In the last years, social dynamics of gender equality are increasingly analyzed across many fields. In this context, the present work focuses on gender dynamics in politics, analyzing the effect of the Italian electoral law n. 215/2012 on the active participation of women in municipal elections. This law introduces "gender balance rules" aimed at fostering female active participation in the political arena and fighting the phenomenon of minor representation, and sometimes the exclusion, of women from Italian political competition at all administrative levels. In particular, the law introduces two mechanisms in medium and large (>5000 inhabitants) municipalities: a gender quota in electoral lists, guaranteeing that no gender counts more than 2/3, and the double gender preference, allowing electors to express two preferences if the candidates have different sex. The availability of panel microdata on candidates in Italian municipalities for the time span 2008-2016, including the implementation of the electoral reform, allows evaluating its effect in contrasting the exclusion/minor representation phenomenon, getting rid of the endogeneity bias typical of gender studies. Combining spatial, economic and social characteristics of municipalities with electoral data on candidates allows an econometric evaluation of factors affecting the female probability of candidacy. This work proposes an empirical investigation of the main determinants of female participation at the local level. In particular, the Correlated Random Effect panel data framework is applied, which allows estimating both between (cross-section) and within (time-series) effects with no unreliable orthogonality condition imposed between the regressors and the individual unobservable effects. Estimation results are in accordance with main findings in the literature. In particular, female participation declines when average family size increases, implying that higher involvement in domestic activities generally reduces women's propensity to political involvement (Schlozman, Burns and Verba 1994; Sayer 2005; Teorell, Torcal and Montero 2007; Morales 2009; Sartori, Tuorto and Ghigi 2017). The negative effect of urbanization degree suggests that women are more involved in small-scale activities (Stolle, Hooghe and Micheletti, 2005), while the positive effect of female activity rate suggests that women with higher social capital are more likely to participate in the political arena (Chibber 2002; Lowndes 2004). Moreover, CRE unobservable effects show different geographical paths (North/South), probably representing the unexplained cultural component (Putnam 1993; La Valle 2006; Almond and Verba 2015). This study provides very relevant considerations for policy-makers to align disparity between men and women regarding the access to politics. Moreover, results suggest the most suitable instruments to encourage women empowerment.
Gender balance rules in Italian electoral system: which determinants?
Benati I;Falavigna G;Sella L
2019
Abstract
In the last years, social dynamics of gender equality are increasingly analyzed across many fields. In this context, the present work focuses on gender dynamics in politics, analyzing the effect of the Italian electoral law n. 215/2012 on the active participation of women in municipal elections. This law introduces "gender balance rules" aimed at fostering female active participation in the political arena and fighting the phenomenon of minor representation, and sometimes the exclusion, of women from Italian political competition at all administrative levels. In particular, the law introduces two mechanisms in medium and large (>5000 inhabitants) municipalities: a gender quota in electoral lists, guaranteeing that no gender counts more than 2/3, and the double gender preference, allowing electors to express two preferences if the candidates have different sex. The availability of panel microdata on candidates in Italian municipalities for the time span 2008-2016, including the implementation of the electoral reform, allows evaluating its effect in contrasting the exclusion/minor representation phenomenon, getting rid of the endogeneity bias typical of gender studies. Combining spatial, economic and social characteristics of municipalities with electoral data on candidates allows an econometric evaluation of factors affecting the female probability of candidacy. This work proposes an empirical investigation of the main determinants of female participation at the local level. In particular, the Correlated Random Effect panel data framework is applied, which allows estimating both between (cross-section) and within (time-series) effects with no unreliable orthogonality condition imposed between the regressors and the individual unobservable effects. Estimation results are in accordance with main findings in the literature. In particular, female participation declines when average family size increases, implying that higher involvement in domestic activities generally reduces women's propensity to political involvement (Schlozman, Burns and Verba 1994; Sayer 2005; Teorell, Torcal and Montero 2007; Morales 2009; Sartori, Tuorto and Ghigi 2017). The negative effect of urbanization degree suggests that women are more involved in small-scale activities (Stolle, Hooghe and Micheletti, 2005), while the positive effect of female activity rate suggests that women with higher social capital are more likely to participate in the political arena (Chibber 2002; Lowndes 2004). Moreover, CRE unobservable effects show different geographical paths (North/South), probably representing the unexplained cultural component (Putnam 1993; La Valle 2006; Almond and Verba 2015). This study provides very relevant considerations for policy-makers to align disparity between men and women regarding the access to politics. Moreover, results suggest the most suitable instruments to encourage women empowerment.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
