Descriptive Representation and Voter Evaluations of Decision-making Bodies

Descriptive representation impacts impressions of fairness in political decision-making. However, we do not know how much of this impact results from the link between descriptive representation and the substantive policy, the issue it concerns and the outcome it takes. We field a survey experiment in the United Kingdom in which a committee decides on three policies that address issues of family planning and health, which disproportionately impact women. These issues differ across a number of dimensions, including the degree to which they are perceived as serving only women, as moral or salient. We measure respondents’ substantive positions pre-treatment and vary levels of women’s descriptive representation in the committee. After controlling for policy agreement, we find positive effects of descriptive representation on perceptions of fairness. However, these effects vary across issue. We find that respondents perceive decisions on abortion, a moral and salient issue, as fairer when women are equally represented, but also when they are over-represented. We find this effect even if respondents initially did not agree with the policy. Still, women's over-representation has a negative effect on fairness perceptions when the committee decides on the issue of menstrual leave, which grants a benefit to women.