Funding demands and gender in political recruitment: What parties do in Cabo Verde and Ghana

Abstract

How do political parties in low- and high-cost institutional contexts respond to funding inequalities as a source of gender imbalance for those seeking elected office? We rely on a ‘most similar’ logic to answer this question and develop two categories of cost intensity comprised of three institutions – electoral system, candidate selection model and public funding. Our findings show that parties in both contexts see funding as a source of inequality, but that the obstacles women face are more salient to parties in a high-cost (Ghana) than a low-cost (Cabo Verde) context. Only in Ghana have parties adopted funding measures that directly target women.