The Temporary Importance of Role Models for Women's Political Representation

Abstract

I n the last several decades, the political representation of women has improved sharply, thanks in part to the introduction of legislative quotas in many countries. At the same time, worldwide, only one in five members of parliament are female, on average, and even Nordic countries, with about 42% women in parliament, have yet to reach full gender equality in this area. There are many reasons for the underrepresentation of women in politics. Following an influential model of political recruitment (Norris 1997), women's representation is determined by the interaction between the supply of aspirants and the demands of gatekeepers, which are themselves shaped by the rules and procedures deriving from the legal, electoral, and party systems. Although both demand-and supplyside factors play an important role (Krook and SchwindtBayer 2013, 556; Paxton, Kunovich, and Hughes 2007, 266), one of the main reasons for the enduring gender gap in politics is that women are less likely to run for office than men (Lawless and Fox 2010). This is due in part to women's reluctance to stand as candidates, but also to the political and institutional context, which contributes to pulling women into or pushing women out of electoral Fabrizio Gilardi is Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Zurich, Affolternstrasse 56, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland (gilardi@ipz.uzh.ch).I thank Maya Ackermann, Tom Koritschan, Sophie Nägeli, Thomas Schäubli, Nathalie Schreiber, and especially Olivier Baumann (who coordinated data collection and conducted most of the interviews) for excellent research assistance. I am grateful to Peter Moser for advice on persuading the municipalities to give us access to their archives and to Andrea Gisler for providing valuable information on the Frauenzentrale Zürich. politics (Paxton, Kunovich, and Hughes 2007, 268-71; Wängnerud 2009, 55).This article focuses on a specific aspect of the supply side of women's representation. It argues that the availability of role models could help to redress the gender gap by shaping the motivation of women to run for office. Many authors understand women's representation as a virtuous circle: As more women are elected to office, their political role becomes more accepted, such that more women will develop political ambitions and more female candidates will find support among voters (Wängnerud 2009, 54). Consistent with this view, the literature has shown that women's political attitudes and behavior are shaped by the gender of their representatives (Fox and Lawless 2004;Lawless and Fox 2010). This article elaborates on the idea that the political representation of women can be enhanced by the availability of role models, defined as successful female politicians with whom women can identify. Specifically, I argue that, on average, more women run for office if more women are elected to office in nearby jurisdictions in the previous election. The example of women who are successfully elected changes

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