When Do Men MPs Claim to Represent Women in Plenary Debates—Time-Series Cross-Sectional Evidence from the German States

• Published date: 01 June 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129221119199
• Author: Corinna Kroeber
• Date: 01 June 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Political Research Quarterly

2023, Vol. 76(2) 1024–1037

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129221119199

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When Do Men MPs Claim to Represent

Women in Plenary Debates—Time-Series

Cross-Sectional Evidence from the German

States

Corinna Kroeber

1



Abstract

Extensive scholarly work engages with the growing number of women in legislatures around the world and highlights

their role as advocates of women’s interests during parliamentary decision-making processes. This article sheds light on

the reactions of men MPs (members of parliament) to this trend by uncovering how women’s numerical strength in party

parliamentary groups shapes the issues that their men colleagues emphasize when speaking about women during ple nary

debates. I argue that, the higher the share of women in a party parliamentary group, the more will men representatives

emphasize women’s interests in the context of issues they can easily relate to—eithe r because the issues lie in men’s area

of responsibility according to ideas about traditional role distributions in the society, for example, the f‌inancing of gender

equality projects, or because they are part of broader patterns of societal inequality, such as poverty or health. I provide

empirical evidence for this argument based on original time-series cross-sectional data from plenary debates in six

German states between 2005 and 2021 using a structural topic model. These f‌indings shed light on men’s role as critical

actors and have implications for gender equality and the functioning of representative democracy more broadly.

Keywords

gender, parliaments, substantive representation, parties, women, text as data

Introduction

Women’s presence in parliaments around the world has

been increasing over the last decades and reached a

worldwide average of 26.4% in lower chambers in 2022

(Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2022). A comprehensive set

of research engages with the differences these women

make for the policy-making process. This work shows that

women MPs (members of parliament) prioritize issues

differently than men and act as advocates for women’s

interests (see, e.g., Allen and Childs, 2019,B¨

ack and

Debus, 2019,Lowande et al., 2019). However, to what

extend the presence of these women in parliaments also

translates into changes in party positions and policy

outcomes continues to be a controversial question (see,

e.g., Reher, 2018,Dingler et al., 2019,Greene and

O’Brien, 2016,Tusalem, 2022,Kittilson, 2011). To get

policies enacted, women have to gain the support of the

majority of party members and representatives –a group

that continues to include predominantly men. In conse-

quence, men are critical actors, who may initiate and drive

women’s substantive representation (Childs and Krook,

2009). Ideally, women’s presence among their ranks

changes the way men think about politics, leads them to

revise the issues they prioritize and the policies they

support. Men’s reactions to women’s increasing presence

in parliaments is hence decisive for the way the outcomes

of the legislative process can incorporate women’s in-

terests. This article contributes to a better understanding of

this process by answering the following question: How

does the share of women in party parliamentary groups

shape the issues that men MPs emphasize when speaking

about women during plenary debates?

I argue that, as women increasingly enter their ranks,

men representatives put more emphasis on women’s

1

University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

Corresponding Author:

Corinna Kroeber, University of Greifswald, Ernst-Lohmeyer-Platz 3,

Greifswald 17489, Germany.

Email: Corinna.Kroeber@uni-greifswald.de