When women opt out of politics : Exploring gendered barriers to political candidacy

Abstract: This study aims to explore women’s perceived barriers to enter politics investigated through a Colombian case study. The Colombian case highlights a paradox common in Latin America where representation levels of women in legislatures are low, but representation in other professions is high. Research on gender and candidate selection has so far mainly focused on applying a macro, top-down perspective and describing objectively defined barriers to women’s political representation. This study changes the perspective and focuses on applying a bottom-up approach, focusing on individual women and their subjective views on barriers to enter politics. The material was collected during an 8-week field study in various locations in Colombia between July and August 2016. The findings suggest that the intersection between socioeconomic factors and gender play a large role in defining barriers to enter politics. Personal as well as systemic factors interoperate to lower both the “supply” and “demand” of candidates. The results also suggest that some professional groups are more likely to reject institutional participation, focusing political efforts on activism, and that families and political parties both serve as “gatekeepers” enabling or disabling political representation.   Key words: Gendered barriers to enter politics, political participation and representation, candidate selection, Colombia, clientelism, formal and informal institutions.