Contextual Models

Explaining women’s political participation in cross-national perspective

1.Define political participation

2.What factors influence women’s political participation at the individual level?

3.What factors at the macro-level influence women’s political participation? Why build a multi-level model? Advantages vs. Disadvantages

4. Building the model using European Social Survey data

European Social Survey

There are different ways of trying to improve things in [name of a country] or help prevent things from going wrong. During the last 12 months, have you done any of the following? Have you:

(a) contacted a politician, government or local government official?, (b) worked in a political party or action group?(c) worked in another organization or association?(d) worn or displayed a campaign badge/sticker?(e) signed a petition?(f) taken part in a lawful public demonstration?(g) boycotted certain products?

Political ParticipationGENDER No YesMen 56,8 43,2Women 62,2 37,8Total 59,7 40,3

NONO YESYESCZ Czech Republic MEN 67,65 32,35

WOMEN 69,41 30,59DE Germany MEN 45,69 54,31

WOMEN 49,84 50,16EE Estonia MEN 82,61 17,39

WOMEN 82,09 17,91ES Spain MEN 46,05 53,95

WOMEN 50,68 49,32FR France MEN 44,71 55,29

WOMEN 44,88 55,12GB United Kingdom MEN 51,67 48,33

WOMEN 50,09 49,91GR Greece MEN 75,73 24,27

WOMEN 82,30 17,70PL Poland MEN 77,92 22,08

WOMEN 80,96 19,04SE Sweden MEN 31,45 68,55

WOMEN 27,05 72,95SK Slovakia MEN 60,55 39,45

WOMEN 67,13 32,87UA Ukraine MEN 66,26 33,74

WOMEN 72,26 27,74

Women’s Organizations in Poland

The Women's Parliamentary Group (Parlamentarna Grupa Kobiet - PGK) established 1991

“First, it was too early for women’s rights, and then it was too late. Immediately after 1989, many MPs were of the opinion that the economy and politics were more important. I thought so too, in spite of being a woman. Because the problems of the transformation concerned everybody, regardless of sex.”

-- Olga Krzyżanowska, MP during the years 1989-2001, deputy Speaker of the Parliament and then Senator. http://www.boell.pl/downloads/Gender_Issues_2009_WWW.pdf

“Women's Congress” (Kongres Kobiet)

Women’s Organizations in Poland

„We believe that [gender equality in politics] will provide an opportunity for a fuller selection of candidates with more diverse experience and sensitivity to a wider spectrum of social problems. This is a chance to change the quality of Polish politics. Women are different, see the world differently...Women can enrich policy.”

-- Kongres Kobiet’s Open Letter to Members of Parliament

Consequences of Women’s Political Inequality

“Those last 20 years cannot be appreciated enough as far as emancipation of women for independence, privacy and certain areas of public life is concerned; however, on the political level, we lost those two decades horribly. Our powerlessness concerning the most crucial issues of political freedoms, i.e. the shamefully lost issue of abortion, is our defeat.”

–Teresa Oleszczuk, feminist activist and co-founder of La Strada, p. 42 http://www.boell.pl/downloads/Gender_Issues_2009_WWW.pdf