The end of the all-male party? Voter preferences for gender representation in political parties

ABSTRACT While parties have a large role in influencing the representation of women, much less is known of how voters perceive parties’ efforts to promote female candidates. Existing evidence from the literature suggests that, on an aggregate level, voters value female candidates at least to the same extent as male candidates. Meanwhile, evidence points both towards a general under-representation of women in politics as well as large differences between left-leaning and right-leaning parties when it comes to selecting female lead candidates and members of parliament (MPs). This study investigates voters’ preferences for gender representation inside political parties. Using a single vignette survey experiment in five European countries, I show that voters have strong preferences for equal descriptive representation of men and women in political parties and prefer women as lead candidates. Women have larger preferences for equal representation than men, while ideological differences are comparatively small.