Descriptive representation, policy outcomes, and municipal day-care coverage in Norway

Descriptive representation within legislatures is often held to be important because of its assumed effects, on public policy. The research to date on the descriptive representation of women has generally focused on elite attitudes rather than on policy outcomes, and there is little agreement on the relationship between the increased representation of women and improved policy outcomes. We investigate the form of this relationship and whether the scope for a translation of descriptive representation into substantive representation is greatest during periods of policy innovation. We use a statistical analysis of childcare coverage in Norwegian municipalities in 1975, 1979, 1983, 1987, and 1991 to model the relationship between female representation and the provision of child care. We find that descriptive representation does affect policy outcome and that this relationship varies both according to the level of female representation and over time.