Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

submittedVersion

Publication Date

2-2020

Abstract

Studies of Western parliaments find women experience greater difficulty than men in combining parenting with a career in parliament. Is it the same worldwide? Addressing this issue, we compared the marital and parental status of legislators in 25 diverse parliaments around the world while theoretically exploring whether parliamentary family gaps are due to individual, family, institutional, societal or global-level conditions. Through a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, we find institutional- and societal-level factors matter. Namely, family gaps between men and women members of parliament (MPs) were narrower under conditions of higher female employment, women in parliamentary leadership and lower rates of child mortality. Thus, motherhood penalties for women MPs are likely to diminish with increases in women’s paid employment, better social welfare provisions and more women in parliamentary leadership positions. Our findings also point to the importance of public policies, parliamentary rules and critical actors in reducing time demands on parents who are MPs.

Keywords

Children, Marriage, Mothers, Parliament, Representation, Women

Discipline

Gender and Sexuality | Political Science | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration

Research Areas

Political Science

Publication

Parliamentary Affairs

First Page

1

Last Page

18

ISSN

0031-2290

Embargo Period

3-30-2021

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsaa003

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