Women’s representation in social and political processes in Western countries: Theoretical approaches and historical stages (British and American cases)

About the author:

Daria B. Vershinina, Cand. Sci. (Hist.), Associate Professor, Department of History and Archaeology, Perm State National Research University, Perm, Russia; daryapros@yandex.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4354-8239

Abstract:

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the formation and evolution of women’s representation in socio-political processes in Western countries (especially the USA and Britain) from the 18th to the 21st centuries. The relevance of this study is linked to the persistent gender gap in power structures and the need to understand the transition from women’s formal to actual influence. The aim of the study is to identify the stages in overcoming the conceptual and actual exclusion of women from the public sphere. The methodology is based on a synthesis of Pitkin’s typology of representation and an analysis of Foucault’s construction of subjectivity. Drawing on a variety of sources, the article traces the dynamics of women’s representation: from the intellectual salons of the Enlightenment to the strategies of “civic motherhood” in the 19th century. The article analyzes the struggle for electoral rights, and then explores contemporary debates about quotas and the agency of women politicians. The novelty of this study lies in its application of a combined framework to a long historical period, allowing for the shift in dominant types of representation to be demonstrated. The author concludes that contemporary female representation, the result of a nonlinear process of expanding representation in the struggle between the rhetoric of moral superiority and the idea of equality, remains limited by party filters and gender stereotypes.

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