Electoral competition, voter bias and women in politics

Worldwide, barely a quarter of MPs / parliamentarians / members of parliament are women. Despite significant progress in recent years, women remain largely under-represented among elected politicians. This study offers some explanations for the under-representation of women in politics, drawing on data from the last seven French general elections. On the one hand, the analyses suggest that there is a ‘bias’ in voters’ preferences towards male candidates. Furthermore, political parties contribute to perpetuating the under-representation of women in elected office by fielding fewer female candidates in constituencies where voter bias is high. To promote women’s access to political office, the 2000 Act to Promote Equal Access for Women and Men to Elected Office and Elected Positions, also known as the ‘Parity Act’, requires French political parties to field 50 per cent women among their candidates, failing which they face financial penalties. As expected, the implementation of this Act has led to an increase in the proportion of women among candidates. Nevertheless, this proportion is relatively lower in constituencies where there is a close race / close election than in those where a majority is secured by a wider margin. In these ‘competitive’ constituencies, paying a fine for breaching the parity rule proves more advantageous than the risk of losing the election by fielding a woman rather than a man. This suggests that parties still prefer to field male candidates rather than female candidates in order to increase their chances of winning the election.