Why have women succeeded in obtaining substantial political power in some countries and not in others? To answer this question, this project will model women's inclusion into parliamentary bodies in over 150 countries from 1893 to 2003. The goals of the project are twofold: (1) to define and measure women's attainment of political power across political systems and time, and (2) to examine what factors explain how long it takes countries to acquire their first female parliamentarian, and to achieve ten, twenty, and thirty percent women in their parliament. The resulting project dataset will contain data on female suffrage, the first female member of parliament, when women reach important representational milestones, such as 10%, 20%, and 30% of a legislature, and when women achieve highly-visible political positions, such as prime minister, president, or head of parliament. Data will yield over 150 countries for analysis from 1893 to 2003 and will be made available to other researchers through a public data archive. The analyses will incorporate time and history into existing cross-national models of women and politics. Event history analyses will address the process by which women gain political power across countries and over time, ask whether this process differs for initial representation (first member of parliament) vs. later gains such as 10% representation, and acknowledge that social, economic, and political developments may take time to impact women's political representation. The project holds intellectual merit as an extensive, large-scale, cross-national investigation of the factors that explain women's attainment of political power over time.
The project will have broad impact for academic researchers, activists, and educators. The dataset generated here will provide a substantial resource for other researchers who study women, politics, and power. The analyses will help academics and activists ascertain the prospects for women increasing their representation in politics and recommend strategies for increasing the number of women achieving political office in the future. Finally, the project will provide educators with comprehensive international and historical information on women in a variety of political positions.
