Women's Leadership in Local Government

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.