Historic Sex-Ratio Imbalances Predict Female Participation in the Market for Politicians

Arbeitspapier

We analyze the long-term effects of gender imbalances on female labor force participation, in particular in the market for politicians. We exploit variation in sex ratios - the number of men divided by the number of women in a region - across Germany induced by WWII. In the 1990 elections, women were more likely to run for office in constituencies that had relatively fewer men in 1946. We do not find a significant effect of the sex ratio on the likelihood of a woman winning the election. These results suggest that while women were more likely to run for a seat in parliament in constituencies with lower historical sex ratios, voters were not more inclined to vote for them. Voter demand effects thus do not appear to be as strong as candidate supply effects.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Discussion Paper ; No. 113

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Economic History: Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation: Europe: 1913-
• Subject: female politicians ; gender stereotypes ; occupational choice ; sex imbalance

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Grant, Iris ; Kesternich, Iris ; Steckenleiter, Carina ; Winter, Joachim
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München und Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Transregio 190 - Rationality and Competition
• (where): München und Berlin
• (when): 2018

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/185783
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET