@article{14366, keywords = {Gender and Deliberation}, author = {Tali Mendelberg and Christopher Karpowitz and Lauren Mattioli}, title = {Gender and Women{\textquoteright}s Influence in Public Settings}, abstract = {
Does gender equality in public meetings improve as women{\textquoteright}s numbers grow?Research applying critical mass theory to the exercise of influence in publicdiscussion and decision making reveals a complicated story. Women have madesignificant progress in education, employment, and the attainment of elected office;yet, they continue to lag behind their male counterparts in substantive, symbolic,and authoritative representation. Across political, nonpolitical, and experimentalsettings, women{\textquoteright}s participation and influence does not follow necessarily from theirnumerical proportion. We review previous studies of how women{\textquoteright}s lower status ismanifested in group interaction, and we argue that research can better identify whenand how numbers matter by attending to the group{\textquoteright}s context, institutional features,and informal norms. We describe cutting-edge research designed to explore theeffects of institutional rules and norms on women{\textquoteright}s authority. Women{\textquoteright}s increasingnumbers in positions of potential influence constitutes a timely, promising, andchallenging agenda for further scholarship.
}, year = {2015}, journal = {Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Interdisciplinary, Searchable, and Linkable Resource}, pages = {1{\textendash}14}, publisher = {John Wiley \& Sons, Inc. Hoboken, NJ, USA}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781118900772.etrds0139}, doi = {10.1002/9781118900772.}, }