Women’s Political Parties in Europe

This project considers the emergence of women’s parties, their nature, and development in a comparative framework. Using an original dataset derived from European electoral commissions, statistical offices, national libraries, media archives, party records, and interviews of experts from the respective countries, I document and describe 30 such parties contesting elections at the national level in Europe since 1987. I then conduct a series of tests on this panel data to determine when and under what conditions women’s parties are likely to emerge. I argue that women’s parties are indications of failures of the established political parties to include and represent women’s interests. Additionally, I demonstrate that women’s parties are more likely to appear where women are empowered unevenly than where they are already included or their marginalization is consistent.