For the last two decades political and administrative reforms have been intensively applied over local governments around Western democracies (Caulfield 2002; Denters & Rose, 2005), from adapting NPM recipes in city halls to modifying electoral rules or reinforcing citizens participation. Local democracies no longer are what they were twenty years ago. These reforms are related to the need of strengthening the democratic legitimacy of local systems, both from the input (becoming more responsive) and from the output (efficiency) perspectives (Kersting and Vetter 2003). The machinery of government has also been affected by the reform agenda and a common trend of reinforcement of executive functions can be observed as a general pattern of change (Borraz & John 2004, Berg & Riao 2005; Navarro 2011). Political leadership at the local level has attracted growing attention in recent years. However, the distinctive roles of women in local executives has been a neglected line of research (Johansson 2006, Alivegobic et al 2013).
In this paper we will analyse the recruitment patterns, career, role perceptions, behaviour and attitudes to democracy of female in local executives. How do women’s experiences and career paths differ from men’s? Do they have different visions on their role as representatives or their vision of democracy? Do institutions – forms of government among European countries- matter in their roles, careers and perceptions? In doing so, we use the database built from the POLLEADER (Political Leaders in European Local Governments) and MAELG (Municipal Assemblies in European Local Governments) international research projects, which comprise answers on surveys to mayors and councillors of municipalities above 10.000 inhabitants from seventeen European countries. The Database gathers around 15.000 responses and contains information on the career, role perception, behaviour and attitudes to democracy, representation and participation of European local mayors and councillors.
