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13 Rev. Eur. Stud. 77 (2021)
Women's Leadership in Local Government

handle is hein.journals/rveurost13 and id is 77 raw text is: Review of European Studies; Vol. 13, No.1; 2021 ISSN 1918-7173 E-ISSN 1918-7181 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education Women's Leadership in Local Government Osnat Akirav Correspondence: The Department of Political Science, Western Galilee College, Akko, Israel Received: December 20, 2020 Accepted: January 18, 2021 Online Published: February 18, 2021 doi:10.5539/res.vl3n1p77 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/res.vl3n1p77 Abstract In the last two decades the number of women involved in politics locally and nationally has increased. Nevertheless, there is limited empirical work investigating the increase in the number of female candidates for the position of mayor. To fill this gap in the literature, we conducted interviews with 57 of the 72 female candidates for mayor in Israel before the October 2018 elections, and 37 of the 72 female candidates for mayor after the election. In addition, we interviewed 11 male candidates and men elected as mayors after the election, as well. On the individual level with regard to political ambition, we found that there are four components whose synergy results in more women being encouraged to run for mayor: mentoring, information, networking for women and training. We called this model the MINT model, which has emerged from the interviews conducted with the candidates. On the societal level, it is important to increase public awareness of the importance of gender representation and hence, voting for women to be mayors. Keywords: mentoring, women for mayor, networking, training, political ambition 1. Introduction Many studies focus on the theoretical and empirical complexity of gender representation in elections (Pini and McDonald, 2011; Sundstrdm and Stockemer, 2015). The first step in this process is to identify the number of women in the political arena (descriptive representation). The next step is to analyze the content of their representation when they are in political positions (substantive representation). The final step is exploring why women seem to be underrepresented in political life. Is one of the factors involved in their underrepresentation a lack of political ambition? If so, what steps can be taken to improve this situation? In the current study we analyze descriptive and substantive representation on the local level and explore three possible explanations for the small number of women participating in political life at the local government level: 1) the political ambition of women to become representatives, 2) the process through which parties recruit candidates and 3) public awareness about the importance of women as part of the political life in local government politics. We conducted interviews with 57 of the 72 female candidates for mayor in Israel before the October 2018 local government elections, and 37 of the 72 female candidates for mayor after the election. In addition, we also interviewed 11 male candidates and men elected as mayor after the election. In the current study we decide to overlook the women who are already well-established in politics. Because we want to concentrate on the previous step - the decision to run-and offer explanation how to increase the number of women, that in the future can be one of the well-established women in politics. Based on our interviews, we maintain that there are four factors germane to the individual can promote women's participation in politics and increase their political ambition: 1) mentoring, 2) information, 3) networking and 4) training. We call this the MINT model, which has emerged from the interviews conducted with the candidates. On the societal level, there is a need for infusing a gender perspective into all public policies to counter gender bias. We also claim that combining the MINT model, which deals with individual factors, and public awareness, which is a societal issue, will improve the representation of women in political life. Our study fills the gap on the limited empirical work investigating explanations for the small number of female candidates for mayor and suggests ideas for increasing them. Our goal is to develop a better understanding of the political ambition of female candidates to run for mayor, thereby increasing the descriptive representation of women in local government. Second, we want to explore agenda setting and the issues that female candidates and female elected officials want to promote, thereby increasing their substantive representation. Most previous studies have analyzed descriptive and substantive representation using institutional factors such as quotas and the type of electoral system (Krook and Norris, 2014; Sundstrdm and Stockemer, 2015). In contrast, we analyze the personal perceptions of the female candidates regarding their political ambition in running for mayor in local elections. There is far less research on the effect of the personal perceptions of female candidates than the institutional effects on the election of women. 77

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