Gender gap in local political competition: some empirical reflections on the Italian case

In recent years, social dynamics of gender gap are increasingly analyzed across many fields. The present work focuses on gender dynamics in politics, analyzing the determinants of female participation to local electoral competitions in Italy, and the effect of the gender-balancing reform of the municipal electoral rules (law n. 215/2012). The exclusive availability of panel microdata on candidates in Italian municipalities for the time span 2009-2016, including the implementation of the electoral reform, allows evaluating its impact. Combining spatial, economic and social characteristics of municipalities with electoral data, the paper presents an econometric evaluation of the factors affecting the female probability to take part to local electoral competitions. In particular, the Correlated Random Effect approach is applied, which allows estimating both the between (cross-section) and within (time-series) effects with no unreliable orthogonality conditions. Estimation results are in accordance with main findings in the literature, particularly concerning the effect of familiar and domestic involvement, the scale of political activity, the effect of social capital and cultural constraints. The 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.