ABSTRACT
The subject of this chapter is the role of major parties in the formation of the gender pattern. The object is to use the study of recruitment to test the three hypotheses which make up the first blade of the ‘scissors’ problem, in a comparative framework which offers a variety of institutional settings and examples of: both standard and modifying models of selection. The focus, as far as possible, is on local politics, the level at which there are large candidate populations for study, including enough women for empirical analysis to be feasible, and where the modifying tendency of a redistributive institution is likely to be strongest. This is also the lowest level of political office and is thus the recruitment Rubicon for most people who seek entrée to elites.
