Women mayors in the Slovak Republic in the last two decades: The municipalities size category perspective

Abstract

Women mayors in the Slovak Republic in the last two decades: The municipalities size category perspective This paper presents the numeric representation of women mayors in 2,926 Slovak mu- nicipalities in the period 2002 – 2022, covering six election periods concerning the municipalitiesʼ size. The accelerating increase of women mayors is unveiled, but the municipalitiesʼ size matters. The paper examines the development of the share of wo - men mayors among municipal mayors in the Slovakia and focuses on the hypo - thesis, that there are fewer women mayors in larger municipalities. The woman mayor variable is examined regarding selected socio - economic, demographic, political, and geo- graphic variables employing logistic analysis. Results of the logit and probit models support the research hypothesis of the decrease in the number of women mayors with an increase in the municipalitiesʼ size. The negative relationship between the size category of the municipality and women mayors is caused by the higher share of women mayors in small municipalities, while with an increase in the size category of the municipality, women mayors became rare. It supports the expectation, that men still pre- dominate in the leadership of large municipalities.