ABSTRACT
The masculinised culture of the Diet is dependent on women to occupy support roles outside the Diet in the private sphere. In this chapter people hear from women who have been elected to office about their experiences in the political party system. Political women are faced with a culture that is not friendly to women. The masculinised culture that women enter upon election to the Diet renders it difficult to speak out against any discriminatory or sexist behaviour. It appears that, in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) at least, there are limited opportunities to voice or create a discourse of resistance. It is important to elucidate the inability of LDP women to create a discourse that enables them to resist sexism without appearing as victims. The discourse of the individual deployed by LDP women to navigate potential or actual sexism is the same discourse found in the LDP's approach to the issue of female political under-representation.
