Over the last few decades in countries around the world, both women and minority groups have made progress towards greater political representation. But even at a basic level, we do not understand how these advancements have affected the legislative representation of minority women. This project is unique in that it serves as the first large-scale, cross-national investigation of the factors that explain minority women's legislative representation. Drawing upon a variety of archival sources and with the help of foreign language experts, we collect data on the gender and minority status of politicians from over 100 countries around the world. Using this new data, the co-PI investigates three key research questions: (1) Have increases in women's political representation across the globe been limited to women in majority ethnic, racial, linguistic, and religious groups? (2) How do factors such as the political and electoral system, the number and types of minority groups, and the larger historical and sociopolitical context facilitate or hinder the political representation of female minorities? (3) Do ethnic conflict or gender/ethnic quotas create strategic opportunities that further minority women's legislative representation? The proposed analyses go beyond simple description, using structural equation modeling techniques (SEM) to predict minority women's legislative representation. Overall, this research furthers sociological understanding of how the intersecting identities of gender and minority status influence the power of minority women. The study also advances cross-national research on women in politics, which so far has not considered important differences among women. Further, it contributes to the important but challenging work of investigating marginalized groups across countries.
This project also has broader impacts. Both the data and the study's findings will be made available to the public so that policymakers and activists have the tools to advance the position of female minorities in public life. In addition, this project collects data on the political representation of minorities--both male and female--that other researchers may use to study a range of important outcomes, such as democracy, broader societal inequality, and ethnic conflict. Finally, as political parties and governments continue to incorporate women and minority groups into their ranks, this research serves as a reminder not to forget the special position of individuals at the intersection of these social identities
