The aim of the paper is to explore some of the main political factors explaining the selection of female regional top candidates in Spain’s focusing on the differences between new and mainstream parties. To what extent the newness of the parties might become a key factor explaining the selection of female candidates? Spanish new parties such as Podemos, Ciudadanos and UPyD have tried to present themselves as different from the mainstream parties such as the PSOE and the PP. One way to do so has been through the inclusion of women on key roles within the party. However, introducing internal party democracy has also been part of their marketing and organizational strategies. This indeed poses an interesting trade off because the literature on candidate selection has claimed that more inclusive selectorates have traditionally been more disadvantageous for women (e.g. Rahat, Hazan, and Katz 2008; Wauters and Pilet 2015). In order to explore the influence of these and other factors such as the ideology of the party, the seniority or the age in the selection of women as regional top candidates, three new (UPyD, Podemos and Ciudadanos) and three traditional (PP, PSOE, IU) parties will be examined.
