How men MPs react to women's presence in parliaments

Extensive scholarly work engages with the growing number of women in legislatures around the world and highlights their role as advocates of women’s interests during parliamentary decision-making processes. This article sheds light on the reactions of men MPs (members of parliament) to this trend by uncovering how women’s numerical strength in parliaments shapes the policy positions of their men colleagues. In theory, men MPs might show two reactions to women’s increasing presence: They might become more responsive to women’s interests as women MPs inform them about the interests of women in the population. Or, men MPs might become less responsive to women’s interests as they feel threatened by changing power balances in parliament. In this study, we test this argument based on a mixed method design. We study original time-series cross-sectional data from plenary debates and parliamentary questions in German states using a structural topic model as well as qualitative evidence from interviews with MPs. The findings shed light on men’s role as critical actors and have implications for gender equality and the functioning of representative democracy more broadly.