Why are so few women becoming politicians? New Sapere Aude project seeks answers
Associate Professor of Political Science Merete Bech Seeberg has been awarded a Sapere Aude Research Leader grant for a new project investigating why so few women stand for election.
Why do so few women become politicians – especially in new democracies in the Global South – and what can we do about it? This is the central question in a new project by Associate Professor of Political Science Merete Bech Seeberg from Aarhus BSS at Aarhus University, titled Don’t fix the woman, fix the problem.
The project has been made possible by a Sapere Aude Research Leader grant from the Independent Research Fund Denmark (IRFD) of approximately DKK 6 million.
“Being named a Sapere Aude research leader is both a tremendous honour and a profound responsibility. I am incredibly excited about the opportunity to bring together leading international researchers in the field, recruit talented early-career scholars, collaborate with organizations and colleagues on the African continent, and put my research ideas to the test in the real world, where they have the potential to make a genuine difference. Having the time and resources to do so is a truly unique opportunity,” says Merete Bech Seeberg in an interview with IRFD about receiving the grant.
Although increased representation of women leads to better public health and a lower risk of conflict, women still make up only one in four parliamentarians worldwide. Merete Bech Seeberg argues that the main problem is not that women are less politically ambitious than men. Rather, it is external barriers – such as conservative gender norms, corruption and harassment – that keep women out of politics.
Through interviews, surveys and experiments in Zambia and Malawi, she will analyse how these external barriers affect women’s and men’s decisions to enter politics. She will then develop new methods to get women on the ballot – not by training the women themselves, but by influencing the political environment that surrounds them.
“As we live in a world where elections are becoming increasingly contentious and liberal gender norms are under pressure even in some established democracies, my project may also offer new insights into women's pathways into politics in the Global North, where we have primarily focused on the women themselves rather than on the external barriers they face,” says Merete Bech Seeberg to IRFD.
