(In)Visible Women in Political Life in Slovakia

The article deals with the questions of the (in)visibility of women in Slovak political life. The material presents statistical data on women's participation in Slovak national, regional & local politics with the support of qualitative data from interviews with women politicians & activists. The author looks at the reasons for the low political representation of women & the unsuccessful attempts to increase it by introducing positive mechanisms such as quotas. The primary focus is put on the representation of women in municipal politics. The author analyses the main reasons why women are more successful in local politics than in 'high' politics