Mothers, parliamentarians, leaders: career factors influencing women's representation in the European Parliament – a case study of German parliamentarians

The European Parliament (EP), often seen as relatively women-friendly, still struggles with underrepresentation of women in leadership roles, such as committee chairs This article scrutinizes individual career factors leading German Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to Strasbourg and into leadership positions within the EP. It focuses on examining disparities between men and women and compares women with, and without, leadership experience in the various parliamentary offices. The study explores how individual qualifications, such as political experience and education, alongside personal factors like marital status and parental responsibilities, correlate with women's leadership roles in the EP. Using a dataset of all German MEPs from 1999 to 2019, the analysis finds higher representation of women in leadership roles than their overall presence in the EP, though disparities exist across office types and political affiliations. The findings reveal two main challenges for German women in the EP: a motherhood penalty and barriers to leadership. On average, women MEPs have fewer children than their male counterparts, and those in leadership are more likely to be unmarried. The data also highlight occupational gender segregation and comparable political experience between men and women.