research

Grants

RESEARCH GRANTS

ESRC New Investigator: From Suffrage to Representation

2020-2023, £299,962

Through a careful analysis of the electoral processes that materialised in the aftermath of four suffrage reforms in the U.S., U.K., Norway and Chile, this project seeks to map the mechanisms through which newly enfranchised women achieved and maintained substantive representation in legislatures. While scholars have uncovered the relationship between the proportion of women in legislatures and women’s substantive representation, and addressed the role of parties in women’s substantive representation, we know much less about the link between the acquisition of the vote and the quality of substantive representation (hereafter just representation) in legislatures. The central proposition of this project is that understanding the pathways towards women’s representation rests upon close examination of politicians’ and organised interests’ incentives to engage women voters. As I show elsewhere (Morgan-Collins, forth.), the capacity of women to vote along women’s interests in the U.S. reflected the mobilisation efforts of women’s organised groups. Building upon questions raised in this and my previous research [an article forthcoming in The Journal of Politics; an APSA award-winning paper; and an award-winning PhD dissertation], this project seeks to answer: (i) How do electoral systems shape politicians’ incentives to mobilise and engage women? (ii) How do organised interests, operating in distinct electoral systems, shape politicians’ incentives to mobilise women? (iii) To what extent does the resulting capacity of women to vote and coordinate electorally on shared interests induce politicians’ responsiveness?

BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant, The Role of the Suffrage Movement in Mobilising Women into Politics.

2010-2021, £9,987

with Valerie Rueda, University of Nottingham

Did suffragists help to mobilize women into politics? We study the role of the suffrage movement in England on women’s mobilisation into politics as voters and politicians. We take advantage of the 1913 Women’s Suffrage Pilgrimage as a natural experiment to identify how exposure to suffragists affected women’s mobilisation. We construct a novel micro-level dataset of geocoded women's political engagement from archival records. With these data, we compare parishes depending on their proximity to the Pilgrimage to test whether the suffrage movement effectively mobilised newly enfranchised women to vote or to become politicians. This research provides robust evidence for the importance of social movements to catalyse the actual practice of newly gained political rights.

OTHER RESEARCH GRANTS

Early Career Flexigrant, University of Nottingham, £5,000, (with Valerie Rueda), 2019

Grant Seed Corn Fund, Durham University, £3,950, 2017

APSA Research Grant, American Political Science Association, $1500, 2017

DEVCo Fund, University of East Anglia, £4,962, (with Ulrike Theuerkauf), 2016

LSE Research, grant for research assistance, £1,400 (2x), 2015, 2016

OTHER GRANTS

CES Small Events Grant, Council of European Studies, $1,500, 2017

Grant to Organise a Conference, University of Pennsylvania, $3,300, 2017

Grant to Organise a Conference, London School of Economics, £2,000, 2016

NSF Funding for Political Methodology, conference grant, $1,527, 2015

Government Research Scholarship, LSE, 2009-2015

Baroness Birk Scholarship, Merit scholarship, LSE, £1000, 2010