Men favoured by political parties, says study

THE big political parties named more men than women as candidates for the recent local government elections, according to a data finding.

The discovery of gender bias was made through an analysis of election data from the Independent Electoral Commission. It showed that most major parties chose more men on their ward candidate lists, while doing the opposite on proportional representation lists.

The analysis was done by Code for South Africa, a technology lab in Cape Town.

Code4SA director and data wrangler Adi Eyal said the findings showed that parties had a perceived gender bias by voters towards men for ward councillors.

Election results, however, showed that 34.5% of elected ward candidates were women, reflecting only a 1.5% drop from the theoretical average.

“Any perceived gender bias is unfounded, as voting patterns are almost identical to the theoretical average. Gender doesn’t seem to be much of a determinant,” Eyal said.

Of the three biggest parties, more than 60% of the ANC and the EFF’s PR candidates were women, while their figures for ward candidate lists were 34% and 33% respectively. The DA had low representations for women on both lists, with women making up only about a third of PR and ward candidate lists.

On average, women were placed lower on the DA’s PR lists than men. The same was true for the EFF, where women were placed an average of six places lower than men for any seats the party won in local government.

The ANC was the only major party to have women promoted higher on its PR lists, even if only slightly.

Professor Shadrack Gutto, of the Institute for African Renaissance Studies, said the nature of campaigning made it harder for ward candidates to be elected than it was for those on PR lists. Competition led to fewer women being nominated for ward candidacy.

“There is more chance of being elected on the PR list, especially if you are placed towards the top of the list,” Gutto said.

DA federal executive chairman James Selfe said the party did not opt for any particular number of men or women candidates, but followed procedures aimed at producing “fit for purpose” candidates.

A report by NGO Gender Links before the elections highlighted the dismal record of parties in promoting gender transformation.

The report rated the parties according to five criteria, including strategies for addressing women’s equal access and participation as well as affirmative action. None received a pass mark, but the ANC scored highest with 11 out of 25. The DA and EFF were both given seven.

Professor Susan Booysen of the Wits School of Governance said that any kind of gender bias was more evident on PR lists than with ward candidates. “We know that parties manipulate nominations to some extent, by pushing and advancing candidates that they like and who may be close to the leadership structure.”

We know that parties manipulate nominations to some extent