Islamist Parties and Women’s Representation in Morocco: Taking One for the Team Page 1 of 32 PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: OUP-Reference Gratis Access; date: 15 July 2021 Subject: Political Science, Comparative Politics, Political Behavior Online Publication Date: Jul 2021 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190931056.013.39 Islamist Parties and Women’s Representation in Moroc co: Taking One for the Team Lindsay J. Benstead The Oxford Handbook of Politics in Muslim Societies Edited by Melani Cammett and Pauline Jones Abstract and Keywords Does electing Islamists help or hurt women? Due to the Party of Justice and Development (PJD) obtaining 13% of seats in the 2002–2007 legislature and the implementation of an electoral gender quota that resulted in thirty-five women winning seats in 2002, Morocco offers a rare opportunity to explore the intersectional impact of parliamentarians’ gender and party affiliation on women’s symbolic and service representation. Using visits to par liamentary offices in Tangiers, a city in northern Morocco, and an original survey of 112 Moroccan Members of Parliament (MPs) conducted in 2008, this chapter finds that re sponsiveness for female citizens depends on parliamentarians’ party and gender. Female legislators and Islamist deputies (including male Islamists) are also more likely to interact with female citizens than male parliamentarians from non-Islamist parties. It argues that the PJD’s stronger party institutionalization enhances legislators’ incentives to work in mixed-gender teams, leading to more frequent legislator interactions with female citi zens. By offering novel evidence that developing a strong party system—in addition to electing women—is crucial for improving women’s representation in clientelistic settings, the results extend the literature on Islam, gender, and governance and offer insights into Islamist electoral success in clientelistic settings. Keywords: women and Islam, Islamist parties, service provision, representation, gender equality, politics and gen der, Morocco, Middle East and North Africa, Muslim world When it comes to political representation, women face major obstacles in Arab and Mus lim countries. Female candidates encounter biases at the polls and in many countries, and ordinary women are less likely to enjoy clientelistic networks with politicians, who are of ten men (Bauer and Burnet 2013; Beck 2003; Benstead 2016; Bjarnegård 2013; Tripp 2001). Even when women win elections, they may not be able—or even inclined—to pro mote liberal gender laws in weak and co-opted legislatures. The electoral success of Islamist parties and its implication for women has received sub stantial attention and spanned fears that the electoral success of Islamist parties in places like Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, and Tunisia will threaten women’s rights. Islamist