Analysing the “what” and “when” of women’s substantive representation: the role of right-wing populist party ideology

Abstract

Existing scholarship underscores the contested nature of the relationship between women’s representation and right-wing parties. This article contributes to this literature by examining women’s substantive representation in Poland under the right-wing populist Law and Justice government from 2015 to 2019. It is specifically concerned with the “what” and “when” of substantive representation: while the former deals with various women’s issues, the latter concerns the conversion of issues into policies. Using representation theory and refined partisan theory, this article sheds light on gendered representation, an issue often overlooked in the scholarly literature on women and politics in Central and Eastern Europe.