Grant awarded to study the rise and stagnation of women’s political representation
A shared interest in women’s political representation has become a research project led by Jay Euijung Lee, Assistant Professor of Economics at Stockholm University, together with Jaakko Meriläinen, and Céline Zipfel. The project has been awarded nearly 4 million SEK in funding from Ragnar Söderbergs stiftelse.
Jay Euijung Lee, Assistant Professor of Economics, Stockholm University.
Women’s representation in politics remains well below 50 percent
Despite decades of progress, women’s representation in politics remains well below 50 percent in most countries, and in many places progress has stalled. Only a small number of countries have achieved gender-balanced representation, and when this has happened it has usually been through various forms of quotas.
For this project, the researchers examine the causes and consequences of women’s representation in politics. They focus on three phases: the expansion and stagnation of influence, as well as institutional measures to increase influence.
”We still know surprisingly little about what actually happens inside the policy decision-making process as female representation rises,” Jay notes, ”as well as how the male electorate perceives these changes.”
About the project
The project is titled The Political Economics of Parity: Why Women’s Representation Stalls, and How to Move Beyond It, and has been awarded with a grant of 3,900,000 SKR for a period of 2,5 years from Ragnar Söderbergs stiftelse.
Read about the project here (in Swedish)
Jay Euijung Lee is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics, Stockholm University. Find out more about her research:
Jaakko Meriläinen and Céline Zipfel are researchers at Stockholm School of Economics.
Last updated: 2026-02-09
Source: Department of Economics