Local leaders’ attitudes towards the political representation of Immigrant-origin women: evidence from Spain

The under-representation of women and immigrant-origin communities in party lists is a universal phenomenon in Western countries. Nevertheless, according to intersectional theory, the combination of these seemingly marginal political identities can become an advantage for immigrant-origin women. The reason for this is the adoption of gender quotas by most immigrant-receiving countries as well as the evidence that, despite this, political parties still face difficulties in attracting autochthonous women. Therefore, the inclusion of female candidates of immigrant origin can help party leaders to achieve two objectives. Firstly, it allows them to increase minority political representation. At the same time, it provides them the opportunity to enhance the female quota. Hence, selecting immigrant-origin women is an efficient strategy for party elites, a way of ‘killing two birds with one stone’. However, to date, insufficient attention has been paid both to party characteristics and local leader’s attitudes that can determine the success or failure of this strategy. Based on 44 in-depth interviews carried out with local leaders and immigrant-origin candidates (both men and women), our paper focuses on local elections in Spain to address several questions: Does party ideology interfere in any way in this strategy? Why some parties are more capable than others in recruiting immigrant-origin women? When it comes to distinguish among different women minority groups, which groups do party leaders favor the most? Our results indicate that the strategy of ‘killing two birds with one stone’ is shared by all parties, regardless their ideology. However, traditional parties would have been particularly successful in implementing it, because of their deeper contact with local immigrant community networks. Finally, our analysis suggests that party leaders are more willing to include women from UE14 and Latin America countries, than those of Romanian and Moroccan origins.