The hourglass pattern of women’s representation

Women’s descriptive underrepresentation in parliaments is traditionally presented as the result of a process that discards women as they move up the ladder of recruitment. In this article, the case of Denmark is used to demonstrate an alternative hourglass pattern where women’s presence does decrease in the early phases but increase in the later phases. There are fewer women among party members than among party voters, and fewer women among potential candidates than among party members. However, there is a higher share of women among nominated candidates than among potential candidates, and women are more likely than men to get elected. This hourglass pattern is found at the aggregate level as well as across political party and over time. There are two implications of this finding: (1) the traditional pyramidal pattern cannot be taken for granted, and (2) in countries where women’s representation follows an hourglass shape, scholars and advocates alike should focus on membership recruitment by political parties and on internal party processes that aim to develop party members’ willingness to run for political office prior to the formal nomination process.</p

The Impact of Having Children on Party Member Activism

Party member activism varies in type and intensity, and it is necessary to take this into consideration when explaining the degree of participation. One potential explanation for the level of party member participation is the extent to which there are children in the household. Based on the Danish party member survey of 2012, analyses show: First, the cost of having children is more important when explaining more demanding activities than the less demanding activities, and, second, the impact of the cost of having children in the household is larger when including the intensity of participation in the dependent variable. Third, the smaller the children, the larger the cost and the larger the negative impact on party activism no matter what type or intensity. Furthermore, there are only limited gender differences in the impact of having children so that children, in particular in the young age group, do not have a larger impact on women than men, except when it comes to meeting attendance. In sum, children do have an impact on party member activism, and the gender gap in this effect is very limited