Who’s Asking Whom? Gendering in Parliamentary Interactions

Male domination is asserted and reproduced through speaking behavior in parliaments. We address the enduring challenge of women’s marginalization by examining the interactive nature of speech. People adjust their speaking behavior based on the gender and status of those with whom they interact. Analyzing over 2,500 question-and-answer sequences in the Croatian Parliament (2004–20), we identify interactional asymmetry: male MPs ask fewer and shorter questions of female ministers than of male ministers, and engage in shorter exchanges with women than with men. Notably, female MPs partially replicate this pattern, posing shorter questions to female ministers. Female ministers, however, use their executive status to assert authority and respond with longer answers than men, despite their marginalization as women. We reveal how non-cooperation through withholding speech and limiting engagement with women operates as a form of power in interactions, reproducing parliaments as masculine institutions whilst affecting the quality of government oversight.