Why is only few women in national politics? Career paths from local to national politics in the Czech Republic

Studies often shows steep decline of share of female councilors with the rising level of politics. Whereas there are relatively lot of women in bodies on local level, the share in national parliament is rather low. Considering the fact, that position in local government can help to gain position in regional and national politics, the question how this way works differently for men and women seems to be important. This paper explores how politicians travel across level of politics since 1998 in the Czech Republic (last local elections before introduction of regional level of politics). Local and regional councils, lower and upper chamber of national parliament and European parliament are taken into account. Using information available on ballots (age, occupation, party affiliation, residence) and electoral results it is analyzed what factors helps to move to higher level of politics and how the effect differs for men and women.