The main objective of my thesis is to outline basic concepts helping to understand the gender issue. Following these finds I want to focus on the concepts of the modern political scene and on the mapping of the theoretical finds and facts regarding the numbers of politically engaged women in Czech politics. A bigger part of this thesis will focus on the research which will consist of two parts. The original assumption consisted of only one research but while writing my thesis I encountered new facts which I wanted to include and that is why I conducted two researches. The topic of the thesis is the question of gender division of roles in the political sphere in the Czech Republic. Based on the introductory theoretical description of development of the emancipation movement striving for active participation of women in modern democratic politics and characterization of the situation in the Czech society, a research into the division of roles between men and women will be conducted. An attempt to state the reasons why there are less women in politics nowadays will be based on active cooperation with PF JCU students through information gained from questionnaire survey. The anticipated conclusion will be a summary of all finds and an attempt to suggest a solution to reach an optimal state in Czech politics.

This dissertation explores the role of female political actors in the gendered rebuilding of Tunisia’s post-Ben Ali political infrastructure and how gender both informed and featured in the early stages of the democratic transition. Drawing on thirteen months of fieldwork and over 300 hours of interviews, it narrates a yet untold story of the transformation of female political actors from object to subject of the state. In the post-revolutionary political terrain, gender and women’s rights were imbued with broader discursive significance, becoming a vehicle through which to distinguish two broad political categories of Islamism and secularism, which showcased continuity with the historical deployment of gender in pre-independence and post-colonial authoritarian contexts. However, analysis of the development of gender parity legislation from its introduction in the interim electoral law in advance of the 2011 elections, through the constitutional and electoral law drafting processes, and its implementation in the 2014 elections, reveals the inadequacy of gender as a metaphor for broad political characterisations and the fluidity of the Tunisian political terrain as seen through a gendered lens. It was only through the collaborative work of female political actors across the ideological spectrum within the National Constituent Assembly that the foundational texts of the Second Republic were gendered, acknowledging and addressing the ways that the lived experiences of women, as socially and historically constituted subjects, can mediate access to rights. By virtue of this process, these female deputies, whose own subjectivities were transformed through interaction with male-dominated political institutions, enacted and embodied new modes of the female citizen as subject. Finally, in tracing the development of the gender parity laws through the formative years of Tunisian democracy, this dissertation illuminates the ways in which access to newly democratised political power remains gendered, mediated through the complex interplay between larger political, social, and economic structures.

Submitted by Kamila Costa (kamilavasconceloscosta@gmail.com) on 2015-07-21T17:42:22Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Daswanny A Reis.pdf: 744956 bytes, checksum: d8490cac62b0b787cfd85edb864e5b91 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2015-07-23T17:56:34Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Daswanny A Reis.pdf: 744956 bytes, checksum: d8490cac62b0b787cfd85edb864e5b91 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2015-07-23T18:00:49Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Daswanny A Reis.pdf: 744956 bytes, checksum: d8490cac62b0b787cfd85edb864e5b91 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-23T18:00:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Daswanny A Reis.pdf: 744956 bytes, checksum: d8490cac62b0b787cfd85edb864e5b91 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-10-07 / Não Informada / This study aims to analyze the participation of women within political parties in order to understand how they are perceived and constructed gender relations in this space. In this sense, understand this movement within the parties becomes revealing the mechanisms of integrating women into the world of politics and institutional barriers that reinforce the low representation of women in legislative houses, despite the electoral changes made in recent decades and adoption of the quota law. You can see through this study the mechanisms that build parties for inclusion or exclusion of this group and to what extent such participation is reversed in access to elective office when they throw themselves as candidates in elections. The research takes the political party as a major player in building and leadership role in the process of candidate selection. Official documents and speeches of the parliamentary form the basis for the proposed research. Keywords: gender relations; political parties; gender quotas. / Este estudo tem por objetivo analisar a participação das mulheres no interior dos partidos políticos, a fim de entender como são percebidas e construídas as relações de gênero neste espaço. Nesse sentido, entender essa movimentação no interior dos partidos torna-se revelador dos mecanismos de inserção das mulheres no mundo da política institucional e os entraves que reforçam a baixa representatividade das mulheres nas casas legislativas, a despeito das mudanças eleitorais realizadas nas últimas décadas e da adoção da lei de cotas. É possível perceber através deste estudo os mecanismos que os partidos constroem para inclusão ou exclusão desse grupo e em que medida essa participação se reverte em acesso aos cargos eletivos quando elas se lançam como candidatas numa disputa eleitoral. A pesquisa toma o partido político como ator importante na constituição de lideranças e fundamental no processo de seleção de candidatos. Documentos oficiais e os discursos das parlamentares servirão de base para a investigação proposta.

RQ1: What diversity management practices facilitate gender representation in the workplace? RQ2: Which challenges arise when implementing gender quotas into the work environment?  Purpose: The impact of this research is twofold: it will address a knowledge gap in the academic literature on gender challenges, gender quota application and follow-up in business, as well as contribute to research on practice-based diversity and quotaring. Additionally, this study will have an impact on how issues like this are handled in practice.  Method: Five semi-structured interviews with managers in various positions in a multinational organization, as well as three focus group discussions, were conducted as part of this qualitative study to allow interactions between theories and empirical findings. In addition to the interviews, the theoretical framework allowed for a thematic analysis. Conclusion: The empirical data gathered for this study has provided sufficient evidence to conclude that a firm's acceptance of diversity and diversity management policies and practices, such as gender quotas, is highly valued by stakeholders, but often difficult to admit. When it comes to incorporating efforts like inclusion and diversity into a firm’s plans, diversity has proven to be quite beneficial, however using gender quotas as part of diversity management techniques is frowned upon. We can also conclude that women still face significant challenges solely based on gender in the business world, such as salary differences, pregnancy, attitudes and males’ perceptions, to name a few. Thus, gender equality still has a long way to go.

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.

<p>The purpose of this dissertation is to map and analyze the spatial and temporal variation in women’s political representation at both the national and local level. In the dissertation it is argued that women’s political representation is the outcome of the interplay between structures, institutions and actors. The perspective is a comparative one, in which quantitative analyses and more qualitative case-studies complement each other. When analysing spatial variation a mainly quantitative approach is taken, while the case-study approach is applied to the temporal variation.</p><p>The first empirical chapter examines whether female representation in the lower houses of the world’s parliaments co-varies with other indicators of the political situation of women in order to ensure the validity of the analysis. In the second empirical chapter female representation in parliaments of the world during the post-war period is analyzed. In the third empirical chapter the focus narrows down to women’s political representation in Western Europe during the post-war period, where both the national and local level is analysed. The fourth empirical chapter consists of case studies of six countries. Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands feature high female representation; France, Greece and Ireland low female representation. In the fifth empirical chapter women’s political representation at the local level in Norway and Sweden is analysed during the post-war period. In the sixth empirical chapter the temporal variation in female representation in a number of Swedish municipalities is analysed, from the introduction of female suffrage in 1921 until 2002.</p><p>The result is that both structures, institutions and actors are necessary to explain the spatial and temporal variation in female representation. There is no direct link between structures and female representation. The structure does affect the actors and co-varies with the institutions, but successful actors as entrepreneurs might boost female representation. Actors are important. The increase in female representation cannot be seen as an automatic process taking care of itself. Conscious actors are necessary both to affect and to monitor the development. An unfavourable structural context might be compensated for by actors and institutions which favour female representation.</p>

In this mixed methods study, I explore the reasons for the low level of women in elected office in Europe. I analyze the impact of three structural factors (number of years since women's suffrage was enacted, type of electoral system, and presence of legal gender quotas) and three attitudinal factors (level of gender equality, percentage of female professionals, and level of religiosity) on the percentage of women in national legislatures in each of the European countries. Specifically, I pose the following research question: Which structural and/or attitudinal factors are more influential for women's political representation in European countries? In order to answer this question, I begin by performing ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analyses of the variables. My Europe-wide and Western Europe regression results indicate that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between the favorability of a country's electoral system to the election of women and the level of women's political representation in that country. Proportional representation electoral systems are particularly beneficial to female candidates. In addition, unlike previous scholars who focus on the dominant religion, I apply the concept of religiosity (the importance of religion to a country's citizens) to women's political representation. I find a statistically significant negative relationship between the level of religiosity in a country and the level of women's political representation in that country. Countries in which citizens are particularly religious tend to be conservative and less likely to encourage the election of women. However, none of the variables are statistically significant in the regression analysis of Eastern Europe, which indicates the need to take regional factors into consideration. In the second part of the study, I examine four case studies (Sweden, Ireland, Hungary, and Macedonia). The case studies permit in-depth analyses of the individual countries, and show the manner in which structural and attitudinal factors interact in a particular country context. In the case of Macedonia, structural factors have mitigated the effects of negative attitudinal factors. In most of the case studies, however, a combination of structural (electoral system and gender quotas) and attitudinal factors (gender equality and religiosity) affect the level of women's political representation in the country. Ultimately, the case studies demonstrate how the country-specific context impacts the election of women to parliament.

The purpose of this dissertation is to map and analyze the spatial and temporal variation in women’s political representation at both the national and local level. In the dissertation it is argued that women’s political representation is the outcome of the interplay between structures, institutions and actors. The perspective is a comparative one, in which quantitative analyses and more qualitative case-studies complement each other. When analysing spatial variation a mainly quantitative approach is taken, while the case-study approach is applied to the temporal variation. The first empirical chapter examines whether female representation in the lower houses of the world’s parliaments co-varies with other indicators of the political situation of women in order to ensure the validity of the analysis. In the second empirical chapter female representation in parliaments of the world during the post-war period is analyzed. In the third empirical chapter the focus narrows down to women’s political representation in Western Europe during the post-war period, where both the national and local level is analysed. The fourth empirical chapter consists of case studies of six countries. Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands feature high female representation; France, Greece and Ireland low female representation. In the fifth empirical chapter women’s political representation at the local level in Norway and Sweden is analysed during the post-war period. In the sixth empirical chapter the temporal variation in female representation in a number of Swedish municipalities is analysed, from the introduction of female suffrage in 1921 until 2002. The result is that both structures, institutions and actors are necessary to explain the spatial and temporal variation in female representation. There is no direct link between structures and female representation. The structure does affect the actors and co-varies with the institutions, but successful actors as entrepreneurs might boost female representation. Actors are important. The increase in female representation cannot be seen as an automatic process taking care of itself. Conscious actors are necessary both to affect and to monitor the development. An unfavourable structural context might be compensated for by actors and institutions which favour female representation.

Andelen kvinnor i bolagsstyrelser i Norden har under en tid ökat. Det första landet i världen som införde en lag kring könssammansättningen i styrelser för att skapa mer jämställda styrelser är Norge. Den norska kvoteringslagen infördes 2006 och kräver att minst 40 procent av respektive kön ska representeras av styrelsens ledamöter. Företagen gavs två år att fullfölja de nya restriktionerna, och om lagen inte efterföljs är sanktionen tvångslikvidation, avvecklande av verksamheten. Under urvalsperioden för denna studie, 2002 till 2010, ökade antalet kvinnor i norska bolagsstyrelser från 12 procent till 43 procent, vilket är en ökning på 256 procent. Detta var ett väntat resultat då syftet med lagen var att göra styrelserna mer jämställda och skapa fler platser åt kvinnor. Styrelsestorleken förblev dock densamma, vilket indikerar på att företagen inte valde att utöka styrelsestorleken för att göra plats åt de nya kvinnliga ledamöterna och samtidigt behålla de manliga ledamöterna. Företagen valde istället att byta ut en del av de manliga ledamöterna mot kvinnliga och därmed behålla storleken på styrelsen. Det är inte heller någon signifikant förändring i Tobin’s Q mellan perioden före införandet av könskvoteringen och perioden efter. Däremot påverkade andelen kvinnor Tobin’s Q positivt innan könskvoteringen infördes. Detta indikerar på att när det inte finns restriktioner kring könssammansättningen i styrelser är företag med könsbalanserade styrelser i större utsträckning mer lönsamma. Tidigare studier har visat på att kvinnor tenderar att ha lägre ekonomisk kompetens än män. Detta borde då resultera i att när andelen kvinnor ökar borde den ekonomiska kompetensen i styrelser försämras. Däremot tenderar individer, oavsett kön, med en hög utbildningsnivå att ha en högre ekonomisk kompetens än individer som inte har en hög utbildning. Då resultaten från denna studie visar på att utbildningsnivån i styrelserna har förbättrats efter andelen kvinnor ökat indikerar detta på att den ekonomiska kompetensen i styrelserna inte har försämrats, den har snarare förbättrats. / The percentage of women on corporate boards have increased the last decades, especially in the Nordic countries. Norway was the first country in the world that implemented a gender quota to increase the percentage of women on corporate boards. The quota’s purpose is that corporate boards in listed companies is forced to have at least 40 percent of each gender represented by the directors and if they refuse to form a gender-balanced board they would face forced liquidation. The purpose of this study was to examine what the effects of the Norwegian gender quota did have on these companies’ financial performance and if the boards’ level of education was altered. The results show that the quota led to an increase in the percentage of women on corporate boards. This result was not surprising because the purpose of the law was to increase the gender equality on corporate boards. However, the results show no evidence that the quota had effects on the financial performance, measured in Tobin’s Q. The size of the board was still the same after the introduction of the quota, this indicate that they exchanged some of the sitting board members with new members, rather than to expand the boards and keep all the sitting male directors. Earlier studies show that women have, to a greater extent, a lower financial literacy than men. This should indicate that when the percentage of women increase on corporate boards, the financial literacy should be lower than before. However, there is a connection between a higher financial literacy and a higher education. The results show that the education level increased after the implementation of the quota, this indicates that the financial literacy on boardrooms haven’t deteriorated, but rather improved.

Despite global progress on gender equality, women continue to be underrepresented in politics and business. One widely debated policy measure aimed at tackling this issue is statutory gender quotas for the boards of directors of listed companies – so-called corporate quotas – which have been adopted in more than a dozen countries worldwide, yet remain understudied in the gender and politics literature. This thesis addresses that research gap and explores the broader impacts of corporate quota policies, in particular whether a quota law increases companies’ attention to gender equality and women-friendly workplace policies in areas beyond the boardroom. Focusing on the case of Germany, which adopted a corporate quota law in 2015, I use companies’ annual and sustainability reports to measure corporate attention to gender equality over a period of ten years (2011–2020). I exploit variation in the scope of the German law by employing a difference-in-differences method to compare outcomes for companies targeted by the quota law and companies that fell outside of the law’s reach, before and after quota adoption. Contrary to theoretical expectations and earlier research, no significant effects are found, indicating that German companies’ inclination to work with gender equality and women-friendly workplace policies remains largely unaffected by the quota policy. This suggests that although gender quotas may enhance women’s numerical representation by increasing the share of female members on corporate boards, they make little difference for firms’ broader gender equality work.