeches
P8-S212-1
Presented by: Mária Žuffová
Mária Žuffová
European University Institute
Political institutions that reflect the diversity of the population are more likely to be perceived as legitimate and fair, and people are more likely to engage with them. In this study, I focus on women’s descriptive and substantive representation in the Slovak parliament. Having more women in politics brings different perspectives to policymaking, as their experiences and policy priorities differ. By applying descriptive statistical methods and text-as-data methods to more than a decade of the Slovak parliamentary speeches, I investigate how much female and male legislators talk about different policy areas that are stereotypically perceived as ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine.’ Consistent with previous research, I find that women continue to be underrepresented in the parliamentary debate. The difference is most visible when topics stereotypically viewed as ‘masculine,’ such as foreign trade, transportation, macroeconomics, and energy, are discussed (Bäck and Debus 2019; Bäck, Debus, and Müller 2014). On the contrary, women tend to speak more than their male colleagues in debates on policy areas stereotypically perceived as ‘feminine,’ such as social welfare, education, and health (Osborn and Morehouse Mendez 2010; Wängnerud 2000; Weeks 2009). While this might have positive implications, as women MPs likely act in the interest of other women (Pitkin, 1967), it might also signal that stereotypes are deeply rooted and difficult to overcome in public life. Finally, the study also entails a thematic analysis of speeches by the only disabled female MP present in the Slovak parliament over the studied period to explore the intersectional dimension of representation.
Keywords: gender representation, gender gap, parliaments, text-as-data, Central and Eastern Europe

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