Beyond the glass ceiling, more 'housework'? Womens' work assignment, performance and influence in political institutions

Women remain under-represented in many political institutions. To what extent does the under-representation of women impact their performance, and the amount influence they have within political institutions? I argue that women have a harder time getting (s)elected because of gender-based selection bias and that those women who are (s)elected perform, on average, better than their male counterparts. Yet, women have less influence because gender-based selection bias may also exist within the institutions to which women have been (s)elected to serve. I empirically assess my argument in the context of the Court of Justice of the European Union. I find that women judges are assigned the judicial “housework”, while male judges are assigned the groundbreaking cases, resulting in a gender gap in influence. Yet, my results also show that women perform on average better than their male counterparts and complete their cases faster.