Replication Data for: The Gender Gap in Political Careers Under Proportional Representation

Does proportional representation feature gender gaps in incumbency advantages? I argue that closed-list PR (compared to open-list PR) can help to attenuate the gender difference by reducing voters' influence over individual candidates' electoral outcomes. Using heterogeneity-in-discontinuity designs, I contrast gender-specific incumbency effects in municipal elections across Norway (open-list) and Spain (closed-list). In Norway, women experience an incumbency advantage in winning future elections that is up to 60\% smaller than men's; in Spain, female candidates enjoy incumbency effects equal to or greater than men's. Additional results suggest that these findings are unlikely to be due to unobserved country characteristics or differential selection. Although more suggestive, further evidence is consistent with voter bias entering through preference votes for individual candidates -- especially in right-wing parties -- as a key mechanism for the gender gap in open-list PR. All told, this paper highlights the importance of electoral rules in ensuring gender equity in political representation by addressing leaky pipelines in office.

比例代表制是否存在任职优势上的性别差距？笔者认为，封闭式名单比例代表制（closed-list PR）相较于开放式名单比例代表制（open-list PR），可通过降低选民对个体候选人选举结果的影响力，助力减轻性别差异。通过异质性断点设计，笔者对比了挪威（开放式名单）和西班牙（封闭式名单）市政选举中性别特异性的任职效应。在挪威，女性在赢得未来选举时的任职优势比男性小至多60%；而在西班牙，女性候选人的任职效应等于或大于男性。补充结果表明，这些发现不太可能源于未观测到的国家特征或差异化选择。尽管更具提示性，但进一步证据与以下观点一致：选民偏见通过对个体候选人的偏好投票（尤其在右翼政党中）产生影响，这是开放式名单比例代表制中性别差距的关键机制。总而言之，本文强调了选举规则在通过解决任职中的人才流失问题，确保政治代表性别平等方面的重要性。