Feminizing Political Institutions: How Women Change Perceptions of Politics and Improve Democracy

Feminizing Political Institutions considers representation from a new perspective by looking at how changes within the demographic composition of a political institution can change the way citizens think about and engage with politics.It argues that the recent gains made in women's representation across all levels of government has the potential to undo the “white-masculine” stereotypes long associated with political institutions.The book advances and tests an original theory of institutional stereotype change that connects levels of women's descriptive representation to the stereotypic perceptions people hold of political institution.People see political institutions through a lens of masculinity, and the masculine lens of politics limits the participation of women, feminine-typed individuals, people of color, and other minoritized groups.The author argues that when women's descriptive representation increases so that there are more women serving in elected political office people wil