The article “Rethinking Women’s Substantive Representation” by Sarah Childs and her allies expounds on the roles of women in representation. According to this article, substantive women representation lays more concerns on issues connected with the welfare of women. In the article, Sarah Childs expounds on various theories that explain what political representation entails. The theories include formalistic representation, descriptive representation, symbolic representation, and substantive representation. According to this article, formalistic representation describes the deeds of a representative in airing out the interests of the person or people he or she is representing. On the other hand, the descriptive representation aims at giving an account of what is done by the representatives at the cost of knowing the representatives and their behaviors.
Childs further describes symbolic representation as a method that advocates for observance of attitudes and beliefs of the represented, ignoring the real meanings of the representation. She expresses her agreement on substantive representation as to the best method of representing citizens of a state. She argues that substantive representation advocates for observance of the relationship between represented and representatives and their roles in society. In addition, Pitkin further dwells on the way a substantive representation achieves its goal by positively taking part in not only criticizing the government but also leading to observance of natural interests by the representatives.
According to this article, there are three diverse ways used in representing substantive representation. These methods include gyroscopic, surrogate, and anticipatory representation. Gyroscopic representation advocates for drawing principles for representation from the representative background; surrogate representation is all about representing people, using principles beyond one’s territory or principles that are uncommon. In addition, according to this article, some representatives manage to conquer the minds of the represented by using anticipatory representation methods.
This article also highlights the possibility of passive representation. Passive representation involves looking down upon the interests of the represented. Some of the representatives pursue their interests at the cost of meeting the interests of the represented.
According to Anne Philips, the gender of the representatives plays a crucial role in determining the decision-making in parliament and legislatures because of variation in interests across the sex traits of individuals. She argues that women better present other women in parliament than their counterparts males. In addition, while in parliament, women extensively air out issues concerning women’s interests; they also take part in passing women’s bills easily due to understanding the interests of all women in general.
Although women play a significant role in enhancing the advancement of women by means of ensuring they have met their interests, time also poses a great challenge to decision-making. Things do change with time, for instance, the time change has also led to men, taking part in passing women bills. Therefore, according to this article, men also play a significant role in ensuring women achieve their interests.
Women have come up with the creation of movements that play the role of observing and protecting women’s interests. In addition, the coexistence of women’s organizations that gain support from the government enhances women’s development.
Despite the presence of many women in parliament, the article also highlights how women take part in underrating the advancement of women. According to the article, not all women support their fellow women in meeting political agendas. To solve this, it is crucial for women’s advancement to be advocated beyond the parliamentary level.
Substantive Representation
The article “Substantive Representation” by Karen Celis and Sarah Childs stresses out the appropriate steps to be observed in judging good substantive representation. According to Celis and Childs, little attention has to be paid to women’s interests in order to meet the requirements of substantive representation. According to Celis and Childs, attention needs to be exercised on issues resulting in diversity, competition, and conflicting issues in meeting women’s substantive representation. Celis and Childs argue that women’s substantive representation needs to shift from judging the content of the interests of women towards focusing on the processes of the economy. According to the article, substantive women representation should not be limited to only a particular group of women in parliament aiming at only women’s interests because it could result in feminism that disregards crucial male opinions.
According to the advocates of women’s interests, substantial representation of women in parliament will politically aid in protecting the interests of women. The position of women in parliament will enable women to air out their problems and pass bills that support their interests. Although efforts have been made to enhance the advancement of women’s presence in parliament, great challenges imposed by socio-economic society in the past effect granting of roles to women. According to this article, there is a coexistence of power imbalance between women and men. Women are known to perform well in reproductive and productive labor duties in society, resulting in distinction in political roles. For a long time in the past, women’s interests had been based not only on their ability in giving birth but also on their sexual potential. Women’s interests were also based on their biological nature, hence there appears the consideration of a political advancement as the least interests to women.
Due to power imbalance in the past, substantive representation of women in parliament contributed immensely to not only advancing the meeting of the demands of women but also offering protection to the rights of women. The substantive representation of women in parliament contributes to the fact that women advocate for equality between men and women, which is achieved through the involvement of sex quotes in government.
However, despite the presence of a lot of women in legislatures currently, a lot of women’s interests are looked down upon by some representative women. Such women take part in distinguishing important women’s issues from unworthy ones.
According to this article, women find it hard to come into agreement on some issues due to varied interests. For instance, in the article Western feminists advocate for the ban of the use of veil arguing that it is a sign of oppression, on the other hand, Muslim women disagree with banning veils because they wear them as a sign of self-expression. Such variation of interests among women leads to women’s presence in parliament having no significant effect on some women.
According to the given article, representatives tend to represent different images of groups of wants in parliament. Most of the claims made by the representatives during their representation are connected with their own interests and not with the interests of the represented. Such wants affect the economy of a given society. In addition, the coexistence of power inequalities and differences affects the economy of a given society.
According to this article, there are methods of measuring the quality of representation. This is achieved through observing whether the made claims by the representatives have any significance for the economy and at the same time do not support feminism. In addition, the claims made by the representatives need to be accepted by the represented.
Women Likelihood to Support Women’s Issue Bills
The article by Michele Swers underlines the possibility of women representatives in winning male representatives in passing women bills. According to Michele, gender greatly affects congressional voting because people of different sexes tend to support interests that are associated with their corresponding gender rather than the interests of the opposite sex. Michele exemplifies America as an example of the state that advocates for equity between two genders. According to Michele, the number of women elected into political posts is almost equal to those of men.
In the article, Michele further expresses the factors affecting the influence of gender. According to the author, factors such as a party of choice, ideology, and constituency pose few challenges to women. However, the level of education has got a significant influence on women’s positions politically.
The presence of many women in an organization influences policy-making in the legislature as outlined in the article. In the article, Michele argues that women tend to have many issues that they will need to incorporate into the legislature. In doing so, Michele expounds on the success of women in achieving their goals of protecting their rights and interests.
Despite the equality of a number of women and men in parliament in the United States, Michele points out that male representatives respond to constituency demands without observing their gender hence there is an exercise of national interests. Although the majority of the representatives in the United States work without emphasizing gender issues, the presence of women in politics affects the decision-making of the represented. According to Michele, the presence of female politicians in politics plays a great role in attracting supporters greatly concerned with women’s issues. The individuals interested in women’s issues may be from any gender.
In the article, Michele also expresses the likelihood of women, supporting greatly women bills compared to males. She argues that this could be due to women representatives, understanding the problems their fellow women are facing.
From the research carried out, the women prove to be more liberal than men. Liberalism makes the passing of bills in parliament a great problem. In addition, due to women’s liberalism, many of the bills concerning women will be easily passed. Gender observance also provides enough information on how women take control of parties. According to Michele, women tend to vote in wholesome, swaying the decision of men. The research also shows that women vote in party lines. For instance, according to the article by Michele, women find it easy to vote for bills that touch women and children’s issues, such as health, for example, and easily ignore bills concerning education.
Michele further emphasizes women’s convincing power; she argues that women use this quality in convincing men into voting for women’s bills. In addition, due to women’s issues being encompassed with social issues, women end up gaining a lot of support from men.
The findings of Michele concerning women play a significant role in enhancing the readers, understanding of the qualities of women in political fields. She regards women as persons entitled with self-interests in their daily activities. However, Michele tends to pay more attention to women and neglect the role of men in enhancing the success of women in the political arena. The position of men in Michele’s findings is minimal making the role of men to be overlooked.