Summary of the impact

Research undertaken by Dr Rainbow Murray in the School of Politics and International Relations (SPIR) at QMUL has assisted governments and activists from Europe, Israel and China interested in adopting gender quotas in elections to understand their potential advantages, pitfalls and consequences. Users of her research include parliaments, intergovernmental organisations, political parties, public bodies, NGOs and the media.

Underpinning research

Dr Rainbow Murray's research, based in SPIR's interdisciplinary Centre for European Research, has explored why women are under-represented in politics, the impact of gender quotas in elections, and the role of the media in shaping attitudes towards women politicians. These investigations are conducted comparatively, with a particular focus on France, the first country in the world to introduce a mandatory quota specifying that 50% of election candidates must be women. Murray has published numerous influential works on these themes. With the support of SPIR's internal peer review processes, she was awarded a Research in Paris grant (€15k) in 2011 and a Leverhulme Fellowship (£44.9k) in 2011-12, enabling her to employ research assistants (Claire Bisdorff, 1.0 FTE, and Denise Lejeune, hourly paid).

An early article (`Why Didn't Parity Work?', 2004) laid the foundations for subsequent investigations into why gender quotas around the world do not always meet their targets. Nine years of research on French parity law culminated in her first book, Parties, Gender Quotas and Candidate Selection in France (2010), which pioneered a new understanding of how and why gender quotas are introduced and implemented that placed the critical actors within political parties at the heart of the analysis. Murray's work on quota adoption and implementation continued with an article co- authored with Mona Lena Krook (Rutgers) and Katherine Opello (CUNY). This paper, which demonstrates that it is parties rather than voters who prevent more women from being elected, has been widely cited (60) since first appearing as a conference paper in early 2009, and was published in Political Research Quarterly (2012).

A second major strand of Murray's research focuses on the challenges faced by women candidates for executive office. After providing expert commentary and an article (published in Parliamentary Affairs, 2008) on the campaign for the French presidency led by Ségolène Royal, Murray observed similarities between the gendered treatment of Royal and other high profile female politicians like Hillary Clinton and Angela Merkel. She therefore assembled a team of researchers to explore nine international case studies, culminating in an edited book, Cracking the Highest Glass Ceiling (2010). The comparative approach helped distinguish gender stereotypes from the particular traits of each woman candidate, and demonstrated the many similarities in the ways that women candidates are framed by the media, despite great variation in cultures and contexts across five continents.

The third strand of Murray's research relates to the impact of gender quotas on the content and institutions of politics, using the French case. This work challenges the popular assumption that women elected through a gender quota may be second-class candidates lacking the qualifications and/or skills to be effective members of parliament. Her article published in Politics and Gender (2010) demonstrated that `quota women' tend to be more qualified than women elected before the introduction of quotas, and that these women are as productive as men in their parliamentary work. This seminal article is the only published work comparing MPs before and after a gender quota.

References to the research

All references can be supplied by the HEI on request. Those asterisked are part of the REF submission.

On Adoption and Implementation of Gender Quotas

On Women Candidates for Executive Office

On the Impact of Gender Quotas

Details of the impact

Dr Murray's research has been used to influence decision-makers and activists from several countries through expert consultancy and policy advice, and to enhance public understanding of the role of women in politics through media appearances and public talks.

Influencing Decision-makers and Activists

Murray's expertise on gender quotas allowed her to contribute to and enhance parliamentary and public debates over legislative reform in Israel and Ireland. In March 2008, the Israeli parliament (the Knesset) commissioned her to write a report for its Constitution, Law and Justice Committee. This report informed deliberation over amending the Israeli Parties Financing Act to incorporate financial rewards to parties selecting at least 30 percent women candidates. The Knesset consulted Murray again in July 2009 when examining the issue of women's representation at the municipal level. Murray's work informed committee deliberations which resulted in existing policies being maintained. In 2012, after Ireland adopted quota legislation along French lines, Murray addressed a conference in Derry on Women Into Public Life funded by the EU. She used the research published in Parties, Gender Quotas and Candidate Selection in France and her French Politics article to advise gender quota activists, local politicians and community groups on working with the new laws.

Murray also shaped policy debates in Eastern Europe. In June 2009, she attended a two-day summit in Warsaw on increasing women's representation in the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe, organised by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). The meeting was attended by parliamentarians, party officials, NGO leaders and academics, primarily from Eastern Europe. Murray presented expert evidence, based on Parties, Gender Quotas and Candidate Selection, on the difficulties parties face in implementing gender quotas. This informed the participants about the kinds of quotas that might be feasible in their countries, what pitfalls to avoid, what problems to anticipate and how to overcome them. The summit also generated a public report on gender equality and political parties which cites Dr Murray's work.

Murray has also contributed to public policy debates on women's rights and political participation more broadly. In 2012, she gave evidence to a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences workshop on women's rights, attended by academics and policymakers. Her written and oral contributions, which were translated into Chinese, explained how women's rights have been approached in Europe and offered policy recommendations for China.

In Britain, Murray testified to the House of Commons Speaker's Conference on Parliamentary Representation in 2009. The Conference explored why certain groups are less well represented within Parliament and methods to secure more balanced representation. Based on the evidence presented, all three main parties pledged to enhance their efforts to select more women candidates. These commitments are documented in the official report (see reference below), which acknowledges Murray's contribution. Parliament was dissolved before they could be implemented, so the impact of this work will be felt as the selection procedures commence for the 2015 general election.

Enhancing Public Understanding of Women in Politics

In addition to shaping policy debates and outcomes, Murray has also worked to enhance wider public understanding of women's representation in politics through the media and work with professional associations. As convenor of the Political Studies Association's Women and Politics Group, Murray was a prominent critic of the shortage of women in the British cabinet after the 2010 elections. She wrote a lead letter in The Times, co-signed by prominent scholars and activists, and appeared on BBC Radio London and BBC Radio 5 Live to raise public awareness and spur debate over the causes and consequences of women's political under-representation (14 May 2010). Murray has also appeared several times on Radio 4's Woman's Hour to discuss: female executive candidates, using her research in Parliamentary Affairs and Cracking the Highest Glass Ceiling (December 2010); a report highlighting women's absence from positions of power in Britain (February 2012); and the impact of the French presidential elections on women (April 2012). Murray has appeared on national radio and television in France, Britain, Australia, Canada and Russia.

Murray has also used her research in public talks to encourage women to enter politics. She spoke alongside MPs at a House of Commons event to inspire women to become parliamentary candidates (January 2010). She addressed a similar meeting of the French Socialist Party in March 2010; one woman present subsequently contested and won a seat in the French parliament.

Sources to corroborate the impact

a) House of Commons Speaker's Conference (on Parliamentary Representation), Session 2009-10, Volume III, Document HC 239-III (published 8 February 2010). (Contribution is cited in the preface, under `list of evidence'.)

(b) Gender Officer, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights — to corroborate work for OSCE

(c) Gender Equality in Elected Office: A Six-Step Action Plan, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights,www.osce.org/odihr/78432

(d) Researcher, The Knesset Research and Information Centre — to corroborate consultancy work for the Israeli Knesset

(e) Compass Youth and Women's Officer, London Young Labour — to corroborate speech at the House of Commons (January 2010 "Where are the Young Women in Politics?")

(f) Socialist Party Member of French Parliament - to corroborate work with French parliament

(g) Recordings from BBC London Radio, Radio 5, Radio 4, Sky News (available on request)

(h) The Times newspaper 14 May 2010, www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/letters/article2511417.ece

(i) Women into Public Life Conference Report: www.scribd.com/doc/126413653/WIPL-Conference-Report