Women in the Polish Sejm: Political Culture and Party Politics versus Electoral Rules

Abstract This chapter examines changes in the representation of women in the Polish parliament from the 1990s to 2001. Women candidates had the best outcome in the 2001 election due to electoral law change, improvements in public attitudes towards women, the fact that women arguing for better representation were more organized and mobilized than in the past, and the parties that tended to be more representative of women did much better than in the previous election.