Abstract
This chapter explores the influence parties have, and could have, on women’s political ambition. Political parties perform a core democratic function: identifying and recruiting candidates for elective office. Parties are important gatekeepers determining who appears on the ballot and, as a result, who can subsequently be elected to office. Across countries, however, women are less likely to join political parties than their male counterparts. And if they do become party members, gatekeeper practices within these organizations can further hinder women’s access to promising ballot nominations. This chapter explores parties’ formal and informal influences on women’s political ambition in these two respects: first, how parties discourage women from becoming members; second, how party practices can depress the political ambition of the women who do become members. However, the chapter concludes, other outcomes are possible, and parties can be re-gendered in more equitable directions. Changes in both formal and informal institutions can instead boost women’s opportunities to achieve ballot nominations and promote their political ambitions.