Women in politics. Rootedness as a factor of gender representation

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to identify the degree of women’s rootedness in the modern Russian political elite as one of the factors of their meaningful representation. By the method of retrospective biographic analysis, the specifics of women’s rooting were identified separately for each of the branches of government. The database of the study contained all female politicians included in the current elite on October 1, 2022. The results of the work revealed a pool of women rooted in politics, gaining political weight and experience. They have no signs of marginal position and symbolic representation, occupy a significant position in the hierarchy of political positions, have a high level of education and professional competencies, have an extensive background in the system of public administration and the possibility of accumulating significant social capital. It was also revealed that for potentially rooted female politicians, career trajectories passing through participation in the activities of public organizations allow for a rapid rise to the highest political levels of government. The relevance of the work lies in the fact that the analysis of the indicator of women’s rootedness in the political system was used to assess the degree of symbolic representation.