A few years ago the Danish Parliament, Folketinget decided to set up a legislative committee for gender equality. In doing so, Folketinget designed a new institutional structure in line with recommendations made by the emerging field of feminist scholarly literature, which discusses how to strengthen women substantive representation (wsr) in Parliament. This literature suggests that institutions such as legislative committees on gender equality can strengthen wsr in several ways. E.g. by increasing gender mainstreaming in Parliament and by creating a safe haven for newly elected female MPs to familiarise themselves with the cultural norms of Parliament.
This paper investigates to what extent the new committee has succeeded in strengthening wsr in Folketinget. Based on interviews with MPs as well as quantitative data describing parliamentary key activities, the paper finds that several of the effects described in studies of other parliaments have in fact occurred in Folketinget too. Furthermore, it discovers additional positive and negative effects which have not previously been described in details – e.g. the rising status of the MPs who are responsible for women’s rights issues within their own party groups. Thus, by comparing the Danish case to other cases described in the academic literature, the paper tries to contribute to the understanding of how, when and under which particular circumstances Legislative Committees on Equality might strengthen wsr.
