Lost in Translation. How Different Electoral Systems Transform the Voting Gender Gap into Gender Inequality

Abstract

Voting gender gap characterises several countries, and it is likely to translate into the composition of elected assemblies and governments. Starting from given preferences of the electors, different electoral rules may translate this gap into different outcomes in terms of composition of the parliament. To amplify or to attenuate this gap results in generating a sort of gender inequality. In this work, I inquiry if and to which extent the different electoral rules may generate gender inequality when translating votes into seats. First, I present a theoretical framework to capture the potential of an electoral system to amplify or attenuate the voting gender gap. Then, using survey data and different indices of representativeness and of governability, I provide some empirical test for the theoretical framework. Both the theory and the simulations indicate that majority systems magnify the gender gap, while proportional rules are likely to reproduce it with minimal distortions.