This paper presents a theoretical model to explain the inconsistent empirical results in the literature on the impact of preferential voting on women's representation. The model emphasizes the interaction between a party's gender ideology which influences the gender equality of the lists they present and the salience of gender equality on a party's voter mass. The effect of preferential voting is predicted to vary both by the voter's ideology and by the party's ideology. The model is tested by developing hypotheses predicting outcomes for a series of political parties and elections in Norway at the municipal level, Sweden at the national level, and national elections in the Baltic States and Eastern Europe.
