Women's Presence in Politics and Male Politicians Commitment to Gender Equality in Politics: Evidence from 290 Swedish Local Councils

Nationwide survey of Swedish locally elected politicians, examining how the presence of women in local councils relates to male politicians' attitudes toward gender equality and their personal willingness to advance women's interests.

To test empirically whether a greater presence of women in local councils affects male politicians' commitment to gender equality as an abstract ideal versus their personal willingness to strive for women's interests.

Survey of all roughly 13,000 locally elected politicians across 290 Swedish municipalities (63% response rate), where the share of women on local councils ranged from 23% to 55% (2008 Statistics Sweden data).

A greater presence of women in local councils was negatively associated with male politicians' personal willingness to strive for women's interests, but had no effect on male politicians' abstract support for gender equality as an ideal.

The authors suggest this pattern reflects that committing to gender equality as an abstract ideal is costless for male politicians, whereas personally advancing women's interests can carry a political cost.