Supply and Demand: Descriptive Representation, Gender and Local Political Office

• In Event: Emerging Research on Gender and Political Participation in Developing Countries

Abstract

One important aspect of gender inequality is unequal representation of women in elected positions of power. Much recent research has focused on public policies designed to ensure more women make it on the ballot (quotas) and that women are actually elected (reservations). This paper asks what impacts the supply of, and demand for, female candidates in contexts where such policies are absent, using an in-depth study of the case of mayoral politics in Peru, coupled with analysis of voting patterns and public opinion data from Latin America more widely. The study begins by using electoral returns data from the five most recent mayoral elections in Peru combined with data on candidates and the socioeconomic and political features of municipalities to explore trends in women seeking office and their ultimate electoral success. Importantly, not only are the rates of women running incredibly low (on average only 6.5% of all candidates were female in the 2002-2014 local elections), but female candidates win office at a much lower rate than men (6.5% of female candidates won versus 14.3% of male candidates). To tease out the reasons why female candidates face a relatively more difficult task in getting elected, we use a candidate choice conjoint experiment fielded in an in-person survey to explore how voters view female candidates and the interactions between gender and other candidate characteristics. We also assess differences in how women versus men perceive female candidates, particularly to infer the extent of male discrimination against female candidates and women’s’ preferences for better descriptive representation and explore the role of divergent views on the political accountability of male versus female candidates in driving the results. Finally, we assess the extent to which the findings uncovered in Peru may reflect wider patterns throughout Latin America using electoral returns and survey data from other countries in the region.

Authors

• Julie Anne Weaver, Harvard University

• Audrey Latura, Harvard University