ABSTRACT
Gender balance among political representatives is impor tant for many reasons. Today, only about 16 percent of the world's parl iamentarians are women, and according to feminist movements as well as to feminist theory this shortage of women in political institutions may have serious consequences for the political agenda, for the articulation of women's interests and for the legitimacy of democratic institutions (Phillips 1995; Norris 2004). Fur thermore , the under-representat ion of women as well as that of o ther groups may influence how various categories of people are constructed in our minds.
