The Supply and Success of Female Candidates in Turkish Local Politics

• In Event: Gender and Institutional Change in the Middle East and North Africa

Abstract

A consistent finding in the literature on women in politics is that women are less represented in legislative bodies where conservative parties dominate. But does this mean that they are less likely to win when they run under conservative party labels? Or, could it be that they are less likely to run in the first place, or more likely to be placed in hard to win positions on their party’s list where it is increasingly difficult to be elected to office? This paper addresses these questions by focusing on how the behavior of parties shapes women’s pathways to office. While research investigating the determinants of women’s numerical representation in politics has flourished, few studies have examined the role of parties’ strategic choices vis-à-vis the nomination and recruitment of female candidates. We develop a theoretical framework that considers how party ideology, district characteristics, and electoral demands shape both the supply and the placement of female candidates on party lists and test a set of hypotheses based on data from more than 30,000 council positions in Turkey’s 2009 and 2014 municipal elections.

Authors

• Marwa Shalaby, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Melissa J. Marschall, Rice University