The hegemonic gender order in politics

• Pages: 832-846
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-12-2017-0272
• Date: 20 November 2018
• Published date: 20 November 2018
• Author: Silvia de Simone,Daniela Putzu,Diego Lasio,Francesco Serri
• Subject Matter: HR & organizational behaviour,Employment law,Diversity, equality, inclusion

The hegemonic gender

order in politics

Silvia de Simone and Daniela Putzu

Department of Pedagogy, Psychology and Philosophy,

Universita degli Studi di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

Diego Lasio

University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy;

Lisbon University Institute, Lisbon, Portugal and

Centro de Investigação e Intervenção, Social,

Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Lisbon, Portugal, and

Francesco Serri

Department of Pedagogy, Psychology and Philosophy,

Universita degli Studi di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

Abstract

Purpose –Despite the ongoing increase of women in the top positions, they are still underrepresented in

politics. The studies that primarily focus on women’s underrepresentation in politics neglect the role of gender

as a category that structures and makes sense of social practices. The purpose of this paper is to investigate

the mechanisms that regulate the contemporary gender order in politics through discourse analysis and the

contribution of the critical feminist perspective.

Design/methodology/approach –The study is based on 30 biographical interviews with Italian politicians

and focuses on the account of their political experiences and on the meanings attributed to these.

Findings –The results of this paper underline the tendency to either absolve or blame women for gender

inequality in politics through different interpretative repertoires: “Women’s disinterest toward politics,”

“Politics as masculine context”and “Politics–family unbalance.”The analysis allowed to unravel the way in

which the discursive practices create and reproduce the hegemonic gender order in politics.

Research limitations/implications –The research is limited to 30 qualitative interviews, and so results

cannot be generalized.

Practical implications –The findings of this paper highlight the importance of exploring issues relating to

the gender gap in politics and stress the need to implement actions to promote gender equality in politics.

Originality/value –The paper contributes to an understanding of women’s underrepresentation in

politics and offers causes for reflection on a phenomenon that has profound implications for our society.

Keywords Gender, Discourse analysis, Politics, Critical feminist perspective

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Despite the ongoing increase of women in the top positions of hierarchy, they

continue to be underrepresented in politics occupying 19.5 percent of seats worldwide,

22.8 percent in Europe, 22.6 percent in the Americas and 42.0 percent in Nordic countries

(Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2017). In 2017, Italy ranks 44th out of 193 in the world

classification compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (2017), with a participation rate

of Italian women to res public between 28 and 31 percent. Although the number of women

elected in central institutions is increased compared to the past, in Italy women are still

low represented in politics (Massa, 2013), and the number of women politicians decreases

in the hierarchy of power (Fornengo and Guadagnini, 1999; Bonomi et al., 2013). Every

president of the Italian Republic has been a man and women who have served in the

institutional role of president of the Chamber of the Italian Republic from 1948 to date are

3 out of 14 (Italian Parliament, 2017). This position of women in politics, characterized by

both a numerical increase compared to the past and a numerical decrease at the top of the

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 37 No. 8, 2018

pp. 832-846

© Emerald PublishingLimited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-12-2017-0272

Received 5 December 2017

Revised 24 March 2018

Accepted 15 May 2018

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-7149.htm

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