Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

6-2019

Abstract

The gender and age composition of a parliament impacts who is descriptively represented and marginalized and what types of policy ideas and solutions are brought forward or excluded. While important for both descriptive and substantive representation, scholarship on the intersection of gender and age in parliaments has thus far been limited. To broaden our understanding, we conducted a large-scale cross-sectional analysis of the gender and ages of over 20,000 representatives from 78 national assemblies. We identified four types of gender-age patterns depending on whether women enter legislatures younger than men (“early birds”) or have served in parliament for a shorter period of time than men (“short tenures”). Most surprisingly, we found few countries exhibit the predicted “double squeeze” pattern whereby women enter parliament older than men and have shorter tenures. Lastly, since most women enter parliament after child-bearing age, we conclude that the motherhood penalty still exists.

Keywords

Age, gender, legislatures, parliament, representation, women

Discipline

Gender and Sexuality | Political Science

Research Areas

Political Science

Publication

Politics, Groups and Identities

First Page

1

Last Page

18

ISSN

2156-5503

Identifier

10.1080/21565503.2019.1629319

Publisher

Taylor & Francis (Routledge): SSH Titles

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2019.1629319

Share

COinS