Political equity advocates and academics often argue that we must elect more women, but what difference does it make if we do? What Women Represent shows that women can and do influence the issues raised and the decisions made in parliamentary debate and decision-making.

Using a new framework for thinking about what it means for legislators to represent women and drawing on a database that encompasses five decades of debate in the House of Commons, Erica Rayment investigates which members of Parliament represent women and what issues they address. She then examines the role women parliamentarians played in two instances where governments threatened to curtail previous gender equality gains: the Mulroney government’s attempted recriminalization of abortion and the Harper government’s plans to cut funding and weaken the mandate of Status of Women Canada. Rayment’s analysis decisively shows that parliamentary presence matters for the representation of women’s interests; women MPs, regardless of party, are more likely to act for women and play a critical role when the rights of women are at stake.

What Women Represent is the first large-scale analysis of the substantive representation of women in Canadian politics, adding depth and nuance to our understanding of issues of gender in parliamentary institutions.

Erica Rayment is assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary.

Erica Rayment's profile page

“In an era when feminism and women’s equality are under attack by populist and polarized politics and the claims about the necessity of women’s political presence in our legislatures are once again being queried, What Women Represent is a timely reminder that who our MPs are matters.” Sarah Childs, coauthor of Feminist Democratic Representation

“This excellent book should be required reading for those studying political institutions in general, as well as politics and gender more specifically. Rayment’s approach is novel and, while focusing on Canadian data, adds much to the global literature on women’s representation.” Amanda Bittner, professor of Political Science and director of the Gender and Politics Lab, Memorial University

“What Women Represent provides essential analysis, not only for politics students and scholars, but for those working in parliamentary institutions, including legislators and practitioners, as well as in democracy organizations.” Jeanette Ashe, author of Political Candidate Selection: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Under-representation in the UK

“Bringing a strong grounding in gender and politics as well as legislative studies, Erica Rayment has written a superb book that expands our thinking and understanding of what substantive representation means in practice.” Jonathan Malloy, author of The Paradox of Parliament