Description:
<p>Why do women parliamentarians perceive the issue of female underrepresentation in parliaments and politics as a problem at all? This question arises directly from Hanna Fenichel Pitkins assessment that it remains unclear to what extent descriptive forms of representation can be considered purposeful or effective for political decision-making and representation processes . Building on discussions in democratic theory, our qualitative interview study among women parliamentarians of the eighth legislative period of the state parlia- ment of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (since 2021) addresses this question from a practical perspective . Based on the subjective causes for persistent female underrepresentation, which mainly refer to institutional and cultural aspects as well as the compatibility of family and job or mandate, four modes of argumentation for the phenomenon could be outlined: (1) formal-descriptive, (2) substantive-descriptive, (3) cultural-discursive as well as (4) no perception of the problem . </p>