5 - Barriers to Women’s Participation in Politics

Summary

This chapter examines the interlinked barriers to women’s participation identified by the ethnographic descriptions and analyses of parliamentary interaction in the first half of the book. First it considers the nature of stereotypes about gender and communicative styles and their effects on women politicians, in particular the ‘different voice’ ideology and the problems posed by beliefs in the masculine voice of authority in public contexts. These interactional styles are shown to be ideologically salient to the ways in which politicians evaluate political speeches, including their own. Secondly, it considers sexism and its effects by using examples from the House of Commons. This leads to a discussion of fraternal networks and homosocial bonding and the ways in which this can marginalise and exclude some groups. Finally, the underrepresentation and sexist framing of women politicians by the media is considered by reviewing existing international research literature and examples from the UK House of Commons, using a critical discourse analytic approach.