The DOI matches its Crossref record; 5 of the 5 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Story of the Theory of Critical Mass
Abstract
The theory of a “critical mass” seems to live a life of its own, in spite of reservations expressed by researchers, my own reservations included. In debates about women's political representation, the importance of a certain number or percentage of women in political assemblies is often stressed. According to conventional wisdom, research has shown that it takes a certain minimum representation, for example, 30%, before the minority, here women, are able to make a substantial difference in politics.
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“Recent theoretical (22) and empirical (23) results have shown how a minority of adversarial agents can exert an outsized influence on the group, provided that they reach a threshold or “critical mass” (24–26).”
From Emergent social conventions and collective bias in LLM populations (2025) · cites this paper as [26]
Citations
Cites
From a Small to a Large Minority: Women in Scandinavian Politics
Dahlerup, D. (1988) · Scandinavian Political Studies · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9477.1988.tb00372.x · Cited by 956
Self-citationQuotas as a ‘fast track’ to equal representation for women
Dahlerup, D., & Freidenvall, L. (2005) · International Feminist Journal of Politics · doi:10.1080/1461674042000324673 · Cited by 518
Self-citationHacker, H. M. (1951) · Social Forces · doi:10.2307/2571742 · Cited by 322
Parliamentary Representation of Women: From Discourses of Justice to Strategies of Accountability
Sawer, M. (2000) · International Political Science Review · doi:10.1177/0192512100214003 · Cited by 101
Dahlerup, D., & Moreno, H. (1993) · Debate Feminista · doi:10.22201/cieg.2594066xe.1993.8.1692 · Cited by 13
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Women in Parliaments: Descriptive and Substantive Representation
Wängnerud, L. (2009) · Annual Review of Political Science · doi:10.1146/annurev.polisci.11.053106.123839 · Cited by 845
Analysing Women's Substantive Representation: From Critical Mass to Critical Actors
Childs, S., & Krook, M. L. (2009) · Government and Opposition · doi:10.1111/j.1477-7053.2009.01279.x · Cited by 655
Gender Quotas and Women's Substantive Representation: Lessons from Argentina
Franceschet, S., & Piscopo, J. M. (2008) · Politics & Gender · doi:10.1017/s1743923x08000342 · Cited by 620
Gender Quotas and the Crisis of the Mediocre Man: Theory and Evidence from Sweden
Besley, T. J., Folke, O., Persson, T., & Rickne, J. K. (2017) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.20160080 · Cited by 503
Women on corporate boards: Do they advance corporate social responsibility?
Cook, A., & Glass, C. (2017) · Human Relations · doi:10.1177/0018726717729207 · Cited by 287
Metadata
- Authors
- Dahlerup, D.
- Affiliations
- Stockholm University (SE)
- Corresponding author
- Dahlerup, Drude
- ORCID
- Dahlerup, Drude
- Venue
- Politics & Gender
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2006-11-28
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 04
- ISSN
- 1743-923X (ISSN-L)
- 1743-9248
- OpenAlex
- W2157199109
- Cited by
- 355
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 47 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 33 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 17.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Politics & Gender (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Politics and Representation
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender and Feminist Studies
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Diversity and Inequality
- Keywords
- critical mass, women's political representation, gender quotas, minority representation, political assemblies, gender and politics, women in politics
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