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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Sarah Liu
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Despite vast research on women’s descriptive representation, little is known about its influence on women’s political engagement in East and Southeast Asia where gender norms are different from those in other parts of the world. I theorize that the discrepancy between women's political and social rights in the region makes it difficult for women to envision themselves as equal to their male counterparts to play a "man's game" even when they see female political leaders. Using a multi-level modeling analysis with data from the Asian Barometer Survey and various additional sources, I examine the impact of female parliamentarians in the region and find that they significantly reduce women's political engagement. My results suggest that the female legislators’ role model effect found in existing literature on western democracies does not apply to East and Southeast Asia. Instead, female political leaders generate a backlash effect on women's political engagement. This research raises implications for the role of context in the effectiveness of women's symbolic representation and calls for further exploration on the connection between women's symbolic and descriptive representation.
Author(s): Liu SJS
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Political Research Quarterly
Year: 2018
Volume: 71
Issue: 2
Pages: 255-269
Print publication date: 01/06/2018
Online publication date: 22/01/2018
Acceptance date: 08/11/2017
Date deposited: 08/12/2017
ISSN (print): 1065-9129
ISSN (electronic): 1938-274X
Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912917745162
DOI: 10.1177/1065912917745162
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