SOCIAL STRUCTURES AND POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS!

Early sociological accounts commonly assigned a critical role in determining the eligibility pool for elected office to a country’s social system, including the occupational, socioeconomic and educational, status of women. In developing societies, women may find it difficult to break into electoral office because they are generally disadvantaged by poor childcare, low literacy, inadequate health care, and poverty. A country’s level of socioeconomic development is significantly related to its proportion of women parliamentarians. Comparative studies of established democracies have long emphasised the importance of the pool of women in the professional, administrative, and managerial occupations that typically lead to political careers. Jobs in many fields commonly provide the flexibility, financial resources, experience, and social networks that facilitate running for elected office. In recent decades, women in many post-industrial societies have forged ahead in the private and public sectors and greatly increased their enrolment in higher intellectuals.

Study suggests that modernisation creates systematic, predictable changes in gender roles. Industrialisation brings women into the paid workforce and dramatically reduces fertility rates. During which women make substantial gains in educational opportunities and literacy. Women are enfranchised and begin to participate in representative government, but they still have far less power than men. Post-industrial phase brings a shift toward greater gender equality, as women move into higher-status economic roles and gain greater political influence within elected and appointed bodies. Over half the world has not yet begun this process, however, and even the most advanced industrial societies are still undergoing it.

Structural and institutional explanations need to be supplemented by accounts emphasising the importance of political culture. It has long been assumed that traditional anti-egalitarian attitudes toward gender slow down the political advancement of women, though little systematic cross-national evidence has been available to verify this proposition.

Theories of socialisation have long emphasised the importance of gender roles especially the predominance of either egalitarian or traditional attitudes toward women in the private and public spheres. In cultures with traditional attitudes toward the role of women in the home and family, many women may be reluctant to run and, if they seek office, may fail to attract enough support to win.