From Entry To Endurance: Understanding The Role Of Party Nomination Committees In Advancing Women's Parliamentary Careers

Over the past two decades, research on gender and political representation has extensively explored women's barriers to entering parliaments. These barriers have been attributed to factors such as supply and demand, voter bias, and gendered recruitment practices. Lately, a growing body of literature has emphasized the need to understand what makes or breaks women's ability to stay in parliaments over time and thus become political seniors. While some existing studies have highlighted obstacles within parliamentary work—such as sexual harassment and gendered structures —that may explain women's political exits - little is known about the critical role of nomination committees within political parties in shaping women’s re-election prospects. This article argues that these committees, particularly in closed-list proportional representation (PR) systems, are pivotal in shaping not only initial parliamentary access but also who gets to stay on and become political seniors. Previous studies on nomination processes have demonstrated that many parties are concerned with maximizing the representativeness of the list and, at the same time, rewarding experienced candidates. How considerations such as parliamentary experience and performance, name recognition, and gender matter for reelection are less understood. This article advances our understanding of gender gaps in political seniority by exploring this important yet understudied part of political careers. It does so by addressing the formal and informal party nomination practices. The former is identified by a document analysis of the nomination procedures, while the latter Is explored through qualitative interviews with leaders and members of such nomination committees. The interview objects span across four Norwegian political parties and electoral districts. By employing a thematic analysis (Butcher et al., 2001; Braun and Clarke, 2006), I elucidate the different considerations and assessments nominations committees weigh when re- or de-selecting candidates for winnable spots on parliamentary candidate lists.