Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

In this paper, we address gendered patterns of parliamentary speech in Japan's National Diet. We find that speeches by female MPs tend to be shorter but more progressive than those by male MPs. Proportion of female MPs has a marginal effect on speech length, suggesting no institutional effect.

Paper long abstract

How are women's interests represented in highly male-dominated legislatures? Do female representatives still advocate for women's issues when they are surrounded by male parliamentarians? In this paper, we address these questions by analyzing the patterns of parliamentary speeches in Japan's National Diet, a historically male-dominated institution. Using the entire corpus of the parliamentary speeches from 1947 to 2023, we identify the extent of gender speech gap at the individual and institutional level. We report three major findings. First, ceteris paribus, female MPs were likely to deliver shorter speech than their male counterparts. Male politicians, especially the prime minister, tend to take the lead in addressing women's issues on the parliamentary floor. Second, the proportion of female legislators has little significant effect on increasing the volume of speech by female MPs, suggesting no institutional effect. Finally, when discussing women's issues, women legislators tend to talk more about gender egalitarian issues, while male legislators were more likely to frame women's issues in terms of economic growth and national security. These findings suggest that gender speech gap may have a substantial influence on how women's issues are framed and discussed in the parliament.