Gender, Diversity, and the Gatekeeping Role of Electoral Systems and Parties

Abstract

How do electoral institutions and party gatekeeping practices shape gendered and intersectional patterns of political representation? This panel brings together five papers that analyze the mechanisms that determine who is selected, placed, and ultimately elected. The papers investigate: (1) how party competition, internal party democracy, and value change influence the gender balance of candidate lists, asking which institutional and organizational conditions promote balanced representation; (2) whether district magnitude affects women’s descriptive representation under personalized electoral rules, and through which competitive mechanisms larger districts may encourage women’s candidacies; (3) how gender and ethnicity interact in candidate selection, assessing whether diverse candidates benefit from double advantage or face double jeopardy across different types of parties; (4) how party nomination strategies determine women’s placement in viable list positions, questioning whether seemingly gender-friendly electoral systems can still produce unequal outcomes; and (5) which micro-level barriers prevent minoritised women from progressing through party selection processes, and how intersecting forms of bias shape individual pathways to office.

Title	Details
District magnitude and gender representation in personalised elections	View Paper Details
Party Competition and the Gender Balance of Candidate Lists: Evidence from Austria 2008–2024	View Paper Details
Drivers of diversity: gender and ethnicity in dominant and niche party candidate selection	View Paper Details
Intersecting Disadvantages: Gender, Race, Faith and Representation in British Local Politics	View Paper Details
Party Nomination Strategies and Women’s Underrepresentation in Turkish Parliament	View Paper Details