Political parties are pivotal for political recruitment. Party members provide an essential recruitment pool even if decreasing party membership, new forms of party affiliation and electoral volatility challenges this. We analyse the trajectory of political recruitment (2000-2020) with a focus on gender leveraging three unique surveys amongst Danish party members; i.e. one of the most critical steps on the recruitment ladder regarding representation. We look at evolution of the gender gap in political ambition and investigate if encouragement to run for office changes the gender gap. Our findings indicate that the gender gap in political ambition persists, but that this gap narrows over the last twenty years. Moreover, we find a heterogenous effect in being encouraged to run; it has a larger effect for women’s probability to run than for men’s. These results have important implications for recruitment practices within and beyond politics. Finding a persistent gender gap in a gender equal country as Denmark underscores the structural challenges elsewhere. We need to rethink the networks and practices surrounding women candidates if we want to close the gender gap.
