For the past decade , the issue of women’s representation in the political arena has taken center stage in academia and in public discourse . Underpinning the debate is the normative assumption that women’s representation in politics , and parliaments in particular , carries great importance : it is consistent with the values of equality and representativeness , grants legitimacy to the democratic-liberal regime , and helps to impart a view of women as citizens on equal standing with men . Some would argue that women’s parliamentary activity is essentially different from that of men , in part because women parliamentarians tend to deal with issues related to the status of women in society and to promote women’s interests to a greater extent than do their male counterparts . According to this thesis , “ descriptive representation , " meaning a high proportion of women in parliament , is a precondition for “ substantive representation , " that is , advancing the interests and viewpoints ...
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