Women and Party-Building: Evidence From Municipal Governments in Brazil

Abstract

The costs and benefits of holding political office are unequally distributed - women benefit less, but incur personal costs. We highlight a new arena in which women have an upper hand: recruiting female party members. Using rich data on party membership and a regression discontinuity design in Brazil, we show that, despite resource disparities, male and female incumbents are equally likely to increase party membership, but that only women lower the gender gap. We theorize how the political economy of gender inequality incentivizes female-led party building: social roles limit women's options and women rely more on local politics for career progression. Women optimize by recruiting female members who join for non-clientelistic reasons and are less likely to leave. Furthermore, we find that women have higher career progression in constituencies with greater party building need. We highlight a new way in which female representation enhances democracy, via grassroots party building.