Gender, political representation and symbolic capital: how some women politicians succeed
Author(s)
Spark, C
Cox, J
Corbett, J
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2019
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Increasing women’s representation in national legislatures has become a priority for international organisations and aid donors in recent decades. Existing studies emphasise structural barriers, whether economic, cultural or religious, that inhibit women’s participation in the public sphere. Little attention is paid to women who defy these barriers to win election in contexts that are hostile to their presence. This article addresses this gap. Using a Bourdieusian approach, it shows how three senior women leaders from the Pacific Islands translate symbolic capital into political capital. For donors and would-be reformers, ...
View more >Increasing women’s representation in national legislatures has become a priority for international organisations and aid donors in recent decades. Existing studies emphasise structural barriers, whether economic, cultural or religious, that inhibit women’s participation in the public sphere. Little attention is paid to women who defy these barriers to win election in contexts that are hostile to their presence. This article addresses this gap. Using a Bourdieusian approach, it shows how three senior women leaders from the Pacific Islands translate symbolic capital into political capital. For donors and would-be reformers, the lesson is that institutional interventions must be implemented in ways which allow women’s symbolic capital to be deployed as political capital, or which enhance women’s control of various forms of capital. This message is particularly relevant for those interested in the capacity of quotas and other temporary measures to translate descriptive representation into substantive developmental gains.
View less >
View more >Increasing women’s representation in national legislatures has become a priority for international organisations and aid donors in recent decades. Existing studies emphasise structural barriers, whether economic, cultural or religious, that inhibit women’s participation in the public sphere. Little attention is paid to women who defy these barriers to win election in contexts that are hostile to their presence. This article addresses this gap. Using a Bourdieusian approach, it shows how three senior women leaders from the Pacific Islands translate symbolic capital into political capital. For donors and would-be reformers, the lesson is that institutional interventions must be implemented in ways which allow women’s symbolic capital to be deployed as political capital, or which enhance women’s control of various forms of capital. This message is particularly relevant for those interested in the capacity of quotas and other temporary measures to translate descriptive representation into substantive developmental gains.
View less >
Journal Title
Third World Quarterly
Volume
40
Issue
7
Subject
Human society