Gender Gaps and Hidden Majoritarianism in Proportional Representation Systems

Abstract

The share of women in politics is higher, on average, under closed-list proportional representation (PR) electoral systems compared to majoritarian systems. Yet, even in PR systems, progress toward gender parity has been slow and uneven. We consider the role of a common institutional feature of party organization—seniority-based promotion—and argue that gender gaps in career progression can emerge either due to direct bias in the seniority system, or because majoritarian offices (such as local mayor and list leader) serve as important steppingstones that create bottlenecks in women’s career paths. Using more than a century of detailed candidate-level data from Norway, we find that advancement is generally gender-neutral across stages of a typical political career, but that gender gaps emerge at majoritarian bottlenecks. We also document how parties can employ workarounds to mitigate the adverse effects of these bottlenecks on women’s progression into higher offices.

Keywords: political selection, gender, closed-list proportional representation, seniority system, Norway

JEL Classification: D02, D71, D72, J16, N44