The incumbency disadvantage and women's election to legislative office

An important explanation for the underrepresentation of women in legislatures may be incumbency. When the vast majority of incumbents are men, as is the case in most national legislatures, incumbency emerges as a male advantage that could hinder the election of women. However, there has been no multi-country-cross-institutional, cross-socioeconomic-study of the relationship between incumbency and women's descriptive representation. Using time-serial data on 33 national legislatures, I examine whether incumbency is a disadvantage for women's election. I find that higher retention rates lead to fewer women winning office after controlling for socioeconomic factors, gender quotas, and electoral rules. Further, term limits, although not designed to promote the election of women, have a positive side effect for women's representation.