FUNCTIONS OF WOMEN COUNCILLORS IN LOCAL POLITICS

Research Project

Project/Area Number	11610220
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	社会学(含社会福祉関係)
Research Institution	KYOTO WOMEN'S UNIVERSITY (2000-2001) Otemon Gakuin University (1999)
Principal Investigator	TAKEYASU Hideko KYOTO WOMEN'S UNIVERSITY, FACULTY FOR THE STUDY OF CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY, PROFESSOR, 現代社会学部, 教授 (70131414)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	NAKAMURA Miyako OTEMONGAKUIN UNIVERSITY, DEPARTMENNT OF MANAGEMENT, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, 経営学部, 助教授 (90278599) KASUGA Masashi KOBEGAKUIN UNIVERSITY, DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES AND SCIENCES, PROFESSOR, 人文学部, 教授 (90152660)
Project Period (FY)	1999 – 2001
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2001)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000) Fiscal Year 2001: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000) Fiscal Year 2000: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000) Fiscal Year 1999: ¥1,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000)
Keywords	GENDER / POLITICS / WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION / WOMEN COUNCILLOR / UNDER REPRESENTATION / WOMEN AND POLITICS / JAPANESE LOCAL POLITICS / GENDER GAP IN POLITICS / 政治 / 女性議員 / 意思決定システム / 女性の政治参画 / イギリス / 東南アジア / 地方政治 / イギリスの地方政治 / アジアにおける女性 / 女性 / 地方議員 / ジュンダー
Research Abstract	Our research aimed to examine why local politics in Japan has changed so feebly and slowly, though a sign of change is surely recognised, and what improvement we can expect about women's political participation in future. It is surprising how little attention not only political scientists but also sociologists have paid to women as political subjects, except in the area of voting behavior. There exist few substantial examples of literature covering a wide range of areas of research on local female councilors except for our own studies. M. Kasuga and H. Takeyasu undertook a survey for all local councillors. One of the purposes we planed a survey on local women councillors is to draw a whole picture about them to seek for the reason why there were so few women as councillors as well as candidates and whether there is any opportunity to change the political situation for women. For our surveys the sample chosen was allwomen councillors on all levels who hold the seats at the time when the surveys were conducted. The number of the sample therefore is 3784 and the return of them is 1679. The period is from February to May in 2000. Concerning the short time-scale and lack of funds to obtain the home addresses, however, questionnaires were sent to the office of each local governing body for distribution to the named councillors.The female councillors changed during theses six years, between our two surveys in 1994 and 2000. 'Independent' type councillors in the respondents increased more than twice, meanwhile 'Traditional' type did just twice during this period. Two different kinds of stream seem to be going on in parallel. The increase of 'Independent' type means that a new wave slightly but certainly begins to occur in the local politics.