Crazy proportions

FPÖ reduces proportion of women in the National Council for the first time

During the election campaign, women were still at the forefront of the FPÖ, but the number of female MPs in the National Council is now extremely low.

(Bild: APA/ROLAND SCHLAGER)

When it comes to emancipation, our politics still has a lot of catching up to do. The proportion of women in the new National Council is not only low - it has fallen significantly compared to the previous composition. There are particularly few women in the ranks of the FPÖ - not even a quarter (23%) of its MPs are female.

With the swearing-in ceremony on Thursday, the proportion of women in the National Council will fall again for the first time since 2008. Although it is still the second-highest proportion of women in a newly elected parliament since 1945, at 36% there are significantly fewer female MPs than at the end of the previous term of office (41%). 66 of the 183 MPs are women, compared to 75 previously. The FPÖ is the main reason for the decline.

Kickl did not want a "male-dominated" party
The Freedom Party once again has the lowest proportion of female MPs in the newly elected National Council. During the election campaign, FP leader Herbert Kickl had declared that the "zipper system", which was used for the first time to alternate between men and women on the federal list, would remedy the situation. "The prejudice that the FPÖ is a male-dominated party is finally history with this federal list," Kickl was quoted as saying in a press release.

FPÖ structure favors men 
In reality, however, the FPÖ is now only sending 13 women to the National Council. This corresponds to only 23 percent of the 57 blue members of parliament. How is this possible? Only nine MPs enter parliament via the gender-balanced federal list. However, most of the blue mandataries were elected in the regional constituencies. And there, the party has predominantly put forward male lead candidates. Accordingly, most of the mandates there go to men. Nevertheless, even this low proportion still represents an increase for the FPÖ. Most recently, only four out of 30 MPs were women (i.e. 13 percent).

Internal reshuffling also reduces the proportion of women in the ÖVP
Following significant losses of seats in the National Council elections, the ÖVP now has 19 women out of a total of 51 MPs. This corresponds to 37 percent and is a slight decrease compared to the old parliament (39 percent). In fact, the ÖVP could even have seen an increase in the proportion of women. According to the election results, the ÖVP would have had 21 female MPs. Only internal reshuffling and resignations have now reduced the number of women in the ÖVP to 19.

Only Green women make up more than 50 percent
In the SPÖ, 17 out of 41 MPs are women. At 41%, the proportion of women is therefore just above the minimum percentage stipulated by the party statutes. The figure for the NEOS is 44% (eight out of 18). The Greens have the highest proportion of women: nine women out of 16 MPs, which equates to 56%.

Trend has recently gone in the opposite direction
In recent decades, the proportion of women in the National Council has risen slowly but steadily: Whereas in the mid-1980s only a tenth of MPs were female, in 1996 it was already a quarter and in 2002 a third for the first time. However, this was followed by a dip: after the 2006 and 2008 elections, the proportion of women fell first to 31% and then to 27%. It only rose again from 2019 - to 39%. Due to subsequent additions and departures, this proportion then climbed to just under 41% at the end of the current term of office.

It has now fallen again to 36%. However, it is possible that the proportion of women will increase once a government has been formed: should the ÖVP form a government, at least one woman could replace a man on the federal list. The same could be expected for the SPÖ.