The effect of gender on the communication between representatives and citizens
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2021-08-15
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en
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Abstract
Descriptive representation, as described by Pitkin (1967), requires that representatives resemble those who they represent. One of most the important assumptions of descriptive representation is that it has the potential to strengthen communication between citizens and representatives,
because of a feeling of a linked fate. While this has been tested in the context of race, this thesis
aims to analyze this effect in the context of gender. I expect that the gender of a citizen has a direct impact on the gender of the parliament member they choose to contact, but also that this effect is strengthened by the subject about which a parliament is contacted and the party ideology of the citizen. The results show that women are consistently more likely to contactfemale representatives, while men are only more likely to do see when the subject of the contact is a traditional women’s issue. The results for party ideology are not significant.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen