Limited effects of gender quota in politics in Slovenia. Milica Antić Gaber. University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Transcription

1 Limited effects of gender quota in politics in Slovenia Milica Antić Gaber University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Abstract Attempts for introducing gender quotas in Slovenia started in the end of 1980s with general demands for more women in politics and at least verbal support for gender equality, continued in 1990s with several proposals in the Parliament to amend either electoral or party laws with the quota provisions which all failed and ended in the beginning of new millennium with the acceptance of gender quotas in the law at all levels. But there are still no big changes on the part of elected women especially at local and national levels where women still have not reached critical mass (30 percent). The paper explore the barriers to effects of legislative quota at macro level (electoral system, party system, etc.) and cultural (attitudes of general public) factors and mezzo level (lack of social networks and support of women in politics) and micro level (lack of support in everyday life). Un-finished paper; work in progress! Paper presented at the ECPR General Conference, Glasgow, September 3-6, 2014

2 Introduction When in 1996 Slovenia started the process of the integration to European Union (EU) and formally applied for EU membership there was only 7.8 percent of women in the NA, when in 2004 joined the EU there was no more than 12 percent and ten years after that there is 35,6 women elected in the present one. This progress would not have been possible without legal gender quotas. Slovenia adopted gender quotas in the law for the election at all three levels (local, national and European) but differently composed in terms of how high or low the quota is set, what is the time frame of the implementation of the quota provisions and whether or not there are special placement mandate provided which also lead to different effects. Analysis of the effectiveness of gender quotas at different level, also show that other factors are also important. Electoral law, the importance/relevance/status of the political body, other supportive mechanisms (if existed) etc.) on the one hand, wider cultural elements (public opinion towards gender equality and women in politics) at macro level and civil society organisations and NGOs that support women in politics at mezzo level and support to women that want to enter into the politics need in everyday life at micro level are relevant when we discuss the (un)success of gender quotas. The paper shows the strength and weaknesses of the systemic measures (quota provision) in the given political, historical and cultural context and call for the more structured and in-depth analyses of the effectiveness of gender quotas in the specific context. The paper in the first part explore the process of the introduction of gender quotas in Slovenia in the second presents some important characteristics of electoral gender quotas in Slovenia and in the third analyses the (un)succesfulness of legal gender quotas on the upgrading the representative democracy in Slovenia.

3 1. Introduction of legal gender quotas for the elections in Slovenia Literature on gender quotas in politics (not to enter into semantic discussion on them) discuss mainly three different types of gender quotas: voluntary party quota, compulsory party quota or legislative quota (mandated by constitution or the law) and reserved seats (Tripp and Kang 2008; Darhour and Dahlerup 2013). When back in the 1990s two political parties voluntary introduced party quotas for elective positions in the party and for the national election they even did not follow their own regulation in composing party s electoral lists (comp. Antić Gaber and Lokar 2006). Due to this fact and to the fact that other parties did not at all thought that anything should be done to speed up the process of balancing the presence of women and men in politics there was very low share of women at party candidate lists (between 7 and 15 percent with one exception of 40 percent) (comp. Antić in Dahlerup 2011). It was obvious that there cannot be more women elected if there are very few women among candidates. It was also obvious that something should be done at general level and not to expect that something can be done by the ones who want to protect their own positions in the politics and especially in the parties (comp. Verge and Fuente 2014), as several proposals to introduce the obligatory measures in the Parliament to speed up this process during the 1990s (comp. Antić and Gortnar 2004). In this period activities for more women in politics were limited to a narrow circles of women activists, women politicians in some left-wing parties and few feminist scholars and not gained a wider public support for firm political measures. After several unsuccessful attempts to change the law and after the establishment of a Coalition for Equal Presence of Women in the Public Life in 2001 and with the accession process to the European Union (pressure from the outside) the demand for more women in politics gain some more wider public support that resulted in political conditions in which introduction of firm measures had been more.

4 The legal changes that enabled the introduction of gender quotas were the introduction of the Act on Equal Opportunities for Women Men (AEOWM) in June 2002 and changes of the Constitution in June AEOWM contained several provisions for the promotion of gender-balanced participation in decision making the most important among them were the following: establishment of equal opportunities is a duty of the entire society; the obligation of the National Assembly is to respect the principle of balanced representation of women and men in the establishment of committees and the composition of delegations; and political parties have a duty to promote gender-balanced representation/ participation; furthermore, political parties that are included in the register of political parties shall adopt a plan in which they shall determine methods and measures for the promotion of more balanced representation of women and men within party bodies, and on candidate lists for elections to the National Assembly and to bodies of local communities, as well as for elections for the president of the state. (comp. Antić Gaber in Dahlerup and Freidenvall 2011) The legal ground for the further positive measures has been made by the amendment of the Slovene Constitution. In the process of preparation legal changes several case studies were carefully analyzed and brought to the attention to wider public and even more important - to legal experts. Especially powerful were the cases of France and Belgium the two West European countries that introduced gender quota in their legislation. French case was for the Slovene environment especially relevant. French case - with acceptance of the constitutional provision which state that special measures that promote gender equality are not un constitutional seemed to be the one that can be adapted to the Slovene socio-political and cultural environment most successfully and follow the rationale of the new Slovene political elite. The group of legal, sociological and other expert was formed and proposal formulated for the reading in the NA. 2 The changes had been unanimously adopted in June 2004 shortly followed by first election to EP in Slovenia. 1 Even before the constitutional reform, an amendment to the Law on the Elections to the European Parliament (March 2004) introduced a 40-percent gender quota for candidate lists. 2 B981&db=kon_akt&mandat=III&tip=doc

5 The constitutional clause then accepted says: The law shall establish measures to promote equal opportunities for women and men in standing for election to state authorities and local communities and in addition Constitution declares that such positive discrimination is not against the article 14 of Constitution, which regulates equality before the law. This was important basis for other changes among others for the gender quotas in the laws on election. The first was the law on election to EP in the same year, followed by the law on election to the local communities (2005) and law for election to NA (2006). Once the constitutional foundation for gender equality has been made with the statement that new laws can introduce measures for equal opportunities it was expected that laws for elections (for local and national election) should be changed and provisions for equal presence of women and men at the electoral lists incorporated. It was also stated that the principle of gender-balanced representation is respected when at least 40 per cent representation of women and men is ensured. In certain specified circumstances the decree (also accepted by the governement) permits exemptions from this principle on objectively justified grounds. Such an exemption is permitted in cases where membership of a particular government body stems from a particular function (comp. Antić Gaber in Dahlerup and Freidenvall 2011). Following these measures two electoral laws had been changed, but differently. The first legal changes had been introduced in the Local Elections Act in 2005, a year before the next local election. The law provided that lists of candidates for the election to a municipal council have to be drawn up in such a way to ensure that each sex accounts for at least 40 per cent of all candidates listed, and that the candidates in the first half of the lists must alternate by sex (Clause 70a). The act provides the transition period up to 2014, when 40 per cent of each sex on the electorate lists becomes compulsory. The second was the Law on the election to National Assembly changed in 2006 when 35 percent gender quota (with the start of 25 percent women candidates on the voting ballot for the first next election) was set.

6 As one can see Slovenia now has legislative gender quotas for the election to all three levels (European, national, local). We will now analyse the effectiveness of gender quotas on all three levels through three components: size of quotas, placement mandates and enforcement mechanisms and discuss how important elements at macro level (electoral system, party system, etc.) and cultural (attitudes of general public) factors and mezzo level (lack of social networks and support of women in politics) and micro level (lack of support in everyday life) support or prevent their effectiveness. 2. Characteristics of electoral gender quotas in Slovenia? So far, electoral gender quotas have been implemented for the local elections in 2006 (20 percent quota) and for the election 2010 (30 percent representatives), for all the elections to the EU Parliament (40 percent quota) and for the national election in 2008 (25 per cent quota), 2011 and 2014 (full 35 percent quota).

7 Table 1: Elected women in Slovenia at all levels Year of Election Local level/ percentage of female councillors National Election/ Percentage of women deputies European Election/percentage of women MP's elected , , , , , , ,2 42,8* ,5* ,3* ,6* ,91* ,2* ,6* 37,5* Source: Statistical Office, State Election Committee and authors calculation. * Quotas introduced From the table above we can see that legislative gender quotas produce different effects at different election. Why this is so? What are the elements/obstacles that do not allow gender quotas to be more effective?

8 Table 2: Legal gender quotas in politics in Slovenia Level of election Local National European Elec. system PR (pref. vote), Majority PR (voting units) PR (pref. vote) size Implementation Placement mandate 40 (20, 30) Gradual YES (2006,2010, 2014) 35 (25) Gradual NO (2008, 2011) sanctions YESdismissal YESdismissal YES YESdismissal What is common for all the three quota laws? - It has to be stressed that gender quotas in Slovenia are formulated in a gender neutral way; it is namely stated that each gender cannot be represented at the candidates list with less than certain percent ; - The laws set the minimum share for each gender; - All the quota provisions in Slovenia are mandated by the law on election and are sanctioned for non-compliance with the exclusion from the election. The law stipulates that if the electoral commission finds that the list of candidates is not determined in accordance with this Act, dismiss it. 3 What are the differences? - Timing of the introduction Gender quota for the election for EP is set at 40 percent and implemented immediately for the first election in At the local level gender quota is set at 40 percent and not implemented immediately but gradually, starting with 20 percent at first election (2006), increasing it to 30 percent (2010) and with full quota implemented in this autumn election 2014 (40). Explanation by the parliamentarians why this was so, is that some parties could have some problems finding enough suitable female candidates in some small communes and in rural areas. 3 See:

9 Unlike the above election for local and European level for the election at national level (NA) the gender quota agreed and set in the law is lower (only 35 percent) and even not implemented immediately but started as low as 25 percent for the first election (2008) and for the second (2011) increased to Size of quotas We can see that the goal for gender equality in politics is set for local and European level at 40 percent and at national level only at 35 percent, which is interesting and telling difference. It seems that difference comes from a different perception of the weight of political body in question. EP is perceived as far away, local level as too low and not that important and prestigious on the contrary national level it seems to represent the strongest fortress of masculine domination in politics to be defended from the un-invited, intruders. Table 3. The percentages of female candidates for elections to the Slovenian National Assembly, by party, Year of election Party DeSUS LDS NSi (SKD) SD (ZL, ZLSD) SDS SLS SNS Zares / / / / PS / / / / / DL / / / / / ZL / / / / / / 39.8 ZAB / / / / / / 42.9 SMC / / / / / / 47.0 Total Source: author s own calculation on the basis of the parties candidates lists, Statistical Office data and data of the State Electoral Commission.

10 Nevertheless despite the different size of quota set for different level (and the lowest for the election to NA) as the table above shows the share of female candidates significantly exceed the required share at each election in total and at majority of the party candidates lists. For example at the last election only three minor parties put less than 40 percent women at their lists (when the law requires 35 percent), and three parties that were expected to get the seats in the NA (among others a winner of the election) put even around 47 percent of women at their electoral lists. - Placement mandates There is no placement regulation for the election to NA, this is due to the complicated electoral law (to be explained later) and this also can be one of the reasons for the less effectiveness of gender quota at this level. On the contrary to the law on election at national level there are regulations for the placement of candidates at local (in the part where PR system is applied) and European level. For the EP (Slovenia elects only eight MEPs) the law says that each candidates list must be drawn up in such a way that at least one candidate of each sex is placed in the upper half of the list. 4 In practice this means that a female candidate has to be placed at first, second or third position on the list and in many cases this results in placing them at the second or third. Which means if the party gets only one seat (and this happen in majority of the cases) women is not elected (with the only and rare exception if she gets majority of preferential votes). Similarly, the law for local election 5 stipulates that when more than one candidate nominated on the electoral list the candidates lists shall be determined in such a way that candidates in the first half of the list are allocated alternately 6. But this provision is applied only for the big communes with PR electoral system which means that it can only bring partial results. 4 Comp. 5 Comp. 6 The law also stipulates that for the first and second election candidates in the first half of the list of candidates are allocated alternately at least every third candidate has to be of a different gender.

11 3. Barriers to effective implementation of gender quotas in politics in Slovenia We will now put electoral gender quotas in Slovenia in the wider context and discuss the elements that additionally influence their successfulness. Macro level 3.1. Electoral system It has been stressed by several authors, that electoral system plays an important role in analysing the women s chances to be elected. It has also been shown in many analyses that in PR system women have better electoral chances than in majoritarian (Paxton 1997, Matland and Montgomery 2003). There were also several analyses that had been done in Slovene context discussing the influence of electoral system (and some important elements) on women s electoral chances (Antić 2003; Fink- Hafner, Deželan in Topolinjak, 2005; Murko Pleš, Nahtigal in Pleš, 2011). As it is evident from the table above there are different types of electoral systems in use for three different elections in which electoral laws create different possibilities for setting up candidates on the lists of candidates. Only for the elections for EP, there is a pure PR system with party list of candidates and preferential vote. For the local election two different types of electoral system are used PR (with preferential vote) for the bigger cities and majority system (for small communes). For the National Election there is PR system in which parties compose 8 party candidates lists with that compete for the votes in 11 voting units (this produce some effects closer to majoritarian rule). In the described circumstances gender quotas can directly work for the purpose they were set for only in the case of EP in which parties compose single party candidates list nationwide with 8 candidates and in which additional requirements (like placement mandates) can be adopted. This proposition can also be used partially for the

12 election at local level (for bigger cities) but not for the election to National Assembly. At the election to NA existence of 11 voting units in which individual candidates compete for the votes (first among candidates of different parties and then among candidates of the same party) special requirement for the composition of the candidates list cannot be taken. That means that party can put 40 percent of women among their candidates, but if they put them on the positions with no or almost no chances to be elected this share does not play any important role (comp. Lokar 2005). Despite the fact that substantial rise of the share of female candidates is visible this does not lead to the satisfactory higher presence of women in politics which lead some activists to the requirement of further legal changes: demand for the introduction of zipper system (for the European election) in a way that male and female candidates would appear alternately on candidate lists. 7 Slovene Women s Lobby for example organized a campaign for more women in the European Parliament with the campaign»50-50«it emphasized the importance of zipper system and also promoted the preferential voting. Furthermore, in 2014, the appeals 8 for preferential voting of women were discussed in newspapers and indeed one female MP was elected by preferential vote and defeated her party president who was the leader of the list. For the National Election other questions were raised. The results of elections are mostly interpreted in line with the studies on quota in many other countries that showed that only percentages for the total number of candidates, and no rank order or other rules, may have very limited effect (Schwindt-Bayer 2009). Several analyses prove that women had not been put into the elective positions (safe seats) on the party candidates lists. 9 These debates had again risen question how to change the 7 Thus numbers of initiatives has been launched to upgraded legal provisions on quotas, in particular the way of placing method on the candidate lists to enforce the alternating classification in the first place." (Pleš, Nahtigal in Murko Pleš 2013: 13) arskim_sefom.aspx 9 As further described below, the analysis of the results of the election to NA in 2011 Slovene Women's Lobby showed that political parties are very well aware which electoral districts are favourable to them or which seats are wining and this electoral districts are often reserved for male candidates. The first five elections to the National Assembly "had shown that established political elite lacks the political will to change their own behaviour, which prevents the increased political

13 electoral system, which has been one of the main topic on political agenda since Slovenia became the independent country. The fact that in Slovene PR system there is not a closed party list for each constituency but instead each constituency (eight all in all) is further divided into eleven voting units represent institutional obstacle for implementation of constitutional article on equal opportunities of men and women. 10 To open more opportunities for the implementation of the gender quotas the proposals to eliminate the voting units and introduce a closed party list on the level of constituencies have been put on the parliamentary agenda twice. But the proposal to change the law for NE has been in both cases declined already in first reading, once in 2003 and for the second time in For the local level quotas were partially effective yet they had not contributed to political culture to become more prone to gender equality and equal opportunities. In the last campaign it had been again stressed that preferential voting if used to support female candidates can be beneficial for women s electoral chances Political parties and their rationality, parties as gatekeepers! Political parties are the main players that influence women s electoral chances (Norris and Lovenduski 1993, Caul 2001, Antić 1999; Fink-Hafner in Krašovec 2004) as they select the candidates, nominate them and compose electoral lists. They can be more supportive or more obstructive to women candidates. Several components prove that political parties are still dominated by men and serves as gatekeepers to women s entrance into politics. In the short history of multiparty political system in Slovenia leaders of all main parties (with very few exceptions) were and still are men. Male domination is also visible when exploring the composition of other collective or individual leading party positions. In the collective leading position in the parties one can find one female person (among three or more) and usually not more. It seems that parties are the main gatekeepers to women s entrance into political field. As this participation of women." (Pleš, Nahtigal and Murko Pleš 2013: 30) It seems reasonable to conclude that this affect the behaviour of the established parliamentary parties, which this time not only take into account the legal provisions on quotas, but also more often than in the past female candidates put into the winnable seats or at least potentially winnable ones. 10 For more about electoral system in Slovenia see: Antić Gaber in Matland and Montgomery and Antić Gaber in Duhlerup (2011). 11

14 is historically their domain they are the one that compose the rules of the game and still mostly men enjoy dividends from the power constellation in this field. Slovene political parties have not put much energy to develop effective strategies for the inclusion of women in their memberships and leaderships. They usually do not offer special financial support to women s units in their parties. Some of them (as it was shown earlier) do not respect their own party rules in the selecting and nominating processes for the election but avoid doing anything more binding with only repeating general formulations from the laws. Most often they use rhetoric strategies, minimally respect the formal rules, put required share of women to electoral lists, but they put them into voting units with no or very little chances to be elected (Antić, 2011; Murko Pleš, Nahtigal in Pleš, 2011). In this situation women in some parties organize their own women s party sections and forums to be more powerful with their demands to their party leadership. Established parties, parties with longer history are sometimes more resistant and the fight for the winnable positions on the list is stronger as they have many aspirants and new parties as they do not have a history of competing at the election women have some more chances to get winning positions on the list. As our research (interviews with male and female politicians) 12 shows it is also a significant difference in building a political career among female and male politicians. Men namely more often systematically build their political party career than women, who more often invest their time and energy to build their professional career and if their work is recognized and invited to politics they consider this invitation to enter political filed and they more often need special initiative from the strong political player. It is also more often happen for male politicians to stay several mandates in politics and female more often stay one or two. These is also the reason they cannot build strong social and political network and acquire social and political capital. One of the reasons why in the last two election increase of women's representation in NA occured is also in the fact that voters shoved no confidence to old established 12 Ref. Research!

15 parties and demanded a change of political elites in such circumstances new political parties can be prosperous (and female candidates get more votes). 4. Cultural factors: values and attitudes 4.1. Gender equality (male and female roles in society) Political culture, attitudes towards politics and prevailing values (especially on masculinities and femininities or male and female roles) significantly influence the possibilities of potential entry of women into politics and, indirectly, their presence in politics. Cultural context namely influence our judgment of what is right and what is wrong, where is the right place for men and where for women, what is acceptable and what not etc. It can be found out that some values are persistent and even the slight shift require the change of generations as well as long-term processes of modernization. Among the factors that are often taken into consideration in these discussions are the role of religion, attitudes towards feminism and gender equality, time (Rule, 1987/1996; Norris in Inglehart, 2001). Several researches confirmed that there is a strong correlation between attitudes towards gender equality and women s presence in politics (Norris in Inglehart, 2001; Inglehart, Norris in Welzel, 2002; Inglehart in Norris, 2003). Slovenia is in one of these studies placed somewhere between Catholic and East European Countries (comp. Inglehart, Norris in Welzel, 2002, 35). If one look at public discourse on gender equality in Slovenia from the transition period in the 1990s on it can be seen that there are several competing (mis)understandings: as forced emancipation of women in the socialist period; as something un-natural, something that has inauthentic but a result of the influence of radical feminist movement imported from the west; or as a sameness of sexes (which is un-acceptable) and in a small proportion also as a equal opportunities for both gender (comp. Antić Gaber, 2006).

16 The data with which we operate with in this paper, are taken from the Slovenian Public Opinion (POS) and researches done in international context: World Value Survey (WVS) and the European Social Survey (ESS). We have been taken few telling examples out of rich data collections connected to questions on gender equality that can be usefull to understand the cultural settings which we analyse. One of them is connected to the understanding who is doing what and who is more connected to family and who to public life. It can be therefore observed that there is less and less public consent in Slovenia from the 1990s on to the following argument:»the task of the husband is to makes money and wives task is to take care of the household and family. If in 1991 there was almost 40 percent of respondents of POS agreed and strongly agreed the percent in 2012 fall down to only 20 percent (comp. Selišnik and Antić 2014 forthcoming). It is quite visible, that in the last decade, the position of the population, at least at the declarative level changed drastically and shifted away from traditional perception of gender roles, according to which women mostly worked in private and men in the public sphere. It can be assumed that this also has a positive impact on the judgment of the voters as at the last two elections to NA (2011, 2014) there was each time a record reached on the side of elected women MPs. Slovene POS also constantly take records of the changes of the attitude towards the value of gender equality questioning them whether they have positive or negative attitude to it. Respondents answers show that the vast majority has positive or very positive attitudes towards gender (form percent) and that the share of these who taken neutral position fallen to 5 percent in But very telling is the data that a share of those who gender equality valued very positively (reaching 50.8 percent in 1994) never reached this level after it sharply fallen in 1998 (to 34 percent) and then slightly increased but in 2011 only reached 37 percent (comp. Selišnik and Antić 2014 forthcoming). The above mentioned data lead us to the conclusion that value of gender equality is deeply rooted in Slovenia at least at the declarative level. Nevertheless, it is not possible to conclude that this is taken into consideration at the election day when

17 considering whom to give a vote. It seems that there is still strong feeling that women are not perceived as the ones who symbolically fit to the image of the holder of political power Are men better politicians than women? If we agree with Hofstede s finding that women in male culture are not understood as those that would be able to take on certain roles, simply because symbolically are not identified as such or because they do not correspond to the real image of the power holder (Hofstede, Hofstede and Minkov, 2010, 45) we can test this thesis in the Slovene circumstances through the POS respondents' answers to the statement "Men are better political leaders than women. The share of respondents who do not agree with this statement was in percent and increased in 2012 to 72.8 percent which is distinctive change (comp. Selišnik and Antić 2014 forthcoming). If it is to believe the findings of Inglehart and Welzl studies Modernisation, Cultural Change and Democracy (2005), that in countries where the public rejects the belief that men are better leaders than women actually higher proportion of women elected to the national parliament and that cultural norms and values are more significant predictor of the proportion of women in parliament then democratic institutions (2005, 176) then applying this to Slovene case means either that public stick to the desired answers or it s only a matter of the moment when this will be actually featured in the constant higher numbers of women elected. b) Mezzo level Some researches also found out that there are more chances for women in politics where there is a strong demand from women s organizations in civil society, where is strong and wide women s movement and where demand for more women in politics come from their side (ref.). In Slovenia independent women s initiatives started to grew in the second half of the 1980s but most often dealing with social and much less with political issues (ref.). These groups are also quite small and mainly

18 concentrated in two big cities. Even in the last two decades there no big changes concerning the scope of activities, numbers and concentration of this groups. In the past three decades there were only two organised initiatives from civil society that demanded more women in politics Women for politics (Jalušič) from the end of 1980s and Coalition for Equal Presence of Women in the Public Life (2001). Described situation suggests that there is a wide gap between politicians (female included) and other social and civil engagement of women in Slovenia. As we know that social networks are very important for the work in politics and if women do not have supportive social networks, they mostly depend on the support of a family and narrow private circles. Our interviews with the politicians also show that after women enter the politics they lose professional ties with their previous colleagues as they are now perceived as politicians and in many times that also mean that they are dirty, corruptive, etc. Apart from that women active in civil society organisations are also very critical to women in mainstream politics. All these leads to the conclusion that in many cases women in politics are in very difficult position: in the political field their male colleagues do not accept them as equal and they are in many times perceived as masculinized (ref.) and women outside mainstream politics think that they behave and act as men and that they make no difference in politics. They are foreigners and/or foreign for both sides and for this reason often not given support from any side. But this question is not adequately researched and needs more careful and in-depth insides and analysis. c) Individual level The results of our analysis confirm the findings of other researches that politics - not only concerning gender relations, but also in terms of organization and methods of work and, consequently, the possibility of harmonization commitments in professional

19 and private life highly masculine profession ( ). Schedules are long and unpredictable work also takes place on weekends, evenings or at night. Such a professional environment assumes singlehood or that the majority of unpaid household work and care family members in the private life have to be taken by somebody else: partner, children, parents, or paid domestic help. In a society where it is expected that the greater part of the household and care work is done by women, poses a problem mainly to them. Our research also shows that when considering to enter the politics women mainly consult with their partners and family members. Their support is decisive for them. In these circumstances this means that only women whose partner is ready to take responsibility and most of the workload for household and/or family and in some cases also put aside their professional life are really in the position to enter the politics. Vice versa is more common. Our politicians report that women or partners of male politicians most often take the whole burden of private life on their shoulders. These result in the situation in which male politicians in Slovenia are younger, have more children and stay in politics longer than their female counterparts. Asymmetrical division of work in private sphere either in practice or at the level of expectations results in additional obstacle to women considering entering the political field (comp. Kanjuo Mrčela, Šori, Podreka, 2012). Narratives of political elites in Slovenia indicate that the combination of factors such as: high risk of "protecting achievements" in the main job when exiting and entering the political field; low reputation of politics; deeply rooted expectations regarding the care of children and family as well as the lack of support of a husband or partner women further complicates decision to enter the politics. Their responses also reveal important differences and inequalities between men and women (including deeply rooted masculine culture in the political field (comp. Selišnik and Antić Gaber 2014 forthcoming).

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