Gender, Intra-Party Power Dynamics and Manterrupting in the Legislature

Abstract

The increased participation of women as elected representatives in Congress has brought gender issues to the forefront, which resulted in more frequent interactions between male and female legislators. According to some research, women still often face limitations in exerting power and agenda-setting. In order to explore this phenomenon, we analyzed approximately 70,000 speeches that Brazilian senators delivered between 1995 and 2018, with focus on gender dynamics within the speeches, particularly interruptions. Our findings indicate that manterrupting, or the act of men interrupting women, did not prevail in the Senate as a whole. Contrary to the predictions in existing literature, women were not interrupted more often than men in general. However, our research reveals that female leaders experience higher rates of interruption as compared to their male counterparts, mainly from male members within the same political party. These results suggest that barriers that hinder the influence of women in plenary sessions are likely rooted within their own parties.