Winning women: Fielding more female candidates helps political parties gain votes
Monday, April 6, 2015 - 13:20
in Psychology & Sociology
Political parties find that their fortunes improve when they put more women on the ballot, according to a study. The study analyzes changes to municipal election laws in Spain, which a decade ago began requiring political parties to have women fill at least 40 percent of the slots on their electoral lists. With other factors being equal, the research found, parties that increased their share of female candidates by 10 percentage points more than their opponents enjoyed a 4.2 percentage-point gain at the ballot box, or an outright switch of about 20 votes per 1,000 cast.