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Too Spineless to Rebel? New Labour's Women MPs

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  • COWLEY, PHILIP
  • CHILDS, SARAH

Abstract

The 1997 British general election saw a record 120 women returned to the House of Commons, 101 of them Labour. Yet if the most striking feature of the 1997 intake into the House of Commons was the number of newly elected women, then the most striking feature of the backbench rebellions in that parliament was the lack of these women amongst the ranks of the rebels. They were less than half as likely to rebel against the party whip as the rest of the Parliamentary Labour Party; even those who did, did so around half as often. Attempts to explain this difference fall into two broad groups: (i) those that attempt to explain the difference away, as resulting from other characteristics of the women, and (ii) those that attempt to explain it – indeed, celebrate it – as evidence of a different, women's, style of political behaviour. Attempts at (i) are largely unconvincing: most of the supposed explanations for the difference do not stand up to empirical verification. Although difficult to prove, a belief in (ii) is dominant amongst the new women themselves.

Suggested Citation

  • Cowley, Philip & Childs, Sarah, 2003. "Too Spineless to Rebel? New Labour's Women MPs," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 33(3), pages 345-365, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:bjposi:v:33:y:2003:i:03:p:345-365_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Sarah Childs & Mona Lena Krook, 2008. "Critical Mass Theory and Women's Political Representation," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 56(3), pages 725-736, October.
    2. Clayton, Amanda & Tang, Belinda, 2018. "How women’s incumbency affects future elections: Evidence from a policy experiment in Lesotho," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 385-393.
    3. Benjamin de Vet & Robin Devroe, 2023. "Gender and Strategic Opposition Behavior: Patterns of Parliamentary Oversight in Belgium," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(1), pages 097-107.
    4. Sarah Childs & Julie Withey, 2004. "Women Representatives Acting for Women: Sex and the Signing of Early Day Motions in the 1997 British Parliament," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 52(3), pages 552-564, October.

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