The Inclusion Calculation: Why Men Appropriate Women`s Representation, Valdini Melody E.

In The Inclusion Calculation, Melody E. Valdini examines womens inclusion from the perspective of men in power and offers a novel approach to understanding differences in womens descriptive representation. This book argues that men facilitate womens entry into politics when womens presence promises to benefit public perception of a party, and therefore benefit male party leaders. One particularly disturbing implication of this argument is that leaders can increase the number of women in office as a quick and simple substitute for addressing real systemic failures in party organization. Valdini tests her hypotheses by looking at several political contexts around the world: the degree to which parties run more women after a corruption scandal, the number of women who are actually elected at such times, the adoption of gender quotas, and the appointment of women legislators in authoritarian regimes. Her findings suggest that we cannot yet celebrate recent increases in the number of women in office as a sign that we are nearing broad acceptance of gender equality. Further, these findings also suggest that one should question the tendency of scholars and international organizations to use womens presence in office as a measurement of good governance, as well as the tendency to encourage women to simply lean in to advance their careers.