The Appointment of Men as Representatives to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women

• Author: Elizabeth L. Brannon
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211066124
• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Date: 01 December 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Political Research Quarterly

2022, Vol. 75(4) 1360–1373

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129211066124

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The Appointment of Men as

Representatives to the United Nations

Commission on the Status of Women

Elizabeth L. Brannon

1



Abstract

The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was one of the f‌irst international bodies devoted to

gender issues and has played a foundational role in the promotion of gender equality globally. In this article, I explore

representational patterns at the CSW and question when and why states choose to send men representatives. Novel data

shows that while the commission was composed entirely of women representatives in its early decades, men’srep-

resentation has steadily increased—reaching parity in 2000. This paper argues that appointment choice can be explained

by domestic levels of women’s political empowerment. The empirical results demonstrate a non-linear relationship

between women’s political empowerment and appointment. States with higher levels of women’s political empow-

erment are more likely to appoint women representatives, until a threshold. At the highest levels of empowerment,

states become again more likely to appoint men. I argue that this ref‌lects a positive trend, in which men are taking a more

active role in deconstructing pervasive gender inequalities. This paper has relevant implications for understandings of

women’s representation in international institutions.

Keywords

United Nations, women’s political representation, commission on the status of women, gender equality

Introduction

In June of 1946, the members of the United Nations

formed the Commission on the Status of Women to

“prepare recommendations and reports. . . on women’s

rights in political, economic, social, and educational

f‌ields”and to address urgent issues in women’s rights

(Luchsinger 2019). At the time of its founding, and for

many decades following, the Commission on the Status of

Women (CSW) was one of the few international bodies

devoted to gender issues (Coliver 1987;Galey 1979).

Further, the commission offered an opportunity for

women to engage politically and represent their state in a

period when such an occurrence was rare.

In its f‌irst 20 years,every representative appointed to the

CSW was a woman(Coliver 1987;Galey 1979;Luchsinger

2019). However, in the time since, the CSW has experi-

enced signif‌icant variation in the proportion of women

representatives appointed and is no longer a body con-

sisting of uniquely women representatives. Original data

presented in this paper demonstrate that by 2000, men on

average made up more than 50% of representatives—

making women a minority in an organization dedicated

to improving their status. This begs the question: why do

states appoint men to represent women’sissues?

Since the CSW’s founding, women’s political status has

changed signif‌icantly, including an expansion of women’s

political representation andrights.Increasesinwomen’s

representation globally are at odds with decreases in

women’s presence at the CSW. Scholars of gender and

politics have attributed increases of women’s political rep-

resentation to factors like gender quotas, women’s mobili-

zation, international pressures, and changing gendered

norms (Hughes and Paxton 2008;Hughes et al. 2015;

Paxton et al. 2006). However, it is unclear whether these

patterns are present at the international level. While scholars

have dedicated signif‌icant attention to understanding the

1

The Si´

eCh

´

eou-Kang Center for International Security & Diplomacy,

University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA

Corresponding Author:

Elizabeth L. Brannon, The Si´

eCh

´

eou-Kang Center for International

Security & Diplomacy, University of Denver, 2201 S. Gaylord St,

Denver, CO 80208, USA

Email: elizabeth.brannon@du.edu