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Literature / resource Imported

OPPORTUNITIES AND EXPECTATIONS The Gendered Organization of Legislative Committees in Germany, Sweden, and the United States

Sweden · Transnational · See the Sweden profile

As men and women increasingly share access to state power, there has been a question of whether women's rising descriptive representation leads to substantive change, and a sizable body of literature suggests it does. Using case studies of Germany, Sweden, and the United States,

Details

Promoter
Bolzendahl Catherine — website
Power domain
Political Power
Methods / tools
Awareness-raising, Monitoring, Benchmarking
Keywords
gender, institutions, organizations, legislative committees, comparative research

Context

This academic study (Bolzendahl et al.) investigates whether women's growing descriptive representation in national legislatures leads to substantive influence, comparing 40 years of legislative-committee membership data from Germany, Sweden and the United States.

Results

The comparative analysis found that all three committee systems display gender-typed patterns, with women disproportionately assigned to social-issue committees, though the degree of gender segregation and the resulting relations of power and prestige differ by country, reflecting how gender is constructed differently across these institutions.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years)

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