King's College London

Among the European Union’s 10 officially recognised Europarties, academics found only two had equal numbers of women and men among their leadership, with both parties having introduced mandatory gender quotas.

Academics also found that, while progress had been made by other parties over time, the further right the political party ideologically, the lower the number of women there were in positions of leadership.

The findings were revealed in a new paper, A Man’s World? The Descriptive Representation of Women Inside Europarties, co-authored by Dr Isabelle Hertner (King’s College London) and Dr Wouter Wolfs (KU Leuven).

“Only left-wing Europarties, and not all of them, have implemented statutory gender quotas, highlighting that a progressive, feminist ideology still matters.”

Data for the study was drawn from an analysis of the organisational and electoral leadership structures of the 10 recognised Europarty groups over a near 20-year period, since the parties were officially recognised. A series of interviews with party officials was also conducted.

Europarties are large, multi-national coalitions made up of politicians, members and staff from national level parties. They are typically divided along ideological lines and include groups such as Party of European Socialists (PES), the European People’s Party (EPP) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE).

Acting as loose umbrella organisations, the parties gained constitutional recognition under the treaty of Maastricht in 1992 and first received funding in 2004. Between 2004-2022, the parties received £700million in EU subsidies.

There are regulations imposed by the European Parliament on the use of these subsidies but, as yet, no requirement for the parties to adhere to quotas on women’s representation.

Of the parties studied, only the Party of the European Left and the European Green Party has gender quotas in place, with their quotas of women in leadership roles recorded during the study period at 50 per cent and 68 per cent respectively.

Right wing parties Identity and Democracy Party (now Patriots for Europe) and the European Christian Political Movement registered the lowest ratio of women in leadership roles during the study period – both with fewer than 20 per cent.

The academics argue that statutory regulations imposed on the Europarties is the only way to ensure representation is increased across the political spectrum.

They added: “In some Europarties (ALDE and EPP), the member parties have been the driving force against the introduction of gender quotas. If this opposition is met with Europarty leaders’ indifference, gender quotas are unlikely to be introduced.

“Yet we argue that without statutory gender quotas, long-term, sustainable, equal representation of women inside Europarties’ leaderships is not guaranteed.”