Reply #45: You might be interested in the "critical mass" theory

[iverglas]

http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/PRBpubs/prb0562-e.htm
-- a background paper on women in Parliament prepared for Canadian parliamentarians

The international community has made a number of commitments to rectify the under-representation of women in parliament. For example, the equal participation of women and men in public life is one of the cornerstones of the 1979 United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), of which Canada is a signatory. Inequality between men and women in positions of power and decision-making was one of the twelve key areas identified in the landmark 1995 Beijing Platform for Action.

The widely recognized minimum benchmark to ensure a critical mass of women parliamentarians has been set at 30%.(2) By the end of 2005, however, the proportion of women in parliaments around the world stood at 16%; the proportion of women holding Cabinet-level office was even lower, at 14.3%.

(2) This is the benchmark used by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the United Nations.

http://archive.idea.int/women/parl/ch5b.htm

Feminists often argue that pioneer women parliamentarians became surrogate men ­ that they were socialized into the legislature and became indistinguishable from the men they replaced. We doubt this. Men are known to behave differently when women are absent. Because it upsets gender boundaries, the presence of even one woman will alter male behaviour; the presence of several women will alter it even further. West European experience shows that where women MPs have a mission to effect change even small numbers can produce significant results.

While the presence of even one woman can make a difference, long-term significant change will largely be realized when there is a sufficient number of women in parliament who are motivated to represent women's concerns. This need for a significant minority of women to affect political change has been referred to by feminist political scientists as "critical mass". According to Drude Dahlerup, the test that a critical mass of women is present is the acceleration of the development of women's representation through acts that improve the situation for themselves and for women in general. These actions are critical acts of empowerment.

In her studies of women MPs in Scandinavia, Dahlerup found that women politicians worked to recruit other women, and developed new legislation and institutions to benefit women. As their numbers grew it became easier to be a woman politician and public perceptions of women politicians changed.

If you google "critical mass" women legislature you'll find criticism of the critical mass theory as well. I'm not conversant enough with it to say anything particularly useful, but it is an interesting subject.