EXPLAINING GENDER PARITY REPRESENTATION IN SPAIN: THE INTERNAL DYNAMICS OF PARTIES Monica Threlfall, Loughborough University Paper presented at the European Consortium for Political Research Conference, Budapest, 8-10 September 2005. (Minimally edited version of the draft distributed at ECPR) Abstract: This paper sheds light on the reasons for the rise of women in party politics and public office using the case of Spain and the PSOE as a case study. Structural explanations and the conditioning influence of the electoral system are reviewed before focusing on institutional and party-political explanations. It argues that a key factor in explaining the success of the gender parity project in Spain was its effective implementation at national and regional level in the PSOE, and that this was secured via internal party procedures and controversially, by elite intra-party leadership. The paper then considers how party leaders can be persuaded to implement quotas, suggesting that gender balance in elective office became an instrument of renewal and re-legitimation for a party facing political stagnation. The paper therefore takes the general discussion of parity into the realm of implementation problems, yet argues that parity can be envisaged not as an ‘ethical burden’ to parties, but as a factor of revitalisation and reconnection with the electorate. Dr. Monica Threlfall
[email protected] Senior Lecturer in Politics, Dept. of Politics, International Relations and European Studies Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK tel : +44 (0)1509 22 29 81; fax: +44 (0) 1509 22 39 17 Departmental website: http://lboro.ac.uk/departments/eu Editor, International Journal of Iberian Studies http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/ EXPLAINING GENDER PARITY REPRESENTATION IN SPAIN: THE INTERNAL DYNAMICS OF PARTIES Monica Threlfall, Loughborough University Introduction In the space of two decades, Spanish women radically repositioned themselves in relation to the political system.