Scholars have been conflicted whether descriptive representation of women leads to substantive representation. A new way of measuring this relationship is through the relationship between women movements and female parliamentarians. Thus, this paper develops from the rethinking of the critical mass theory and uses the feminist demands stated by women organisations in Uganda. This in order to establish whether or not there exists an alliance between inside and outside actors as a measure of substantive representation of women. By applying this approach to transcripts from plenary debates in the Ugandan parliament, the study finds that several gender-related issues are addressed by female MPs. Using a frame analysis comparing the framing of problems between the women organisations and the female MPs, the paper discovers that the majority of issues addressed in the parliament is framed less radically by the female MPs. While the organisations frame the problems as being gender-related, mainly affecting rural women and girls, the MPs frame them more of concern for the whole population and as problems with economic implications for the country.

The aim of this paper is to explore how the Rwandan state has motivated its increased prioritization of family planning (FP). The paper seeks to understand whether the state’s increased promotion of FP is a result of Rwanda’s strong commitment to gender equality or part of a broader development agenda. By applying theories of substantive representation of women and smart economics, the paper investigates if the state considers enhancing women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) as a goal in itself or as a means to reach their broader development goals. The method which has been selected is text analysis. The texts which are analyzed are government documents from the time of the emergence of the FP programme. The main findings of this paper suggest that the state’s main motive for the increased prioritization of FP is driven by the development agenda rather than a gender-sensitive approach. Nevertheless, there are statements in the texts which the paper connects to theories of substantive representation of women, however, the development rational corresponding with the idea of smart economics is more recurrent. The paper finds that the hypothesis building on the theory of smart economics finds the strongest support and therefore suggests that the Rwandan states consider FP to be a means to achieve broader development goals.

This thesis aims to explore the link between women’s descriptive representation and substantive representation in the 20th National Assembly of the Republic of Korea according to the different conceptualization of women’s substantive representation. First, the link between women’s descriptive representation and substantive representation is examined by investigating whether women legislators introduce bills for women’s interests and succeed in passing such bills more than men. Plus, women legislators’ impact on the introduction of bills for women’s interests and success to pass such bills is explored separately according to different definitions of women’s interests, feminist and traditional women’s interests. This thesis also seeks to compare the influence of quota women with non-quota women on introducing bills for women’s interest and being able to pass such bills. The effect of legislators’ gender and quota women on women’s substantive representation is analyzed by running multivariate OLS regressions. The result strongly supports the positive impact of female legislators on the substantive representation of women. The regression analysis result indicates that being female is positively and significantly related to all types of women’s substantive representation, except the introduction of traditional women’s interests bills. The positive effect of the female legislators is more robust on the introduction of feminist women’s interests bills than the passage of them. However, the positive effect of the female legislators is stronger on the passage of traditional women’s interests bills than the introduction of them. When I compare the connection between women’s descriptive representation and substantive representation according to the different definitions of women’s interests, female legislators are more positively related to feminist women’s interests than traditional women’s interests. The result mildly supports the positive moderating effect of quota women on the link between women’s descriptive representation and substantive representation. These findings indicate that women legislators and quota women improve women’s substantive representation in the Republic of Korea. Specific effects of female legislators and quota women on women’s substantive representation are varied depending on different aspects of substantive representation and different definitions of women’s interests.

This study aims to understand the Kenyan cross-party parliamentary women’s caucus success at representing women substantively despite ethnic division. The Kenyan case highlights a paradox: the cross-party parliamentary women’s caucus is successful in a country where politics is shaped by ethnic division, which contradicts existing theories suggesting that the many layers of identity politics would make it difficult for the members to cooperate on a common women’s agenda. The material was collected during ten weeks in Nairobi through interviews with women MPs within the caucus and through observation of meetings, events, and the daily work of the caucus. The findings suggest that women’s issues are perceived as non-political, and non-controversial, which makes it possible for the members to cooperate on a common women’s agenda. Kenya seems to be in an initial stage of gender mainstreaming where the caucus’s members cooperate on women’s fundamental rights, on which they can all agree. It is reasonable to believe that the political parties will develop ideological differences concerning women’s issues as Kenya achieves a certain level of gender equality. The cross-party parliamentary women’s caucus will, according to the findings, be essential to improve the substantive representation of women in the Parliament.