This study asks how gender and status shape conversational dynamics in parliament and highlights interactional asymmetries as a mechanism of marginalization. Using parliamentary question-and-answer exchanges from Croatia, the authors analyze how MPs adjust the frequency, length and depth of engagement depending on the gender and executive status of interlocutors. The contribution frames withholding speech and abbreviated engagement as a form of non-cooperation that can reproduce parliaments as masculine institutions while shaping oversight quality.
Bold findings: interactional asymmetry, female ministers answer longer, shorter questions to women
Data and methods
The analysis uses over 2,500 question-and-answer sequences from the Croatian Parliament covering 2004–2020. The authors examine patterns in who asks questions, question length, and the length of exchanges, comparing interactions by the gender of MPs and ministers and by ministers' executive status.
Main findings
The authors report an interactional asymmetry: male MPs ask fewer and shorter questions of female ministers than of male ministers and engage in shorter exchanges with women. Female MPs partially mirror this pattern by asking shorter questions to female ministers. By contrast, female ministers give longer answers than male ministers, suggesting use of executive status to assert authority despite broader marginalization.
- Male MPs ask fewer and shorter questions of female ministers.
- Female MPs also pose shorter questions to female ministers.
- Female ministers respond with longer answers than men, despite marginalization.
