Naisten poliittinen rekrytoituminen vuoden 1995 eduskuntavaaleissa ja niiden ehdokasasettelussa

Authors

• Soile Kuitunen

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to study empirically the reasons for the underrepresentation of women in the Finnish parliament from the political recruitment point of view. Both the supply of women willing to stand for parliament and the demands of local party members, district officials and electors are taken into consideration. The article is based on a questionnaire sent to party district officials and information on background characteristics of aspirants seeking party candidature. The results of this study suggest that the unwillingness of women to seek candidature in elections is the main reason for their underrepresentation in parliament. In contrast to earlier findings no signs of direct prejudice or discrimination against female aspirants were found among party seletorates. Furthermore, it was also shown that parties apply the same kind of criteria to both men and women aspirants: they value middleaged, white-collar workers as well as well-educated people. However, in order to give a fuller explanation of such low political interest among female party members one should pay more attention to informal practices, rules and norms affecting the recruitment process as well as general party practices and cultural factors which may also reduce women’s interest in seeking a political career.