Cohort: ESOL 40

Topic of the thesis: Gender Dynamics and Legislative Collaboration: A Longitudinal and Comparative Network Analysis of the Italian Parliament

Abstract: This project investigates gender dynamics in legislative collaboration within the Italian Parliament from 1983 to 2022, focusing on both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. Through a longitudinal analysis of female deputies' co-sponsorship behaviors across multiple legislatures, the study examines how collaboration patterns evolve as female representation increases, particularly after the critical XII legislature, which marked a significant shift in the number of women in the Italian Parliament.
Employing advanced analytical techniques, such as Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGM) and Keyword-Assisted Topic Models (KeyATM), the project will construct detailed co-sponsorship networks to visualize and quantify collaboration dynamics among deputies. Additionally, it will classify legislative bills into two distinct categories, communal and agentic issues, to assess whether female deputies prioritize communal concerns more than their male counterparts.
This research draws upon principles of behavioral sociology to explore how social interactions and group dynamics among legislators influence collaborative behaviors and legislative outcomes. A comparative analysis with the French and Irish Parliaments will provide further insights into how different electoral systems and political contexts influence gender dynamics in legislative collaboration.
By filling critical gaps in the literature on gender equality in politics, this project aims to enrich our understanding of how female representation affects legislative collaboration and issue prioritization within political institutions. The research findings aim to contribute to the ongoing discussion on gender dynamics in political contexts and the broader implications for promoting gender equality in governance.

Research interests: Behavioural Sociology, Political Collaboration, Gender Dynamics in Political Contexts, Computational Methods, Network Analysis, Quantitative Research Methods

Graduated from: Università degli Studi di Milano

Degrees obtained: BA in Political Science; MA in Public and Corporate Communication (Curriculum: Data Analytics for Politics, Society and Complex Organizations)

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