Fielding more female candidates helps political parties gain votes

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-04/miot-ww040615.php

Public Release: 6-Apr-2015
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Political parties find that their fortunes improve when they put more women on the ballot, according to a study co-authored by an MIT economist.

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.

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Saiz believes the study strikes a blow against some common justifications for the dearth of female candidates in many democracies -- namely, that voters simply prefer voting for men, or that not enough high-quality female candidates are available to political parties. It is likely that voters will support women, he thinks, and that plenty of good female candidates exist -- but women do not appear on ballots as frequently as men because of machinations within party organizations.

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