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Intersectionality, NGOs and executives : who has which minister’s ear?

Christoffersen, Ashlee LU ; Siow, Orly LU and Fowler, Ceri (2025) In West European Politics
Abstract

To what extent do the most powerful political office-holders engage with extra-parliamentary representatives from the most marginalised groups? To what extent and how are these relationships intersectional? In order to answer these questions, this article offers a novel analysis of over 78,000 UK government ministerial meetings and 293 equalities organisations. The findings show that white male ministers engage least with equalities organisations, and minoritised women engage most, even when controlling for additional factors. Additionally, women’s organisations enjoy far greater access than those focused on race, or those led by and for intersectionally marginalised groups. This matters because NGOs play a critical role in constituting... (More)

To what extent do the most powerful political office-holders engage with extra-parliamentary representatives from the most marginalised groups? To what extent and how are these relationships intersectional? In order to answer these questions, this article offers a novel analysis of over 78,000 UK government ministerial meetings and 293 equalities organisations. The findings show that white male ministers engage least with equalities organisations, and minoritised women engage most, even when controlling for additional factors. Additionally, women’s organisations enjoy far greater access than those focused on race, or those led by and for intersectionally marginalised groups. This matters because NGOs play a critical role in constituting the interests of marginalised groups: a necessary pre-condition for the substantive parliamentary representation of those interests. The relationship is particularly important in relation to executives, where the small number of roles offers limited opportunities for descriptive representation, but exceptional powers of substantive representation.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
epub
subject
keywords
cabinets, Gender, intersectionality, NGOs, race, representation
in
West European Politics
publisher
Routledge
external identifiers
  • scopus:105002138560
ISSN
0140-2382
DOI
10.1080/01402382.2025.2476286
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
d4c80cb4-5bc7-4d90-92cb-7861850004ae
date added to LUP
2025-09-01 12:43:18
date last changed
2025-09-01 12:43:36
@article{d4c80cb4-5bc7-4d90-92cb-7861850004ae,
  abstract     = {{<p>To what extent do the most powerful political office-holders engage with extra-parliamentary representatives from the most marginalised groups? To what extent and how are these relationships intersectional? In order to answer these questions, this article offers a novel analysis of over 78,000 UK government ministerial meetings and 293 equalities organisations. The findings show that white male ministers engage least with equalities organisations, and minoritised women engage most, even when controlling for additional factors. Additionally, women’s organisations enjoy far greater access than those focused on race, or those led by and for intersectionally marginalised groups. This matters because NGOs play a critical role in constituting the interests of marginalised groups: a necessary pre-condition for the substantive parliamentary representation of those interests. The relationship is particularly important in relation to executives, where the small number of roles offers limited opportunities for descriptive representation, but exceptional powers of substantive representation.</p>}},
  author       = {{Christoffersen, Ashlee and Siow, Orly and Fowler, Ceri}},
  issn         = {{0140-2382}},
  keywords     = {{cabinets; Gender; intersectionality; NGOs; race; representation}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Routledge}},
  series       = {{West European Politics}},
  title        = {{Intersectionality, NGOs and executives : who has which minister’s ear?}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2025.2476286}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/01402382.2025.2476286}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}