<p>Over the last decades there has been a steady increase in the representation of women on the political arena. Despite of this there are still fewer women in comparison to men in political organs particularly at the municipal level. It is therefore of great importance to examine which different factors that tend to effect the female representation at this level. Doctor of philosophy at Umeå University Jessika Wide presented in a study from 2000 that the share of women in the municipal councils tended to depend upon cultural, socio-economical and political factors. Other scholars also mean that women have specific interests and therefore are more represented in some areas. This thesis has tested if these theories and results of earlier research also can explain female representation in municipal boards in Sweden at present fiscal year. This was done by formulating hypotheses which was tested via statistical measures and regression analyzes. The main findings where that presented theories and factors stated by earlier research in general could help us to explain the female representation also in municipal boards although the variations between the single municipals are huge. Therefore one should not jump to much large conclusions of these results. Although one could say that the findings in this thesis can serves as indicators on the road of explaining female representation in municipal boards. </p>

The purpose of this paper is to study women's representation in the Swedish municipal boards. The result and conclusion will be able to contribute with knowledge about women’s quantitative representation in the boards and also the variation and content of it. The problem reads: How does women's representation look like in the municipal boards? To figure this out I have chosen to use variables like gender, city, party, and boards to consideration, which gives me an opportunity to study both women's vertical and horizontal representation. The study is a quantitative study and uses a statistical analysis to analyze the material. The boards have been categorized into soft and hard political questions, for purpose to see if there is any female over- or underrepresentation in any area. I have chosen to study the 12 largest municipal in Sweden for this study, based on previous science, which shows that women's representation are higher in more highly populated cities. Because of the previous science, the studies hypothesis projects a low female representation and with the studies strategic sample the case is a least likely case. All the material is gathered from the municipal own websites and compiled in a statistical analysis. The result shows inter alia that women are underrepresented as a total in the municipal boards. The result also revealed a considerable underrepresentation when it came to hard political questions, and even in the fields where women were predicted to have a high representation, men have taken majority. For conclusion my hypothesis were for the most part verified, even with the study being a least likely case.

Over the last decades there has been a steady increase in the representation of women on the political arena. Despite of this there are still fewer women in comparison to men in political organs particularly at the municipal level. It is therefore of great importance to examine which different factors that tend to effect the female representation at this level. Doctor of philosophy at Umeå University Jessika Wide presented in a study from 2000 that the share of women in the municipal councils tended to depend upon cultural, socio-economical and political factors. Other scholars also mean that women have specific interests and therefore are more represented in some areas. This thesis has tested if these theories and results of earlier research also can explain female representation in municipal boards in Sweden at present fiscal year. This was done by formulating hypotheses which was tested via statistical measures and regression analyzes. The main findings where that presented theories and factors stated by earlier research in general could help us to explain the female representation also in municipal boards although the variations between the single municipals are huge. Therefore one should not jump to much large conclusions of these results. Although one could say that the findings in this thesis can serves as indicators on the road of explaining female representation in municipal boards.