Beyond the numbers: party, institution, and agency in women legislators’ social-welfare and family policy advocacy after Poland’s 2011 quota

Abstract

This thesis examines how the post-2011 rise in women’s descriptive representation in the Polish Sejm is experienced and enacted in female politicians' social welfare and family policy work. The 2011 gender quota rule is treated as an important context: it expanded the pool of women on party lists, but the analysis focuses on the mechanisms that either convert presence into influence or blunt it. Using a qualitative, thematic design, this study analyses three confidential elite interviews alongside eleven publicly available long-form statements from former and current female MPs (2011-2025). The framework combines Pitkin’s (1967) dimensions of representation with feminist institutionalism and the critical mass/critical actors debate. Materials were coded using NVivo, with deductive categories from theory and inductive frames from MP’s own language. Findings show that formal gateways are largely gender-neutral on paper, yet list placements and committee allocation, leadership backing, and access to informal arenas (late-night networking, male-coded venues) shape who gains agenda time and coordination posts. Sexist language and media tone-policing raise the costs of visible leadership for women. Individual pathways vary: many women prioritise welfare and family policy through socialised experience and prior activism; others strategically pursue traditionally masculine spheres to widen what counts as women’s expertise. Numbers help, but critical mass alone is insufficient.