Female Officeholders and Women's Political Engagement: The Role of Parties

The ability of women in office to inspire other women to enter politics can be an important process in undoing longstanding gender gaps in political representation. Previous research on this potential role model effect of female officeholders finds mixed results in terms of female candidacies across a wide range of contexts. Explanations for these mixed findings include that positive effects are conditional on the nature of women's incorporation in a given context, and also suggest female incumbents can lower the perceived need/utility of more women running. I take a wider view and test for role model effects across different levels of the candidate emergence process. In doing so, I put a spotlight on a potentially pivotal variable: the role of parties and their candidate selection processes in moderating role model effects. Through a case study of Mexico, I find evidence of engagement effects among women in the mass public as well as women seeking party nominations, but no evidence for role model effects at the candidate-level (either within or across districts) in congressional elections. Using data on the candidate nomination processes of one major political party, I find evidence that party decisions in candidate selection methods attenuate possible role model effects.