Party Gatekeepers’ Support for Viable Female Candidacy in PR-List Systems

More women are elected in proportional compared to majority / plurality electoral systems. However, the share of women among the elected representatives varies greatly between different types of PR systems, most notably between preferential and non-preferential PR-list systems. Considerable scholarly attention has been paid to how the voters with preference votes influence the election of women. But we have limited knowledge of how the party gatekeepers’ behaviour influences the election of women in different types of PR-list systems. This paper aims to fill this gap by studying cross-nationally female candidates’ party-determined viability in different types of PR-list systems. The results suggest that women are placed lower in the electoral lists in ordered list preferential compared to closed list non-preferential voting systems. The results also show that party gatekeepers respond to the overall levels of gender equality in the society, but only if the candidate selection within the party is centralised.