Besides Merkel’s fifteen-year rule, and except for a handful Scandinavian or Baltic socialist prime ministers, the vast majority of European women who have who had true executive power - party or government leaders – come from the right, starting with Margaret Thatcher. Looking at the past and present, the list goes on, for the conservatives, with Theresa May, Liz Truss and one of three past female Polish Prime ministers. The other two have come from the reactionary Law and Justice Party. They belong to Europe’s extreme right wing, just as Marine Le Pen (France), Giorgia Meloni (Italy), as well as Frauke Petry and Alice Weidel, respectively Alternative für Deutschland’s founder and leader in the Bundestag.

What is the secret to its success? Is it a strong commitment from leadership to equal representation? A particularly good mentoring and coaching initiative? Positive action strategies? Why the part of the political spectrum which is allegedly more attentive to gender equality – the left - has so many difficulties to express a woman leader?

Maternal figures?

Political scientists are still struggling to find an explanation. On the one hand, some note that the conservative women who make it, portray the traditional feminine figure championed by the right. Accepting their leadership would then be a strategy that conservative party leaders find useful to restate their – traditionalist – family policies and propose role models who can claim back some of the women’s votes that shifted to the left since the 1970’s. This claim is true for some women leaders, notably for Thatcher who famously kept cooking dinner at Downing Street during her time as PM, or Von der Leyen with her seven children. However, this explanation is flawed when it comes to figures like Weidel, openly lesbian, Le Pen, who is twice divorced, and Meloni, a single mother.

In the case of the conservatives and the extreme right, nonetheless, female role models have been able to win back women’s votes. In the case of Italy, for instance, more than half of Meloni’s party supporters in the latest election are women, 27% percent.

Women’s descriptive representation as a powerful electoral tool

A common assumption in political science is that political parties are rational actors, seeking to maximise their electoral support. Like any major shift, therefore, it is fair to question whether the advancement of traditionally underrepresented groups such as women arises from a strategic calculation to win more support, influence, and seats.

By this logic, increasing women’s descriptive representation is especially appealing to those radical right populist parties that need more women voters. An increase in women’s descriptive representation can be seen as a tactic for broadening a party’s electorate in order to attract previously untapped women voters and remedy the party’s stagnation or decline.

Giorgia Meloni - Italy’s first woman Prime Minister and leader of the Italian party Brothers of Italy

Or … women in men’s shoes

Curiously, on the other hand, a majority of conservative and far-right female leaders of our times – even the more “maternal” figures – often showcase characteristics that are can be either referred to masculine professions or typical of masculine leaderships. Many have a background in the STEM or “hard sciences”: Merkel is a physicist, Thatcher was a chemist, while Von der Leyen used to be a defense minister and Lagarde has long been in charge of financial matters. In the far-right, traditionally masculine traits emerge in aggressive attitudes, loud tone of voices, an overplayed assertiveness, sometimes even in the dress code.

Mind the Cliff

As in the case of Christine Lagarde, appointed President of the International Monetary Fund in 2011 in the midst of the economic crisis, or Ursula von der Leyen, who arrived at the Presidency of the European Commission after an election in where Eurosceptic parties had been very successful all over Europe, and Liz Truss now in the UK. The presence of female presidential candidates in these situations confirms that women are put forward especially in moments of crisis.

The *glass cliff is a relative of the “glass ceiling” — a metaphor for the invisible, societal barrier that keeps women from achieving the highest positions in business, politics, and organisations. Women are elevated to positions of power when things are going poorly. When they reach the upper ranks of power, they’re put into precarious positions and therefore have a higher likelihood of failure, meaning there’s a greater risk for them to fall. And it’s not just a phenomenon reserved for women; it happens with minority groups, too.

The question, then, becomes whether representation alone is a marker of feminist success. It’s undeniable that it’s harder for women in general to make it to the top – a truly equal political system would surely see just as many incompetent women elected as there are men, after all – but it’s also true that women are not a homogeneous group. She might smash a glass ceiling in a moment of personal achievement, but the ruthless rightwing policies she will inflict on the country will ensure that it is fully repaired and back in place by the end of her term.

The success of Conservative women leaders is something of a smokescreen. Reassuring as it may be to celebrate individual women leaders as beacons of progress, the fact remains that they benefit few but themselves. In countries so entrenched in inequality, it’s no coincidence that our female leaders have come from the right with an inherently sexist ideology of individualism and meritocracy. It’s that very inequality that ensures the system doesn’t fit women leaders of any other ilk.

So, it’s true that the Conservatives might well be winning the race when it comes to female prime ministers. But feminist ones? We’re not yet out of the starting blocks.

*The term “glass cliff” was first coined by University of Exeter researchers Michelle Ryan and Alexander Haslam in 2005. “The glass cliff is a phenomenon whereby women (and other minority groups) are more likely to occupy positions of leadership that are risky and precarious,” Ryan, the researchers behind the study, says. “This can happen when share price performance is poor, when facing a scandal, or when the role involves reputational risk.”

Rossella Forlè

Why the right – on paper at least – is better at women’s representation?