Gender and Linguistic Participation in the Devolved Parliaments of the UK
It has been claimed that devolved parliaments in the UK offer women greater opportunities to participate than older, traditional parliaments.
Previous research shows that in traditional parliaments (like the House of Commons), women politicians participate differently to their male counterparts. One possible cause is that traditional parliaments have masculine communicative styles (shouting, heckling etc) and other cultures that position women as marginal or 'out of place' speakers.
Unlike traditional parliaments, the devolved parliaments in the UK had women members since the beginning and have been designed with equality in mind. It means these new parliaments potentially offer women a better opportunity to participate on equal terms with men – not only in terms of the communicative styles or 'norms' of the assemblies but also the actual proportion of women MPs in the parliaments.
This research assesses whether equal participation in debates is taking place in the three devolved governments and whether the traditional masculine culture associated with older parliaments has been replaced with one that is more inclusive of women politicians.
For a detailed summary of this research project, please see a selection of the main research findings.
The research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The research project was run by Dr Sylvia Shaw, if you have any questions about this project please email: languagepolitics@mdx.ac.uk
If you would like to contact Dr Sylvia Shaw by post:
Middlesex University, The Burroughs, Hendon, London, NW4 4BT
