The surge in women's representation in the 2019 Swiss federal elections

Abstract

In the 2019 Swiss federal elections, women's representation increased more than at any time before, reaching an all-time high at 42%. In this article, we offer several explanations for this. First, in almost all parties, the percentage of female candidates was significantly larger than in the previous elections. Second, on average female candidates held better positions on party lists, both compared to men and to the previous election. Third, in 2019 (but not in 2015) women were about one percentage-point more likely to be elected than men, controlling for many relevant factors. Fourth, about one third of the surge was linked to the fact that parties that won seats in 2019 (the Greens, especially) had more women on their lists compared to the parties that lost seats.Fifth, in 2019 voters (women in particular) perceived female candidates as more fit for a political office compared to 2015. ZusammenfassungBei den eidgenössischen Wahlen 2019 ist der Frauenanteil so stark gestiegen wie nie zuvor und hat mit 42% ein Allzeithoch erreicht. In diesem Artikel diskutieren wir mehrere Erklärungen dafür. Erstens war der Anteil an weiblichen Kandidatinnen in fast allen Parteien deutlich höher als bei den vorherigen Wahlen. Zweitens hatten Kandidatinnen im Durchschnitt bessere Positionen auf den Parteilisten inne, sowohl im Vergleich zu Männern als auch im Vergleich zurThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

Issue Ownership and Agenda Setting in the 2019 Swiss National Elections

“…The 2019 Swiss national elections were characterized by two outcomes: the historical number of seats won by the Green parties as well as by female candidates. These outcomes were exceptional for Swiss politics but were consistent with the election campaign, which was dominated by the environment issue (Gilardi et al, 2020), and with the record number of women who ran for office (Giger et al, 2021). By contrast, two issues that have been key to Swiss politics and elections during the past three decades-immigration and the relationship between Switzerland and the EU-were widely perceived as playing a less central role during the 2019 elections.…”

“…Therefore, the strike can be considered “external” to the election campaign in the sense that it was not part of a given party’s electoral strategy. An additional aspect of the gender issue is the “Helvetia ruft!” (“Helvetia is calling!”) campaign coordinated by the women’s organization “Alliance F.” However, the campaign aimed squarely at increasing the number of female candidates on party lists, and not at increasing the salience of gender equality as an issue for the election campaign (Giger et al, 2021).…”

“…("Helvetia is calling!") campaign coordinated by the women's organization "Alliance F." However, the campaign aimed squarely at increasing the number of female candidates on party lists, and not at increasing the salience of gender equality as an issue for the election campaign (Giger et al, 2021).…”

Introduction to the Special Issue “The 2019 Swiss National Elections”

“…The campaign's goal was to motivate women to run for office and to urge parties to nominate women and place them on promising list positions. The contribution by Giger et al (2022) in this volume sheds light on the role of such supply-side factors in explaining the success of women in the 2019 election.…”

“…While gender issues were surprisingly underrepresented in the media and parties campaigns (Gilardi et al, 2022), the success of female candidates was surely one of the most remarkable aspects of the 2019 elections. Giger et al (2022) investigate the mechanisms that lead to this surge of women's representation. They show that the share of female candidates increased considerably compared to previous elections, and that women held better positions on party lists.…”