Women and other Underrepresented Groups in Politics

This seminar examines current studies in political studies concerning the underrepresentation women and other groups in politics. We explore the gender and minorities gap in political interest, participation, in descriptive and substantive representation and in political careers. Particular attention will be paid to the role of women, ethnic minorities and lower class representatives. When reading and discussing the various studies the following questions will be tackled:

• Why are women and ethnic minorities underrepresented in politics?
• Does it make a difference whether these groups are represented in parliament, government and higher positions?
• Which measures may be introduced to change the underrepresentation and how effective are they?

Based on theories of representation we will study empirical-analytical approaches to find out how these questions can be analysed in seminar and master’s theses.

Learning objectives

• Knowledge of representation literature
• Insight in different ways to study representation of different groups in politics
• Thorough evaluation of pros and cons of different research design and methods to prepare the writing of seminar and masters theses