The purpose of the thesis is to understand and analyze the present situation of gender equality in politics in the Philippines, investigate women's opportunities to be politically active and to exercise political influence. Finally find out if there is a difference in horizontal and vertical positions between women's and men's representation in politics and investigate further possibilities and problems that might be associated with women's political representation in the Philippines. The empirical material for this thesis has been gathered through qualitative interviews with male and female politicians from Manila, the capital of the Philippines. The theoretical framework is divided into different parts which are used to analyse various points from the empirical material. In this chapter, we included theories about differences between gender experiences and why women should be politically active. As well as the meaning of an overrepresentation of a certain group in politics and the possible reasons to women’s underrepresentation in politics as well as the arguments about women's presence in politics, and also the horizontal and vertical segregations. To analyse the empirics from a theoretical point of view, we have divided the results into three sub-categories which are the respondents' attitude to the present situation of gender equality in politics, women's opportunities to be politically active and to make political influence and the horizontal or vertical divisions between women and men's positions in politics.  The results from this thesis shows that women are as competent as men in the political field, and they have a lot of experiences to contribute with in politics that benefit all the citizens, but it is easier for women to come in politics if they are a part of a political clan. But these women, who replace their family members, usually pursue those members’ decision, but do not act according to their own will.

Women’s political representation is often investigated through cross-national comparisons. Such studies generally focus on women’s political representation at the national level, assuming that countries are homogenous units. However, structural and cultural differences are many times just as large within countries as they are between them. Modernization theory suggests that women’s political representation will increase with development, something that a number of previous studies on primarily Western countries find support for. In order to see if this theory is applicable also on a developing country like Brazil, this quantitative study compares the aggregated share of locally elected women (dependent variable) in 136 Brazilian regions in the 2012 municipal elections with levels of log GDP per capita, population density and female labor force participation (independent variables). In contrast to previous studies on Western countries, the results of this study find no support for the ideas of modernization theory. With moderate correlation, this study actually indicates that higher values of GDP per capita and female labor force participation have negative effects on women’s political representation at the local level in the compared Brazilian regions. Population density was not found to have any substantial effect on women’s political representation.

<p>The purpose of this study is to map out and to analyze the spatial variation of female representation at the national level in established democracies. The aim is also to explain the variation in the female representation. The main questions that the paper tries to answer are:</p><p>1.How does women representation in established democratic parliaments vary?</p><p>2.Why does women representation in established democratic parliaments vary?</p><p>This study is a comparative and statistic study, i.e. a study that includes a bigger number of countries and where quantitative analysis methods are used in order to achieve comparative analyses. This study is both a descriptive and an explanatory study. The statistical method that is used in this study is mainly bivariat analysis and multivariat regression.</p><p>The results show that the variation in female representation in the established democracies is quite considerable. Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Netherlands feature high female representation at the national level during the period 1995-2005. The result also implies that the proportion of women in parliament increases during the current period. The result also shows that political institutions, socio-economic -and cultural factors, are important and necessary in order to explain the variation in female representation. The overall standards that can be discerned of the statistical analyses is that the proportion of women in parliament is higher in countries with a proportional electoral system, high number of parliament members, high socio-economic development (high HDI, GDI and GNP per capita) contemporary as the country introduced female suffrage in an early stage and have a more positive attitude toward female leadership.</p>

This qualitative case study focuses on the development of women’s political representation in national legislation, from 2000 to 2021 in Mexico. To examine the development of women’s political representation, this study will use Hanna Pitkin’s (1967) four interconnected diminutions of representation: formal, descriptive, substantive, and symbolic representation. The result of this study has revealed a predominantly positive development trends in Mexican women’s political representation in the Congress of the Union, from 2000 to 2021 in terms of formal, descriptive, substantive representation. While the implantation of a gender quota system has had an overall positive impact, the unwavering scepticism and lack of trust of the democratic and representative political institutions, among women is still persistent.

Syftet med kandidatuppsatsen är att förstå och analysera ledamöternas syn på kvinnor i politiken i Mauritius. Denna avhandling fokuserar på politikernas erfarenheter efter implementering av könskvotering i den lokala politiken som resulterade i en ökad kvinnorepresentation och dess konsekvenser. Det empiriska materialet för avhandlingen har samlats in genom kvalitativa intervjuer med manliga och kvinnliga ledamöter från tre kommuner i Mauritius. Det teoretiska ramverket är uppdelad i tre delar som används för att analysera olika punkter från det empiriska materialet. I det teoretiska ramverket har vi inkluderat teorier om de tillvägagångssätt att öka kvinnors representation, varför kvinnor bör vara aktiva i politiken, och om könskvotering. För att analysera empirin från en teoretisk synvinkel har resultaten delats upp i tre underkategorier vilket är respondenternas inställning till könskvotering och kvinnors representation i politiken, teorin om kritisk massa och förändringar i den politiska agenda, samt kommunpolitikernas attityder gentemot kvinnliga politiker. Resultaten från vår avhandling visar att föreställningen att politiken enbart är en mans domän har börjat förändras. Den ökade kvinnorepresentationen har visat att kvinnor är lika kompetenta som män att verka i den politiska världen. Dock visar inte resultaten någon märkbar förändring i den politiska agendan. Kvinnor i Mauritius är numera accepterade att delta i politiken, men det är fortfarande en lång väg att gå för dem att betraktas som likvärdiga medlemmar som män i den politiska världen. / The purpose of the thesis is to understand and analyse councillors’ view on women in Mauritian politics. This thesis focuses on their experiences after the implementation of gender quota in local government which led to an increased women’s representation in local politics as well as the consequences derived from it. The empirical material for this thesis has been gathered through qualitative interviews with male and female councillors from three municipalities in Mauritius. The theoretical framework is divided into three parts which are used to analyse different points from the empirical material. In the theoretical framework we have included theories about the ways to increase women’s representation, why women should be active in politics, and about gender quota. To analyse the empirics from a theoretical point of view, we have divided the results into three sub-categories which are the respondents’ stance to gender quota and women’s representation in politics, the theory of critical mass and the change in political agenda, as well as the councillors’ attitudes towards female politicians. The results from this thesis show that the notion that politics is solely a male domain has begun to change. The increased women’s representation has shown that women are as competent as men in the political field. However, the results do not show a notable change in the political agenda, because not enough time has passed to see any differences. Women in Mauritius are today more accepted to partake in politics but there is still a long way to go for them to be considered equal members as men in the political world.

Politiska ungdomsförbund är viktiga arenor där unga människor diskuterar och formulerar frågor som kan bli en del av den politiska dagordningen. Sättet som en politisk fråga diskuteras skapar också gränserna för hur det är möjligt att förstå och tala om den. I denna studie undersöks det socialdemokratiska ungdomsförbundets (SSU) könspolitik under perioden 1970- 2000. Mer specifikt analyseras hur frågan om kvinnors politiska representation framställts inom förbundet och vilka lösningar som varit möjliga att föra fram på förbundskongresserna. Avhandlingens utgångspunkter är feministisk teori och teori om problem konstruktion. Studien baseras på källmaterial som kongressprotokoll, handlings- och principprogram, stadgar, motioner från individuella kongressledamöter och från distrikt, förbundsstyrelsens utlåtande över motioner, förbundsskrifter samt tidskrifterna Tvärdrag och P- Information. Avhandlingen visar att SSU, trots sin radikala självbild, haft liten egen drivkraft att driva frågan om att öka kvinnors representation i förbundets beslutsfattande organ. Problem med låg representation av kvinnor inom förbundet erkänns, men fram till 1990-talet är det någon annan, någon annanstans, som ska lösa underrepresentationen. Avhandlingen visar också att problemkonstruktionerna ofta innehåller motsägelsefulla förståelser av frågan om kvinnors representation. Sammantaget bidrar en rad antaganden som, normer om frivillighet, samarbete mellan män och kvinnor, könskomplementaritet, samt även passiva och symboliska hinder och utlyftande praktiker, till att forma gränserna för hur kvinnors politiska representation kan diskuteras inom SSU. / Political youth associations are important political arenas where young people discuss and formulate issues that can become part of the political agenda. The way a political issue is discussed and problematized also creates the borders for how it is possible to talk about it and to understand a particular issue. In this thesis, the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League’s (SSU) gender politics are explored. More specifically, the question of how women’s representation is constructed and what solutions are seen as possible is analysed. The analytical points of departure are feminist theory and theory of problem construction. The source material consists of congress material from 1970 until 2001: congress protocols, motions from individuals and district committees, League committee reports on the motions and debates in the congresses. Other source materials are debate publications, booklets, written documents, internal material about women’s representation, programs of action and ideas and the periodicals Tvärdrag and P-Information. The study shows that the Social Democratic Youth League, despite of its radical self image, has few ambitions of its own to politicise the question of women’s representation. Problems with women’s low representation within the league are admitted, but until the 1990’s, these problems are always associated with someone else, somewhere else, who is going to solve the under representation. The study also shows that the problem constructions often contain contradictory understandings of the question of women’s representation. A number of assumptions such as norms for volunteering, cooperation between men and women, gender complementary, barriers as passive and symbolic barriers, and ‘externalizing practices’, contribute to shaping the borders of how the question of women’s representation can be discussed within the League.

The purpose of this study is to map out and to analyze the spatial variation of female representation at the national level in established democracies. The aim is also to explain the variation in the female representation. The main questions that the paper tries to answer are: 1.How does women representation in established democratic parliaments vary? 2.Why does women representation in established democratic parliaments vary? This study is a comparative and statistic study, i.e. a study that includes a bigger number of countries and where quantitative analysis methods are used in order to achieve comparative analyses. This study is both a descriptive and an explanatory study. The statistical method that is used in this study is mainly bivariat analysis and multivariat regression. The results show that the variation in female representation in the established democracies is quite considerable. Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Netherlands feature high female representation at the national level during the period 1995-2005. The result also implies that the proportion of women in parliament increases during the current period. The result also shows that political institutions, socio-economic -and cultural factors, are important and necessary in order to explain the variation in female representation. The overall standards that can be discerned of the statistical analyses is that the proportion of women in parliament is higher in countries with a proportional electoral system, high number of parliament members, high socio-economic development (high HDI, GDI and GNP per capita) contemporary as the country introduced female suffrage in an early stage and have a more positive attitude toward female leadership.

Following conflict, peace agreements bring an opportunity to profoundly change societal structures and add to women’s empowerment. Using affirmative action tools like electoral gender quotas, women’s numerical presence, or descriptive representation, has more than doubled since the 1995 Beijing Declaration. However, women’s descriptive representation does not always result in women’s representation beyond numbers, or substantive representation. This thesis aims to solve why quotas do not always lead to a rise in women’s substantive representation by exploring one possible explanation: the effect of women’s rights provisions in peace agreements on the outcomes of electoral gender quota-implementation. It argues that women’s rights provisions in peace agreements can affect policymaking outcomes in the postwar context in terms of increased substantive representation of women. The thesis employs the method of structured, focused comparison to compare the two post-war countries, Nepal and Angola. It finds support for the hypothesis that electoral gender quotas implemented following a peace agreement with women’s rights provisions leads to a larger increase in women’s substantive representation than those implemented following a peace agreement without such provisions. However, further qualitative cross-case analysis and large-n quantitative research are needed to draw more certain conclusions.