Under the 1992 Austrian electoral system voters can cast one preferential vote in the regional constituency and another one in the higher-level Land constituency. Preferential votes can directly change the party lists and they have more indirect signalling effects, identifying electorally viable and active candidates for promotion within their party. In this paper, we analyse the preferential vote results of all six elections held under the current electoral system and hence individual level data of ca. 20,000 candidates. We first provide an overview of the gender-patterns in these results, looking at the absolute number of preferential votes, vote shares, and the crossing of thresholds that entitle to moving-up the party list. Second, we look at the more-long term career effects of preferential vote results, testing the hypothesis that good performance leads to a career push (as measured by moving up the party list and being nominated for those list positions which are considered safe or promising). Third, we employ the responses of candidates from the 2006 and 2008 candidate surveys to check the gender patterns of actively campaigning for preference votes. We then relate effort to performance. In sum, the paper will provide a comprehensive overview to what extent the Austrian system of preferential voting is used to express gender-related preferences on candidates.
