Women's representation and European green parties: unlocking the connection

Abstract

ABSTRACT Scholars of comparative politics have increasingly turned to parties to explain the variation in women's representation. However, the literature has not fully considered that green parties may provide unique insight into women's representation due to their longstanding ideological attachment to feminism. To understand the question of women's representation in green parties, this analysis examines green parties in 20 European countries. Relying on data from party websites and quotaproject.org, the following categories were examined: the inclusion of women in leadership positions, the inclusion of enforced gender quotas in party structure, the inclusion of women's party member organizations, the structure of recruitment processes, and the content of party platforms. The results show that European green parties maintain a higher level of commitment to gender equality than their individual parliaments. This piece contributes to the growing literature on green parties by examining the ideological connection between green parties and feminism, as well as studying a larger cross-section of green parties than previous studies.