What happens when women win elections?
![benjamin_carl_krag_egerod benjamin_carl_krag_egerod](https://www.cbs.dk/files/cbs.dk/styles/cbs_content_slider/public/benjamin_carl_krag_egerod_ts_11.jpg?itok=OBOPu-bg)
How does the election of a woman shape the electoral performance of their party? Research suggests that electing women to political office shapes party behavior and improves voters’ perception of the party. However, the downstream electoral consequences of electing women to office remain understudied. Drawing on administrative data and closely contested municipal elections in Denmark from 1997 to 2017, we find that marginally electing a woman over a man improves the electoral performance of the entire party in the succeeding election. We propose three mechanism that can produce these findings: the competence, legitimacy, and party coherence mechanisms. We find evidence partly consistent with the latter two mecanisms, but little to support the first one. This suggests that electing women changes the functioning of the party’s elected delegation. These findings offer insights into the role of women in politics and prompt further inquiry into gender representation in elected offices. The study is co-authored by Benjamin Egerod at CBS, Frederik Kjøller and Lene Holm Pedersen at the University of Copenhagen, and Jens Olav Dahlgaard who is an independent researcher. LINK