Numbers and Beyond: The Relevance of Critical Mass in Gender Research.

The article looks at whether changing proportions of women Member of Parliaments in New Zealand have resulted in greater substantive representation of women and women's needs in politics in order to test the utility of critical mass as a change hypothesis. It examines a number of claims around expected changes in both legislative culture and policy outcomes once women take up substantial proportion of seats in parliament, using a longitudinal textual analysis of parliamentary debates.