Electing Mayors, Excluding Women? Direct Elections and the Increasing Legislative-Executive Gender Gap in Local Politics

While the gender disparities between legislative and executive positions at the national level are well-examined, far less attention has been paid to the gender gap between local councilors and mayors. This research note aims to illuminate the local legislative–executive gender gap by utilizing a comprehensive cross-national and longitudinal dataset covering 33 European countries. The findings show that countries with indirect election of local executives not only consistently advance toward gender parity but also exhibit a smaller legislative–executive gender gap compared to countries with direct elections. We argue that the direct mayoral elections continue to reinforce structural barriers to women's access to power. These barriers appear to be driven by incumbency advantage, low-information electoral contexts, and stereotypes about gender-office congruency. The study contributes to the ongoing debate on the merits and drawbacks of direct mayoral elections, highlighting their gendered consequences.