This study seeks to understand the obstacles and challenges that prevent women from being adequately represented in local governance entities, as well as to explore difficulties experienced by women candidates during and following elections

Through the experiences of women and men, this study also seeks to find out who is responsible for the marginalization and exclusion of women from local politics, and what solutions can be put in place to raise women’s representation and enhance their capacity to have effective influence.

This study relies on interviews with women who ran for the elections of local authority entities. Some of these women did actually managed to get seats in these entities, while others didn’t. For the sake of comparison, the research also uses interviews with men who have experienced and succeeded in gaining membership or the chairmanship of the local authority.