The House turned upside down? The difference Labour's women MPs made

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

The unprecedented number of women MPs elected to the British House of Commons in 1997 provided an opportunity to examine the long-standing expectation that women would make a difference to Parliament once they were present in significant numbers. In both the 1997 and 2001 parliaments women MPs constituted 18 per cent of all MPs.1 Yet, as we have seen in Chapter 1, the concept of critical mass has been increasingly questioned, theoretically and empirically. So the story of women’s substantive representation by women MPs since 1997 was always likely to be more complicated than a straightforward and direct relationship between women’s descriptive and substantive representation.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationRepresenting Women in Parliament
Subtitle of host publicationA Comparative Study
EditorsMarian Sawer, Manon Tremblay, Linda Trimble
PublisherRoutledge
Chapter9
Pages152-167
Number of pages16
Edition1st
ISBN (Electronic)9780203965672
ISBN (Print)9780415393164, 9780415479523
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 May 2006

Cite this