Explaining a Political Phenomenon
Overview and Purpose

Women’s representation in parliament varies across countries. According to the Inter-parliamentary Union, the percent of women in the main legislative chamber varies substantially across countries. Indeed, the data indicate that the range is from around 11 per cent to almost 46 percent among established industrial democracies. Your assignment is to explain these differences.

This assignment will help you understand the steps involved in putting together a social scientific argument. The organization of this paper will also serve as a useful template not only for the assignments in this course, but for papers throughout all your political science courses.

Example Walkthrough

Before beginning, you must complete the Example Walkthrough (PowerPoint). This essential walkthrough will guide you through the process of framing a research question and developing and argument.

Data

Included in the Data Chart on Women’s Representation (MS Excel) are some other variables that might help explain women’s representation: the percent of the workforce that is female, the electoral system (whether the country has a proportional representation system), gender quotas (whether the country has a law requiring a certain portion of representation at the national level), the percentage of women in "third-level" education (i.e., college-equivalent), and the level of turnout.

Instructions

Your assignment is to indicate how you would go about studying the cross-national variation in women’s representation in the established democracies. Be sure to include the following elements of social scientific inquiry:
?Step 1: State your research question.
?Step 2: Briefly justify the importance and relevance of your research question.
?Step 3: Describe a theory to explain the phenomenon. You may draw on the arguments advanced above or in the article by Zimmerman or you may create your own explanation. Again, be brief, but be sure to include the elements that we discussed. Your theory should be plausible and as complete as possible. Indicate your hypotheses (not more than two). Be as specific as possible. State one alternative hypothesis which might be able to explain the same phenomenon.
?Step 4: Describe a research design which would allow you to test your hypotheses. Does the sample of countries limit your ability to test some types of arguments?
?Step 5: How does your independent variable of interest "match" with the dependent variable? How confident are you in your theory and research design? Why?

Evaluation will be based on the following criteria:
?completeness and coherence of the argument and research design
?awareness of potential problems and pitfalls
?creativity of the argument and research design
?An A paper will demonstrate that you have mastered the materials discussed in the readings and lectures AND that you can use those materials in a thoughtful or creative manner.
?A B paper will show that you have either mastered the course materials OR that you have used some of the materials in a novel or creative way.
?A C or less paper indicates that you have not mastered the materials.
?Late papers will be penalized a full letter grade for the first day late and then another half-letter grade for each subsequent day late. Tardiness is not a good idea.