What makes Independent Women Stand for Office: Mapping the Gendered Descriptive Representation of Non-Party Candidates in Ireland and the UK

Explanations for the under-representation of women in elected office has highlighted both supply and demand factors (Norris and Lovenduski, 1993). This literature highlights the key gate-keeping role played by party selectorates who, in seeking to identify candidates who conform to gendered norms, act to ensure the continued over representation of men in political office (Durose et al, 2013; Childs and Campbell, 2015; Kenny and Verge, 2015). However, where party elites support greater diversity of representation such as through the adoption of all women short lists or targeted selections, party demand can address and overcome the veto actions of party selectorates. However processes of party fragmentation and realignment suggest that over time parties are less able to exert a monopoly over the supply of candidates for election, and there has been a rise in both non-hierarchical party organisations and independent candidates. However this literature has not considered how this rise impacts on both the supply and demand of women candidates. This paper seeks to map the rise of women independent candidates both standing for and successfully gaining election. It will use data on independent candidates in two countries, Ireland and the UK, to test three explanations for changing patterns of female independent representation; firstly party realignment explanations which would suggest that the number of female independent candidates is related to the decline of party domination of electoral processes; secondly agency explanations which would suggest that as women are increasingly achieving prominence in other aspects of public life (for example on boards or in professional occupations) and the supply of women candidates is increasing; and thirdly institutional explanations which would suggest that it is changed institutional arrangements such as the introduction of quotas or zipping which disrupts party dominance of electoral procedures and encourages non-party candidates to organise to stand for office.