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Introduction
One of the main principles and goals of representative democracy is that policy ought to – at least roughly – reflect citizens’ preferences. Policy representation, or ‘substantive representation’ (Pitkin, 1967), is certainly not the only criterion for judging the quality of democracy. In cases where it is in tension with government responsibilities or fundamental human rights, a closer link between the majority opinion and policy may even be undesirable. Yet, it is an important indicator of whether ‘government by the people’ is functioning, and one that has received growing attention from political scientists (e.g. Monroe, 1998; Soroka and Wlezien, 2010; Lax and Phillips, 2012; Rasmussen et al., 2018b). Citizens also seem to care, as their evaluations of the democratic system are influenced by how well they are represented (e.g. Ezrow and Xezonakis, 2011; Reher, 2015).
However, modern democracies have a problem not only if policy is out of step with the preferences of the people but also if grave inequalities exist in the representation of the views of different social groups. As Sidney Verba states ‘one of the bedrock principles in a democracy is the equal consideration of the preferences and interests of all citizens’ (2003: 663). Consequently, a growing number of studies investigate whether disparities exist in the representation of different social groups, the majority of them comparing the rich and the poor (e.g. Bartels, 2008; Soroka and Wlezien, 2008; Gilens, 2012; Brunner et al., 2013; Bernauer et al., 2015; Peters and Ensink, 2015).
This study focuses on another important group in society that is numerically, or ‘descriptively’ (Pitkin, 1967), underrepresented in politics up to this day: women. They hold fewer seats in parliaments and positions in governments across the world, including in the most advanced democracies. Given that it is often argued that women may be better at representing women (Phillips, 1995; Mansbridge, 1999), this descriptive underrepresentation might have consequences for the degree to which policy reflects the views of women. Yet, although several studies suggest that women’s descriptive and substantive representations are indeed linked (e.g. Bratton and Ray, 2002; Schwindt-Bayer and Mishler, 2005; Kittilson, 2008), we know very little about how well the policies in place actually align with the views of women as compared...