Gendered political resources

Abstract

Party office is a crucial political resource for those seeking a political career. It provides advantageous access to the distribution of the patronage parties are entitled to in party government democracies. This article aims at measuring this comparative advantage while simultaneously investigating whether it benefits women and men equally in political recruitment processes. We concentrate on viable candidacy for parliamentary office, ministerial appointments, as well as post-ministerial offices in public and semi-public life that are also in the hands of political parties to distribute. Our cross-national analysis of advanced industrial democracies shows that men are much more likely than women to benefit from holding party office in their ascendant political careers, even when controlling for other political resources, sociodemographic factors and country-level variables. This suggests that party office is a gendered political resource and that gender power dynamics are deeply entrenched in political parties.

The hourglass pattern of women’s representation

“…Political activism and experience in a party increase readiness to stand for election. Intra-party office is not necessarily a stepping-stone to elected office (Maestas, Fulton, Maisel, and Stone 2006) but rather a (gendered) resource (Verge and Claveria 2016). In model 4, we include two indicators of selfperceived political competence: political interest and self-perceived political competence (Lawless and Fox 2010).…”

The winners of legislative mandate: An analysis of post‐parliamentary career positions in Germany and the Netherlands

“…In particular, we gather that women may lose out on support through party patronage. Women are still not close to the power resources inside the party (Childs, 2013), so that they benefit less than men from party patronage (Verge and Claveria, 2016) where parties nominate party members for positions in public or semi-public life (Kopecký et al, 2012, for a different finding see however Claveria and Verge, 2015). As a result of party patronage, women have fewer chances of obtaining highly desirable jobs in the party.…”

Género y poder en Argentina. Las elites ejecutivas de Fernández de Kirchner, Macri y Fernández

“…Ha sido señalado que los factores que impiden una competencia equilibrada de género en el plano político son múltiples: variables estructurales (por ejemplo, las brechas de ingreso o las desigualdades en el mercado de trabajo) y/o culturales e ideológicas (creencias o estereotipos sociales sobre las mujeres) (D'Alessandro, 2016;Fernández Poncela, 2012;Inglehart y Norris, 2003;Paxton y Kunovich, 2003;Reynolds, 1999;Rodríguez, 2003). También se demostró que los factores político-institucionales juegan un rol directo en la generación de sistemas de incentivos hacia una mayor representación política femenina (Abu-Zayd et al, 2002;Archenti y Tula, 2019;Araújo, 2009;Claveria, 2014;Craske y Molyneux, 2002;Krook y O'Brien, 2012;Luengo y Del Campo, 2008;Ríos Tobar y Villar, 2005;Verge y Claveria, 2018).…”