Kvinnorepresentation vid kommunalpolitiska ordförandeposter : Fallet Alvesta kommun

The aim was to investigate what may have caused women's underrepresentation at leading positions in Alvesta municipal politics. This was intended to be carried out with an analysis of three parties selection processes and based on the parties perceptions of possible causes for the underrepresentation. The method chosen was a theory-consuming case study, conducted with collected material from semi-structured interviews as well as a quantitative material that was collected from the municipality's website. Politicians from the Social democrates, the Moderate party and the Centre party were interviewed for the investigation. The results were analyzed with a pre-selected theoretical framework, such as homosociality, contactcapital and gender differences when it comes to political ambition. The results showed that the selection processes mainly proceeded in a similar way, however, there were differences regarding which criteria were sought from the candidates. The results also showed that the underrepresentation could have been caused by different circumstances for each party. More prominent perceptions of causes were analyzed against different socialized processes on the basis of gender, which could have affected the possibilities the parties had for being able to nominate women for the leading positions