Abstract
ABSTRACT Party leaders, acting as gatekeepers, have a direct impact on politicians’ careers. The fact that this leadership is often male has been identified as a source of discrimination against female candidates. We analyze such sex-biased party politics in formation of party lists. Recently, candidates’ list ranking in (semi-) open list systems has been shown to depend on their electoral performance) in the previous election. Using electoral data from the 2006 and 2012 local elections in Flanders we study whether and to what extent such a reward system is sex neutral. We find the party leadership in the semi-open list system to reward (punish) male and female candidates with equal electoral performance differently. Female candidates’ list ranking in 2012 is more sensitive to their electoral performance than that of male candidates. Importantly, the sex of the local party leader and party ideology, are found to affect the sex differences in electoral remuneration.
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