Gender‐based voting in the parliamentary elections of 2007 in Finland

Abstract

Abstract In contrast to many other countries, the Finnish open‐list proportional representation (PR) system with its mandatory preferential voting provides an opportunity to study gender‐based voting empirically. Using the 2007 Finnish national election study, the article presents an analysis of the grounds for same‐gender voting, including motivations related to descriptive and substantive dimensions of representation. None of the motivations is able to account men's higher propensity to vote for a candidate of their own gender. The motivations linked to securing the descriptive and substantive representation of one's own gender in politics play a more decisive part on women's vote choice of same‐gender candidates. Voting for a same‐gender candidate is connected to younger age among both women and men, while the propensity to vote for female candidates increases with support for the Social Democrats, the Greens and the Swedish People's Party. Finally, gender, party choice, and descriptive and substantive motivations seem to be related to gender‐based voting for both parliamentary and presidential elections.