Mid Sweden University

Political representation is important for gender equality. Women are underrepresented at alll evels of power around the world. Much of the previous research has been studying female representation in parliament, this essay will therefore focus on female representation in governments. The purpose of the study is to test the theory about coalition governments increasing female representation in governments in a contemporary OECD countries context. By including control variables in the analysis the study also aims to create a broader knowledge of how the factors affect the relationship between coalition government and women in governments and how it affects female representation in governments in general. The results indicated that coalition governments do not create a higher proportion of women in the current governments. Electoral system, the government's left-wing positions, the proportion of women in parliament and the total number of ministers can explain almost fifty percent of the variance of women in governments. Electoral systems and the proportion of women in parliament are the most important factors for female representation in governments.