The Gender Gap in Local Politics. Assessing the Role of Gender in a Non-partisan Electoral Context

*ALSO TO BE CONSIDERED FOR POLITICAL PARTICIPATION SECTION* A widespread assumption is that women fare better in municipal elections, for both supply- and demand-side reasons. Women’s descriptive representation is thought to be higher at this level, either because women are more likely to want to serve locally rather than at the national level, or because the candidate selection process is more open, or because women have (or are perceived by voters to have) a greater store of municipally valuable non-political experience. However, new evidence suggests that a ‘municipal advantage’ may in fact not exist (Tolley 2011, Tremblay & Méllevec 2013), and that particular features of municipal politics may impinge on women’s ability to reach parity at city hall. These include high incumbency levels in local politics (Andrew et al. 2008, 263; Bashevkin 2006; Tremblay & Méllevec 2013, 28), financial constraints due to the lack of campaign funding support from the state and political parties (Kushner et al. 1997; Gavan-Koop & Smith 2008), and reduced or gendered media coverage of local races (Wegner 2011). Further evidence suggests that women tend to be especially disadvantaged in city-wide contests and for the highly prestigious role of mayor, compared to that of ward councillor (Crowder-Meyer et al. 2013). This paper looks at Canada – and specifically, municipalities in Ontario – as a case study for examining the gender gap in non-partisan local politics. We develop two lines of inquiry into women’s political representation at the local level. First, we provide descriptive data on female candidacies and electability in mayoral and council elections across a representative sample of Ontario cities. Second, we look at the role of gender in vote choice, by examining the extent to which candidate gender serves as a negative/positive voter cue in non-partisan municipal contests. For this, we draw on data from the Toronto Election Study, involving a survey of attitudes and vote choice of more than 3000 voters in the 2014 Toronto municipal election. Using the TES data, we examine the gender affinity effect in vote choice, especially in the low-information context of Toronto’s 44 ward level elections. We look at the strength of this effect, and whether it is mediated by factors such as x(1) voters' general political knowledge; x(2) level of attention to local politics; x(3) ideological distance between voter and preferred candidate; x(4)support for feminism; x(5) support for more women on council. 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