The gender-based division of labour among Members of Parliament

Women are becoming increasingly prominent in politics. In 2018, they held nearly 39 per cent of the seats in the National Assembly and 32 per cent in the Senate. But do they do the same work as men? This paper addresses this question by examining the gendered division of parliamentary labour during the period 2002–2017, using an original method that involves analysing the lexical content of parliamentary amendments tabled and voted on. We show that the area in which gender differences in the activity of MP / parliamentarians / members of parliament are most pronounced is precisely that of gender equality. On average, over the course of a parliamentary term, a female MP is 75 per cent more likely than a male MP to table at least one amendment on issues relating to gender equality. Female MPs are also 25 per cent more likely to table amendments on issues relating to children and around 10 per cent more likely to do so on issues relating to immigration and health. Conversely, male MPs are, for example, 25 per cent more likely to table amendments on defence-related issues. A more in-depth statistical analysis shows that these differences cannot be explained by the fact that female and male parliamentarians come from non-comparable constituencies and represent different voters within different parties. This implies that the division in parliamentary activity is likely the result of intrinsically different objectives between female and male MPs and that, consequently, the entry of women into politics has led to a shift in the issues addressed by MPs. For example, between 2002 and 2017, the proportion of amendments relating to gender equality out of the total number of amendments increased by nearly 70 per cent in the National Assembly.