Third of municipal council candidates are women; 70% of party leaders are men

A third of the candidates in the upcoming municipal elections are women. This is consistent with the current composition of the municipal councils, Stem op een Vrouw reported after analyzing the candidate lists of all municipalities. Most of the local party leaders are men - almost 70 percent, compared to just over 30 percent women. Men also outnumber women in almost every other position on the list.

The share of women on the candidate lists is slightly higher than in the election four years ago, when 27 percent of candidates were women. A woman is second on 38 percent of candidate lists.

“I was shocked by the figures. I expected the proportion of women to be higher, especially in the number two position,” said Devika Partiman, director of the Stem op een Vrouw foundation. “This is bad for all of us, because it’s precisely in the council that decisions are made that impact our daily lives.”

At least 34 candidates are non-binary or genderqueer, identifying as neither male nor female. This represents 0.1 percent of the nearly 62,000 candidates running for a spot on a municipal council.

Men form the majority of the candidate lists in all municipalities. In 30 municipalities, over three-quarters of the candidates are men. Alblasserdam and Neder-Betuwe have the lowest share of women on the candidate lists. In both municipalities, 18 percent of the candidates are women. In the municipalities of Westervoort and Schiermonnikoog, the ratio of men to women is almost equal. The difference is also small in Doesburg and Heemstede.

“The fact that no municipality has at least an equal number of women running for office makes us dejected,” said Devika Partiman. “Ensuring equal representation is once again left to the voters.”

“By voting smartly for women - not automatically for the first woman, but rather a little lower - we can still ensure more women on the council.” According to Stem op Een Vrouw, “voting smartly for women” resulted in 459 additional women serving on municipal councils in the previous municipal elections.

The PvdD is the only national party with more women than men on its candidate lists. At volt, the number is almost equal. At local parties, approximately 34 percent of the candidates are women.