ABSTRACT
As laid out in greater detail in Chapter 2, a critical mass of women should affect the adoption of women-friendly policies. It is argued that the more women there are, the easier it is for them to form strategic alliances to pursue their policy goals. Also, an increase in the number of women legislators may cause men to be more attentive to women’s issues and thus more prone to women-friendly policies. At the same time, this requires a number of “critical actors” as well, i.e. women who do have a gender consciousness and aim at promoting policies that benefit women (Childs and Krook 2006). The presence of women in decision-making bodies is a necessary condition for the representation of women’s interests (Campbell, Childs, and Lovenduski 2009, Phillips 1995).
