Professor Jennifer Piscopo examines why women's participation in politics is crucial for democracy and gender equality
Despite making up almost half of the global population, women are underrepresented in politics around the world. Why is this, and why does it matter?
Women’s participation in politics is crucial for democracy. Having more women in policymaking has shown to help advance legislation on crucial issues, such as health, education, childcare, infrastructure and ending violence against women. It also inspires girls to pursue higher education and diverse careers.
According to The World Economic Forum a 10% increase in women’s parliamentary representation is associated with a 0.7% increase in GDP growth. Countries with higher levels of women’s political representation implement policies that support paid family leave and childcare infrastructure, which increases workforce and boosts productivity.
“Political parties have historically been male dominated, which means men control who gets nominated. When gender quotas are enforced, political parties support and elect women. And not only do women win, but they also prove to be effective leaders and successful at governing. Women in elected and appointed positions play key roles since they are more likely than men to prioritise gender equality legislation,” says Professor Jennifer Piscopo
She is the Director of the Gender Institute and Professor of Gender and Politics at Royal Holloway University of London. She studies what happens when political parties nominate women, when and why women run for office, and examines electoral gender quotas and how governments adopt gender mainstreaming policies to promote gender equality.
Professor Piscopo points to the COVID-19 pandemic, which captured popular imagination by contrasting men and women in leadership roles. Media outlets compared level-headed women like New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who listened to the evidence and took swift action to contain viral spread, to men like Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, who laughed at the threat, taking no preventative actions and thinking about the economy over public health. Even in the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson initially downplayed the severity of the crisis, while Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, acted more cautiously and decisively, implementing stricter measures to control the spread of the virus. Professor Piscopo notes that people liked these examples, because women leaders challenged the masculine nature of political leadership, displaying decisiveness and toughness alongside empathy and concern.
When it came to implementing government policies, Professor Piscopo explains how the pandemic exposed gender inequalities. “COVID-19 affected men and women in vastly different ways. Many countries prioritised reinvesting in classically male-dominated sectors like aviation, heavy manufacturing and construction and didn’t provide the same support to female-dominated sectors. Temporary benefits were initiated for those who could not work due to care responsibilities, but very few governments provided reasonable compensation relative to the market value of care work."
“We know that more women were more likely to leave their employment relative to men, and as pandemic recovery progressed, women were less likely to return to their employment. We also know that women carry more of the responsibility for caring for children and elders and for domestic work, which was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Longstanding perceptions of unpaid care as something women should do for free persists. Even when childcare facilities were closed for months, families or carers did not receive compensatory payments that matched a fair and liveable wage.”
Gender Equality Policies
Gender equality considerations should be integrated into government policies to benefit both women and men. Sweden exemplifies this approach by implementing gender mainstreaming, which even affects municipal policies like snow removal. But how does snow removal relate to gender?
“One of the things we know is that men and women use roads and public transit in different ways. In general, men are much more likely to drive to work, while women are more likely to use public transit or walk. Also, women are often the ones responsible for taking the kids to school. When there is a lot of snow, the municipal government must think about what to do? Do they clear the roads first, or do they clear the sidewalks first? This matters, because if you clear the roads first, you're facilitating those who drive getting to work. But if you clear the sidewalks first, you're facilitating things like getting kids to school. There are gender perspectives on almost every kind of public policy.”
Whilst some countries excel in gender equality, the USA is among the few advanced democracies to lack a gender mainstreaming mandate. Professor Piscopo has been working with the Gender Equity Policy Institute (GEPI) to create A Roadmap for an Equitable Future: Placing a Gender Lens on American Public Policy. She will continue working with GEPI to lead training sessions on international best practices, introduce gender mainstreaming policies to lawmakers in the US state of California and co-steer an international expert group that will promote gender mainstreaming in the USA.
