During the economic and political crisis in Slovenia, the percentages of women elected to parliament in 2011 and 2014 have for the first time exceeded the critical mass of representation at 30 percent. In the last parliamentary election in 2018, the critical mass of women in the parliament was not attained. This thesis focuses on the issue of the underrepresentation of women in Slovenian politics by researching the development of women's political careers. Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice and theory of political recruitment serve as the theoretical bases of this thesis, together with his concepts of habitus, field, and capitals. Firstly, we try to distinguish which processes, circumstances or important decisions in women's lives make their entry into politics easier or more difficult. These factors are observed in a longer time period, and hence the early time of growing-up, socialization, education, career formation and the time of entry into national politics are also a point of interest. The empirical part, composed of interviews with the female members of the 7th National Assembly, aims to check the validity of the theoretical findings. We are interested in the extent to which female political careers in Slovenia still differ significantly from male political careers. The analysis of the interviews conducted with female members of parliament has shown that women more often enter politics from brokerage occupations and that the combination of experience gained in local politics, civil society and leadership positions is also relevant. An invitation to politics still plays a key role in women's entry into politics, whereas having young children represents a big hurdle. Despite some differences, most characteristics of women's political careers are similar, no matter the political party they belong to.
|
