Theorising the Impact of Women’s Political Representation

Literature on women’s political representation focuses on the need to foster their increased participation and understanding how that participation benefits them. The theorising of the impact of women’s political representation primarily looks at the different theoretical underpinnings on how to ensure the protection of women’s interests. More specifically, it looks at whether the participation of women in politics is a necessity for substantive women’s representation (protection of women’s interests) and why it has to be female politicians that foster this protection within the broader political system. These questions have informed debates on the relationship between the participation of women and the substantive representation of women. To better organise the discourse on this subject, this chapter adopts two theories, namely the theory of the politics of presence and the relational feminist theory, to guide the theorising.