Intersectional Drop Out: Who Drops Out Of The Parliament And Where Do They Go?

Some members of parliament complete their term, run again or move up on the political career ladder. Others drop out prematurely and disappear from the limelight. Who quits during a term and why? Where do they go after having been a member of parliament? To fully understand political inclusion and exclusion we focus on political careers of Dutch members of parliament with a migration background. Scholarship on access to politics – e.g. recruitment and selection – demonstrates how the recruitment process is gendered and raced. Yet, we do not know much about why politicians quit. We study political careers intersectionally and empirically scrutinize how gender, ethnicity and race influence political careers. This study analyzes the Dutch case, where members of parliament of immigrant origin have been represented equal to their share of the population over the past decade. Yet, this diversity is not reflected in the most powerful positions in politics (e.g. ministerial posts, mayors, party leaders). Gender and ethnicity/race gaps in drop out threaten such ‘moving up the ladder’. The analysis spans 1986-2021. The data includes biographical data of MPs combined with formal goodbye letters. We hypothesize that ‘more diverse’ members of parliament drop out more often than those who are closer to the norm of white men. We also expect those with several marginalized identities to drop out especially often. With a systematic analysis of drop out and moving up the ladder we demonstrate how the ends of political careers are mediated by intersectionality.