Are Direct Mayoral Elections Holding Women Back?
A new study of the legislative-executive gender gap in European local governments
Agata Rydzewska (University of Warsaw) & Adam Gendźwiłł (University of Warsaw)
Across Europe, women are steadily increasing their presence in local councils, yet they are still far less likely to become mayors. Our research suggests that the way mayors are elected plays an important role in shaping this legislative-executive gender gap.
We conducted the cross-sectional time-series analysis using the original dataset describing women’s descriptive representation among local councils and local executives in 33 European countries. We found that countries where mayors are directly elected by citizens tend to have fewer women mayors compared to countries where councillors elect the mayor or the executive committee. While directly elected local executives are often promoted as more democratic, decisive, and accountable, they may be systematically less accessible to female candidates.
Why are there more female local councilors than mayors?
Women now make up about 35% of local councillors across 27 EU member states, but only around 19% of mayors are women. In other words, women are gradually entering politics, but reaching executive local leadership remains more difficult.
Why does this happen? Local council elections usually allow multiple winners, often involve proportional representation, and in many countries, gender quotas have been implemented to boost women’s participation. These elections also align with traits traditionally associated with female leadership, giving women more opportunities to succeed.
By contrast, mayoral elections typically produce a single winner. This “winner-takes-all” system can advantage men, reflecting long-standing stereotypes about who is best suited for positions of power. Incumbency further reinforces this pattern: since most sitting mayors are men, they benefit from strong electoral advantages.
Direct mayoral elections often involve personalized electoral campaigns and operate within a “strong mayor” system that concentrates executive authority in a single office. This institutional design can make it more difficult for women to compete successfully. Indirect elections, in contrast, rely on council appointments and collegial decision-making, which tend to be more favorable for female candidates. However, it’s important to note that evidence from a single point in time cannot conclusively demonstrate that direct elections hinder women’s chances of becoming mayors. For this reason, our analysis relies on long-term trends to uncover these patterns.
The effect of direct elections
We examined data from 33 European countries between 1990 and 2024 to assess how the method of selecting mayors affects women’s chances of reaching executive office. Our results demonstrate the gap between the share of women in local councils and the share of women serving as mayors is larger in countries with direct mayoral elections.
Before 2005, the difference between direct and indirect systems was relatively small. Over the past two decades, however, the gap in countries with direct elections has widened by about 10–12 percentage points, while countries with indirect elections have moved steadily toward greater gender balance. In other words, although women gained ground in local councils across Europe, this advantage has not translated into mayoral offices where mayors are directly elected – widening the gender gap between legislative and executive positions.
We observed similar patterns in Poland and Lithuania. These cases further confirm our main findings, as after switching from council-appointed mayors to direct elections (in 2002 and 2015, respectively), the share of female mayors in these countries fell behind the trend observed in countries that kept indirect elections. This provides additional evidence that direct elections may limit the increase of female mayors.
Pros, cons, and hidden consequences
Our findings resonate with the broader European debate on direct mayoral elections. For instance, during the 2023 session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities in Strasbourg, policymakers weighed the advantages and disadvantages of direct elections. Supporters argued that direct elections enhance mayors' visibility and legitimacy in the eyes of citizens, strengthening their ability to govern effectively through a direct mandate. Critics, however, noted that such systems are not inherently superior for democracy and may be less suitable in certain political traditions.
Our results introduce a dimension that was largely absent from that discussion: direct elections may carry hidden gender consequences. By reinforcing structural barriers in executive contests, they could slow the growth of female descriptive representation in mayoral offices.
Why this matters
Reforms introducing direct mayoral elections are politically difficult to reverse. Once citizens become accustomed to directly choosing their mayor, rolling back such reforms can be framed as undemocratic or regressive. As a result, even if unintended consequences emerge, institutional path dependency makes change unlikely. This makes it all the more important to consider potential gendered effects before adopting such reforms.
These gendered effects do not stop at the local level. Local politics is widely seen as a stepping stone to regional and national office. It is where future leaders gain experience, build networks, develop name recognition, and demonstrate their leadership skills. When women face disproportionate barriers to accessing mayoral positions (the most visible and powerful roles in local government), they are effectively denied opportunities that are crucial for political advancement. The result is a political pipeline that remains male-dominated. Over time, this dynamic reinforces existing gender biases in leadership and may limit the diversity of perspectives shaping public policy.
Agata Rydzewska is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, University of Warsaw. Her research focuses on women's representation in local and regional political institutions.
Adam Gendźwiłł is an associate professor in the Faculty of Sociology, University of Warsaw, where he heads the Center for Electoral Studies. His research focuses on local governments, political representation, and electoral behavior. He recently co-edited The Routledge Handbook of Local Elections and Voting in Europe (2022).