Understanding the dual glass ceiling of selecting and electing women candidates: evidence from Latin American mayoral elections

Abstract

Women politicians face two distinct glass ceilings–when becoming candidates and when turning these candidacies into elected offices. While existing research posits important explanatory accounts of both these processes, both stages are often studied separately when the determinants of women’s descriptive representation are analyzed. This generates possible inferential issues, because one stage conditions the other and individual variables might pull in opposing directions in both stages. Drawing on a novel data set of mayoral elections in almost 10,000 municipalities across 15 Latin American countries, we build on existing research to identify the distinct components of glass ceilings at both stages, propose a methodological solution to this problem, illustrate how certain variables have different effects in each stage, and draw implications for theory building in the research on women’s descriptive representation.