Women who win in Indonesia: The impact of age, experience, and list position

Indonesian women make up more than half of the national population, yet their representation in the national parliament has been unsteady and low. This condition continues despite a series of electoral reforms, including the implementation of gender quotas and open-list proportional representation systems. By observing the demographic characteristics of over 6000 legislative candidates who participated in the 2014 general elections, this paper highlights how three groups, namely women, young people, and the outer-Java population, are heavily under-represented from the nomination stage. Furthermore, the elected female lawmakers still do not represent the vast majority of women in Indonesia, especially the different socioeconomic classes and political kinships. The findings derived from a multi-level approach suggest women's electability continues to be strongly associated with experience in political office, age, and list position on the ballot sheets. The trend shows younger women running as candidate #1 have a stronger viability in getting elected. The chance is also higher for those with existing political careers. The effects of voters' socioeconomic status on women's electability, however, offer no clear connection.