Party leaders are the main actors controlling campaign strategies, policy agendas, and government formation in advanced parliamentary democracies. Despite the importance of this post, to date there has been little research addressing gender and party leadership. The extent to which female politicians have served in these posts is largely unknown, as are the factors that account for variation in the selection and survival of women leaders. To address this gap in the literature, I examine gendered leadership patterns in 59 political parties from across 10 parliamentary democracies. This large sample reveals that female party leaders are increasingly common, though there is significant variation both within and across states. Using discrete time duration models, I then examine whether the desirability of the leadership position can explain variation in female politicians' access to, and tenure in, power across organizations. The results demonstrate that women are more likely to come to power in poorly performing organizations. Female party leaders, moreover, are more likely to be removed from power than their male counterparts when their parties perform poorly. There is one cause for optimism, however: female party leaders who are successful are a significantly more likely than similarly situated men to remain in the post.
