intersectionality, quotas, and minority women’s political.pdfVIP

American Political Science Review Page 1 of 17 August 2011 doi:10.1017/S0003055411000293 Intersectionality, Quotas, and Minority Women’s Political Representation Worldwide MELANIE M. HUGHES University of Pittsburgh he majority of the world’s countries have implemented policies designed to advance the political representation of women and/or minority groups. Yet we do not yet understand how these disparate policies affect the election of minority women. In this article, I draw on theories of intersectionality T to conduct the first worldwide analysis of the effects of gender and minority quotas on minority women’s representation in national legislatures. Using hierarchical linear modeling, I analyze how quotas influence the election of women from more than 300 racial, ethnic, and religious groups across 81 countries. I find that policies designed to promote the political representation of women and minority groups interact to produce diverse but predictable outcomes for minority women. Although quotas are ostensibly designed to promote diversity and inclusiveness, the quota policies in effect today rarely challenge majority men’s dominance of national legislatures. ver the past 150 years, democratic regimes Intersectionality scholarship also produces compet- Ohave dismantled legal barriers to the polit- ing expectations. Grounded in black and multiracial ical participation of women and minorities. feminist thought, theories of intersectionality concep- Yet women, minorities, and minority women remain tualize sexism, racism