GRADUATION TALK ▼

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS AND THE SUBSTANTIVE REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN'S INTERESTS

AN INTERVIEW WITH Daniel Höhmann

▐  Daniel Höhmann gives us a sneak preview of the results of his thesis on the representation of women's interests in national parliaments.

   // What drew you to the topic of your dissertation and what interests you most about it?
 

   D.H. During my Master's, I spent a year at Rutgers University (United States) which is well known for its research and graduate study program on women and politics. Here, I had the opportunity to participate in a seminar from Mona Krook who is one of the leading scholars on women's representation. This class as well as many opportunities to meet and talk with other leading scholars in this field, sparked my interest in the topic and inspired me to conduct my own research on women and politics. Coming back to Germany, I combined this with my interest in legislative studies and wrote my Master thesis on women's representation in the German Bundestag. I then further pursued this topic in my dissertation and concentrated more strongly on the role that male legislators play in the representation of women's interests in parliament.      

   // Could you give us a sneak peak of the results of your thesis?
 

   D.H. In my dissertation I study the occurrence and the intensity with which women’s interests are represented in national parliaments. First, it analyzes when female legislators represent women’s interests in parliament and what role the electoral system plays in this regard. Second, I broaden the understanding of the potential actors in women’s substantive representation and explicitly analyzes when and why male legislators represent women’s interests in parliament.
My results show that female legislators are the main actors in women's substantive representation. However, I can demonstrate that female legislators act more in the interests of women if the electoral system permits it. When the electoral incentive structure does not force them to represent the local issues of their districts, female legislators use this opportunity to more vigorously advocate for women’s interests. Moreover, I can show that male MPs are generally willing to represent women’s concerns in parliament. However, they only do so if there are not enough women in parliament who could take on the responsibility of representing women’s concerns, or if their re-election is uncertain and they are forced to cater to additional voters. Thus, instead of being a critical actor, the results show that men’s role is best described as that of a secondary actor.

   // What did you enjoy most about your time at the Graduate School?
 

   D.H. I really liked the diversity of BAGSS and that it brought together people with very different backgrounds and research interests. This gave me the possibility to develop new perspectives on my own research as well as to get insights into research fields that I fairly far away from my own topic. 

   // What is the next step in your career?
 

   D.H. Since May 2020, I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Here, I continue my research on parliaments, representation, and coalition governments.

Image Credits: © Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences