Women in the local political system in Italy. A longitudinal perspective

The gap between men and women in the formal enjoyment of political rights, and the low level of women’s active participation in political life, even if it is common to several western democracies, is in Italy especially apparent, due to the high degree of gender inequality at various levels. The number of women in representative institutions tends to be inversely related to the centrality of the institutions, with numbers increasing with the move from the national to the local (regional, provincial and municipal) levels. This is the quantitative effect of ‘bringing politics close to home’–through a process of decentralization of policies affecting women’s rights and empowerment (in the labour market, education and health), particularly evident in Italy from the 1970 s and especially from 2000–that brought increasing female representation in meso-level institutions. Starting from an essential link between quantity and quality, the article examines in depth the configuration of women’s representation at local level through a longitudinal perspective based on data concerning elected women in local institutions from 1986 to 2019.