Not surprisingly, most of the research has been carried out in those countries with high numbers of women in parliament. There is also some support for the idea that women can impact on the nature of the institution itself once they have a critical mass. Karam and Lovenduski (1998) note that women in Scandinavian legislatures at the national and local levels have influenced the nature of politics in a number of ways, including a greater prioritisation of family obligations and more accessible laws and debates'.