This dissertation addresses the question of women's descriptive underrepresentation in Canadian politics at the federal level. Previous studies of women's underrepresentation in Canada and elsewhere have largely focused on analysing the results of elections, and studies that do account for earlier factors such as recruitment and candidate selection are limited in their scopes. In this dissertation I analyse women's representation in a holistic manner, accounting for factors from the pre-nomination stage up through election. Conceptually, I approach the path to political office as a three-stage "representation pipeline," comprising candidate emergence, candidate selection, and election. I base my analysis on Elections Canada's records of nomination contests held by federal political parties for the 2004 through 2019 general elections, paired with relevant district-level demographic factors from the Canadian census. I complement this analysis with an original survey of nomination contestants in the 2019 election. I find that women's underrepresentation in Canada is determined chiefly by issues in candidate emergence, rather than by issues in candidate selection or electoral discrimination. Instead, nominations in Canada are in the strong majority of cases acclamations, making candidate emergence and election the only meaningful barriers to women's representation in most cases. Furthermore, women face a small but significant degree of electoral discrimination, with women having slightly lower odds then men of winning election even when controlling for their party's past performance in the district. Finally, I find that urban districts are more conducive to women's representation at all three stages of the representation pipeline.

Em 1849, Dostoiévski publica Niétotchka Niezvânova. No centro da narrativa temos uma mulher cujos fatos de sua vida (na infância) são trazidos à tona pelo seu próprio ponto de vista. Suas memórias, dadas as ambiguidades presentes, vão ao encontro de Memórias do Subsolo, publicada em 1864. Memórias, apesar de ser uma obra posterior de Dostoiévski em relação à Niétotchka Niezvânova, faz-nos pensar em muitos procedimentos literários e temas desenvolvidos que já fermentavam antes, de algum modo e com certas particularidades, nesta obra que será analisada aqui. Haverá um esforço em demonstrar como Niétotchka (uma mulher) fala do seu subsolo e como aquilo que é narrado em primeira pessoa, da maneira como é exposto a nós leitores, diz-nos muito sobre o verdadeiro caráter desta personagem feminina. O que nos leva, inevitavelmente, a uma questão fundamental na elaboração da personagem: a marginalização do ser humano, em seus diversos aspectos, que pretendemos discorrer ao longo da pesquisa apresentada aqui. / In 1849, Dostoevsky publishes Netochka Nezvanova, which has the plot focused ona woman that has thefacts of her life (in childhood) brought outthrough her own point of view. Her memories, given the held ambiguities, go against Notes from Underground, which was published in 1864. Although it came out later than Netochka Nezvanova, Notes makes us recall many literary methods and handled themes which, in some extent, were latent in the book analysed here. It will be sought to demonstrate how Netochka (a woman) speaks out from her underground and howher first-person narrative, as it is exposed to us readers, says a lot about the true nature of this female character. It leads us, inevitably, to a fundamental pointin the creation of such a character: the many facets of human marginalisation, which we intend to discourse along this research.

As a crisis of representation challenges third wave democracies, two of its most salient indicators – weak party institutionalization and the underrepresentation of marginalized groups – have thus far been evaluated only in isolation. This dissertation contends that the two dynamics are related, and uses extensive variation within Brazil, the third wave's most populous democracy, to analyze the relationship. Employing an original empirical database of 21,478 candidacies, 73 interviews, and field observations from throughout Brazil, I explain how voters, electoral rules, and parties interact to undermine women's political participation and representative democracy. Despite socioeconomic progress, an effective women's movement, an electorate increasingly receptive to female politicians, and a legislated gender quota, Brazil ranks poorly in global assessments of women's legislative presence. Using mixed methods, this dissertation analyzes variation in women's electoral performance across districts, electoral rules, parties, and women to explain the puzzle of women's underrepresentation in Brazil. I argue that the weakly institutionalized and male dominant character of most Brazilian parties has undermined the quota while also hindering women's political prospects and circumscribing their pathways to power. I subject the hypotheses of the women's representation literature and my own arguments to empirical testing and find that Brazil's female political aspirants are thwarted not by development level, electoral size, or ideology, but rather by the preponderance of inchoate and male-led parties. The analysis demonstrates that to effectively promote women's participation in candidate-centered elections, parties must have the capacity to provide women with essential psychological, organizational, and material support and the will, heralded by the party leadership, to do so. The paucity of such support and persistence of traditional gender norms have led Brazil's few female politicians to craft novel profiles; by conforming to traditional gender norms as supermadres, or converting social, organizational, or professional experiences into political capital as lutadoras or technocrats, such women have nonetheless thrived in inhospitable electoral contexts. I conclude that reforms that strengthen parties while incentivizing the promotion of women's participation within parties offer the greatest potential for mitigating Brazil's crisis of representation, situating once more the goals of the women's movement within the broader democratic reform agenda. / text

This thesis sets out to investigate if the proportion of women in the national parliament correlates with the extent to which national laws and policies guarantee women's sexual and reproductive health and rights. By conducting a cross-national comparison, this thesis contributes to the existing literature by offering an analysis of the relationship, utilizing a comprehensive measurement of states national legal and regulatory framework relating to women's sexual and reproductive health and rights. Further, it aims to offer an analysis of how the relationship appears in different regime-types, including both democratic and non- and partial democratic states. The results did not provide any support for a correlation between the proportion of women in the national parliament and the extent to which national laws and policies guarantee women's sexual and reproductive health and rights, regardless of the regime-type. While the results are inconsistent with the predictions of a correlation, this thesis is able to conclude that the concept of women's representation and how it may be connected to substantial changes in national legislation and policy is a complex relationship, worthy of further research.

Davantage que leurs aînés classiques ou néoclassiques, les auteurs romantiques sont hantés par la question du corps qui pose en creux celle du plaisir sexuel de la femme. Loin d’être un mouvement angélique et désincarné, le romantisme est en effet tiraillé par la matérialité des sens autant que par l’idéalité, se posant ainsi en héritier de Sade au même titre que de Rousseau. Les écrivains romantiques ne sont d’ailleurs pas les seuls à montrer un intérêt croissant pour la jouissance féminine : entre la fin de la Restauration jusqu’à la Révolution de 1848, les médecins tentent eux aussi d’éclaircir ce mystère et de le réguler. Mais, pour ce faire, ils reprennent à leur compte les théories misogynes des pires exégètes de la Bible et ils justifient ainsi, d’une manière prétendument scientifique, les lois inégalitaires du Code civil qui maintiennent la femme en position d’esclave juridique et de mineure sexuelle. Les auteurs romantiques ont-ils été influencés par ce contexte antiféministe ou sont-ils parvenus à proposer d’autres modèles ? Cette thèse explore l’ambivalence d’un mouvement qui réhabilite la chair au nom d’un plaisir supérieur au devoir mais qui véhicule en même temps tout un système de représentation machiste qui ne cesse de faire l’apologie du corps féminin outragé. À la même époque, des voix bien plus marginales se font entendre, notamment chez certaines saint-simoniennes qui n’hésitent pas à faire – bien avant la révolution sexuelle – l’apologie de « l’amour libre ». Le thème, socialement inconvenant, déchaîne malgré tout les passions, surtout chez les femmes auteurs qui craignent que cette question embarrassante ne nuise à des revendications qu’elles souhaiteraient plus « sociales ». / More than their classical and neo-classical predecessors, Romantic authors are obsessed with the question of the body which implicitly matches the subject of women’s sexual pleasure. Far from being an angelic and disembodied movement, Romanticism is indeed torn between the materiality of the senses and the question of ideality, arising from Sade’s as well as also Rousseau’s works. Besides, Romantic writers are not the only ones to show a growing interest in female enjoyment: between the end of the Bourbon Restoration and the 1848 Revolution, doctors tried to solve that mystery and regulate it. But, to do so, they endorsed misogynistic theories of the most extreme exegetes from the Bible and justified at the same time, from a so-called scientific point of view, the unequal laws of the French Civil Code which legally kept women in the position of subordinate sexual slaves. Were Romantic authors influenced by this anti-feminist background or did they manage to offer other ways of thinking? This dissertation explores the ambivalence of a movement which redeems the flesh in the name of a pleasure superior to duty but also conveys a chauvinistic set of representation condoning the violated female’s body. At that time, the echo of marginal voices arose, in particular among some Saint-Simonian women who did not hesitate to praise “free love”, way before the sexual revolution. The topic, a socially inappropriate one, aroused fierce passions among activists and even within the Romantic Movement.

Esta pesquisa é uma investigação sobre os trajes de cena utilizados ao longo da vida e carreira da atriz Margarida Max, estrela do teatro de revista, muito famosa no Brasil nas décadas de 1920 e 1930. A partir da definição de uma linha do tempo da vida da atriz, sua atuação profissional foi abordada, traçando-se paralelos com as principais mudanças em relação à emancipação feminina ocorridas nas primeiras décadas do século XX. A investigação dos trajes de cena está centrada principalmente entre os anos de 1925 e 1930, período de produção mais profícuo da Companhia Margarida Max. A hipótese deste trabalho é a de que Margarida Max teria construído sua carreira artística e imagem pessoal em consonância com os ideais de modernidade vigentes à época, de modo que as atividades cênicas que desempenhava como atriz, vedete, cantora, empresária, diretora e figurinista refletiam suas escolhas pessoais e não as de um agenciador ou agente teatral. Acredita-se que uma das ferramentas utilizadas por Margarida Max para abrir espaço na esfera pública e construir uma imagem pessoal estimada foi a capacidade que a atriz tinha para se vestir de acordo com o que era socialmente considerado de bom gosto, além de vestir-se de maneira extravagante e requintada em cena. Foram abordadas questões como as relações entre a figura da vedete e a construção do imaginário feminino, o traje de cena e as estratégias teatrais pertencentes ao universo do teatro de revista e a representação feminina em diversas plataformas, bem como os trajes usados por vedetes e coristas do teatro de revista carioca, na primeira metade do século XX. / This research is an investigation about costumes used throughout the life and career of Margarida Max, a famous Brazilian revue\'s star in the 1920s and 1930s. Starting from a timeline of the actress\'s life, her professional performance was approached and related with the main changes on women\'s emancipation ocurred in the first decades of the 20th century. The costume\'s investigation is mainly focused between 1925-1930, the most plentiful period of Margarida Max\'s Company. The hypothesis of this thesis is that Margarida Max would have built her artistic career and her personal image in the basis of the then current ideals of modernity; therefore, her artistic performance as actress, star, singer, business woman, director and costume designer reflected her personal choices, and not those of an agent. It is believed that Margarida Max\'s hability of dressing both fashionably and according with social parameters, as well as dressing lavishly on stage was used as a tool to get space in the public sphere and to build for herself an image of value. This research also adresses the relations between the starlet figure and the building of female social imaginary; revue\'s costumes and strategies; and women\'s representation on several platforms, as well as costumes used by starlets and chorus girls at revue theater from Rio de Janeiro, during the first half of the 20th century.

Esta pesquisa é uma investigação sobre os trajes de cena utilizados ao longo da vida e carreira da atriz Margarida Max, estrela do teatro de revista, muito famosa no Brasil nas décadas de 1920 e 1930. A partir da definição de uma linha do tempo da vida da atriz, sua atuação profissional foi abordada, traçando-se paralelos com as principais mudanças em relação à emancipação feminina ocorridas nas primeiras décadas do século XX. A investigação dos trajes de cena está centrada principalmente entre os anos de 1925 e 1930, período de produção mais profícuo da Companhia Margarida Max. A hipótese deste trabalho é a de que Margarida Max teria construído sua carreira artística e imagem pessoal em consonância com os ideais de modernidade vigentes à época, de modo que as atividades cênicas que desempenhava como atriz, vedete, cantora, empresária, diretora e figurinista refletiam suas escolhas pessoais e não as de um agenciador ou agente teatral. Acredita-se que uma das ferramentas utilizadas por Margarida Max para abrir espaço na esfera pública e construir uma imagem pessoal estimada foi a capacidade que a atriz tinha para se vestir de acordo com o que era socialmente considerado de bom gosto, além de vestir-se de maneira extravagante e requintada em cena. Foram abordadas questões como as relações entre a figura da vedete e a construção do imaginário feminino, o traje de cena e as estratégias teatrais pertencentes ao universo do teatro de revista e a representação feminina em diversas plataformas, bem como os trajes usados por vedetes e coristas do teatro de revista carioca, na primeira metade do século XX. / This research is an investigation about costumes used throughout the life and career of Margarida Max, a famous Brazilian revue\'s star in the 1920s and 1930s. Starting from a timeline of the actress\'s life, her professional performance was approached and related with the main changes on women\'s emancipation ocurred in the first decades of the 20th century. The costume\'s investigation is mainly focused between 1925-1930, the most plentiful period of Margarida Max\'s Company. The hypothesis of this thesis is that Margarida Max would have built her artistic career and her personal image in the basis of the then current ideals of modernity; therefore, her artistic performance as actress, star, singer, business woman, director and costume designer reflected her personal choices, and not those of an agent. It is believed that Margarida Max\'s hability of dressing both fashionably and according with social parameters, as well as dressing lavishly on stage was used as a tool to get space in the public sphere and to build for herself an image of value. This research also adresses the relations between the starlet figure and the building of female social imaginary; revue\'s costumes and strategies; and women\'s representation on several platforms, as well as costumes used by starlets and chorus girls at revue theater from Rio de Janeiro, during the first half of the 20th century.

The results in previous studies indicate that the electoral system plays an important role in women's political representation. Some researchers believe that the proportional electoral system contributes to more representation of women than the majority electoral system. The proportional electoral system is considered to be the most important factor explaining the cross-border differences in women's political representation.  The aim of my research is to test whether similar results to those shown in previous studies will occur when using another method. To fulfill this purpose, I answer the following questions:Can electoral factors explain the variation in women's political representation in the democratic countries of Africa? Is there any indication that other factors are important, if so, which ones?  In this research, different factors are used as the theoretical framework and starting point. After a theoretical review, the previous studies used to explain the underrepresentation of women in politics are introduced. The results from the previous studies are then compared to the results shown in this research to see if they can explain the variation in women's representation within the democratic countries in Africa.  This study is a comparative and employs most similar system design (MSSD). The table analysis is used as a method to analyse the collected data. Consequently, the results from the previous studies are used to analyse whether the same results on the electoral system also occur in democratic countries in Africa.  The findings show that countries with proportional electoral systems have a higher proportion of women in parliament compared to countries with a majority or mixed electoral system. However, the results also show that when compared with Catholic and Anglican countries, Protestant countries have a higher percentage of women in the national parliament. The explanation for this may be since the Catholic church is more associated with a hierarchical and authoritarian culture. The results in this study also indicate that the use of gender quotas is one of the factors that affect the women's political representation, which is consistent with the results shown in previous studies.

This licentiate thesis studies the differences between analogue and digital council meetings in how they are organized and how speaking times are distributed between men and women, and hard and soft issues. The study is based on Swedish municipal council meetings, which share similar features with national parliamentary meetings and seek legitimacy through meetings and debate. Perspectives on meeting sites and components are combined with a time perspective on parliamentary activity, where women's representation and formal meeting procedures are set in focus. By studying video recordings of six council meetings in three municipalities, time is used to measure components of three analogue and three digital meetings. Measures of relative speaking time or speech duration are constructed and applied to meeting structure and how women and men spend their speaking time. Findings indicate that the roles of meeting secretaries and chairmen changed when faced with new digital challenges. The meeting formality decreased in the digital meetings, which is in line with previous research. Women generally accounted for a smaller proportion of speaking time in relation to their numerical representation. They spent more of their speaking time debating soft issues, such as social care, while men spent more of their speaking time debating hard issues, such as economy and infrastructure. The findings are in line with previous research on the policy areas with which women and men most engage. In the digital meetings, differences between men and women where still observed, but less noticeable. This could be interpreted as the digital format having potential benefits for women's representation in certain circumstances. The findings have implications for the understanding on how digital parliamentary meetings strive to create legitimacy. However, more research is needed to be able to generalize beyond the specific context of this study and to understand the mechanisms that can explain differences between men's and women's speaking time. The contribution of the thesis lies primarily in the development of a new method for measuring speaking time which, in relation to previous research, presents greater robustness from a reliability and validity perspective. / Den här uppsatsen studerar skillnader mellan analoga och digitala fullmäktigemöten avseende hur de organiseras och hur talartider fördelas mellan män och kvinnor och hårda och mjuka frågor. Studien tar avstamp i fullmäktige som ett parlamentariskt möte på lokal nivå som söker genomflödeslegitimitet genom att sammanträda och debattera. Teoretiska perspektiv på mötesplatser och möteskomponenter kombineras med ett tidsperspektiv på parlamentarisk aktivitet där kvinnors representation och mötesprocedurer fokuseras. Genom att studera videoinspelningar av sex fullmäktigemöten i tre kommuner mäts hur tiden används i tre analoga och tre digitala möten. Måttet talartid konstrueras för att studera hur mötestiden struktureras och hur kvinnor och män spenderar sin talartid. Resultatet pekar på att mötessekreterares och ordförandes roller förändras när de ställs inför nya utmaningar i digitala möten och att formalitetsnivån sjunker i de digitala mötena, vilket är i linje med tidigare forskning om digitala möten. Kvinnor stod generellt för en mindre andel av talartiden i relation till deras numerära representation. De spenderade mer av sin talartid att debattera mjuka frågor som exempelvis social omsorg, medan männen spenderade mer av sin talartid åt att debattera hårda frågor som exempelvis ekonomi och infrastruktur. Resultatet är i linje med tidigare forskning om vilka politikområden som kvinnor och män engageras i. Skillnaderna bestod i de digitala fullmäktigesammanträdena, men de var inte lika påtagliga. En tolkning är att det digitala formatet kan gynna kvinnors representation under vissa omständigheter. Resultatet har implikationer för förståelsen om hur digitala parlamentariska möten bidrar till legitimitet. Dock behövs mer forskning för att kunna generalisera dessa fall bortom den specifika kontexten samt att förstå vilka mekanismer som kan förklara skillnader mellan män och kvinnors talartid. Uppsatsens bidrag ligger främst i utvecklingen av en innovativ metod för att mäta talartid som i relation till tidigare försök står sig robust utifrån ett reliabilitets- och validitetsperspektiv.