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Gender, Institutions and Political Representation pp 133–154Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Breaking Male Dominance: Institutional Change in New Democracies

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Part of the book series: Gender and Politics ((GAP))

Abstract

This chapter argues that, despite the relatively short interval, and despite the formidable resilience of men’s over-representation in politics of the past two decades, the process of breaking male dominance is well under way in Central and Eastern Europe. I identify five mechanisms of change, all of which have been at play in the region: gender quotas, party contagion, party system change, the diffusion of international norms and an increase in women’s activism in some countries, coupled with the emergence of a whole array of women’s policy machineries and other state institutions dedicated to promoting gender equality.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Mihai (2011, 54) notes that PSD’s women’s section sought to table a proposal for a 40 per cent quota just before the party’s 2010 Congress, but that the proposal was rejected (2010, 54).

  2. 2.

    The candidate data for 2005 are my own calculations on the basis of the candidate lists published by the Central Electoral Commission at http://pi2005.cik.bg/candidates/index.html, last accessed 8 May 2015.

  3. 3.

    The candidate data for 2009 are my own calculations on the basis of the candidate lists published by the Central Electoral Commission, http://pi2009.cik.bg/?page=6, last accessed 8 May 2015.

  4. 4.

    Rashkova and Zankina (2013, 432) suggest that NDSV’s and GERB’s performance vis-à-vis recruiting women candidates is part of a more general trend in Bulgaria , where the governing party has traditionally had the highest percentage of women. One explanation is that governing parties have the largest number of seats in parliament (and therefore the highest party magnitude, which mean that they can recruit from further down the party list than other parties). As Appendix A2 shows, their observation is certainly correct. Nevertheless, both NDSV and GERB have been considerably more likely to recruit more women that other governing parties.

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  1. Politics and Contemporary History, University of Salford Manchester, Greater Manchester, UK

    Cristina Chiva

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Chiva, C. (2018). Breaking Male Dominance: Institutional Change in New Democracies. In: Gender, Institutions and Political Representation. Gender and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-01177-0_7

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