Misrepresented or Miss Represented? Gendered Priority Responsiveness in Norway

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of priority responsiveness, which assesses the extent to which representatives' issue priorities reflect those of male and female citizens equally. Arguing that political priorities are a crucial but overlooked dimension of responsiveness, I analyze 131,601 survey responses on citizens' most important problems and 127,830 parliamentary speeches and identify a gap in priority responsiveness in the gender-egalitarian context of Norway. Representatives focus more on issues prioritized by male citizens than by female citizens. This disparity appears to be driven by representatives' tendency to emphasize issues prioritized by citizens of their own gender. Since women deliver fewer speeches than their male counterparts, their stronger emphasis on issues prioritized by women does not substantially affect overall responsiveness. By contrast, male representatives' greater focus on issues important to men appears to drive the bias. Neither party affiliation nor government ideology significantly affects the gender bias in priority responsiveness.