“You Know, at the End of the Day, I'm a Tomboy". How Italian Women MPs Navigate Parliamentary Spaces

Feminist scholarship on legislatures has long argued that parliaments are masculinized institutions—designed by and for men, and perpetuating norms that benefit those who have historically dominated them. The Italian parliament is no exception. Despite a steady increase in women’s descriptive representation since the 2000s, women comprised just 31% of MPs in 2022, and their presence in parliamentary leadership roles remains disproportionately low. Gender-sensitive reforms have been rare, and a recent constitutional reform that significantly reduced the number of parliamentary seats has further intensified both inter- and intra-party competition for election. These factors combine to make the Italian parliament a context in which the gendering of parliamentary politics is particularly unlikely. Against this challenging backdrop, this paper explores how women MPs navigate the gendered space of the Italian parliament. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with women MPs elected since the 2000s, and encompassing varying degrees of parliamentary seniority, the paper identifies the strategies women MPs employ to "fit in" and carve out space within a masculine institution. These range from individual practices of pragmatic engagement to the contingent formation of supportive alliances and networks—what Childs (2023) terms "gendered parliamentarianism." This study contributes to the literature on gender and political institutions by illustrating how both personal factors (such as age, seniority, ideology, and beliefs about gender equality) and institutional characteristics (such as parliamentary infrastructure and the scheduling of parliamentary business) shape the strategies that women MPs use to advance their presence and agendas. The paper concludes by offering a series of recommendations to promote parliamentary re-gendering in the Italian context, aiming to create a more inclusive and gender-sensitive parliamentary culture.