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Women's Representation across Different Generations: A Longitudinal Analysis of the European Parliament
Author(s) -
Stockemer Daniel,
Sundström Aksel
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
jcms: journal of common market studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.54
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1468-5965
pISSN - 0021-9886
DOI - 10.1111/jcms.12848
Subject(s) - parliament , representation (politics) , european union , materialism , first generation , political science , politics , sociology , demography , law , economics , epistemology , philosophy , population , economic policy
In this article, we focus on generational differences in women's representation and hypothesize that younger generations of women should be more highly represented than older generations, both in general and within the same parliament. We tested this hypothesis with data on all members who have ever served in the European Parliament since 1979. Of the four generations who have ever served in Brussels and Strasbourg – the World War II generation, the 1968 generation, the post‐1968 generation and the post‐materialist generation – we found both that women's representation increased with every generation and that their representation differs between generations within the same parliament. Finally, our results indicate that while these processes occurred roughly one generation later in eastern and southern Europe, yet, they happened faster in these parts of the European Union.