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Some 504 women were elected in recent Dutch local elections, with a "Vote for a Woman" campaign boosting their chances to gather preferential votes. Despite the record figure, women remain underrepresented.Fatuma Muhumed is glowing as she arrives for an interview with DW just hours before her inauguration as a local councilor in the Dutch municipality of Apeldoorn — her first political office, on top of her job as a lawyer. Her election was far from certain: She was ranked 15th on the candidate list of the left-leaning GroenLinks-PvdA, yet she secured one of the party's six seats. Muhumed climbed the ranks thanks to preferential voting, or "smart voting," as the campaign Stem op een Vrouw (Vote for a Woman) calls it. How does it work? In the Netherlands, voters don't just choose a party but select a specific candidate on a party list. Candidates are ranked by the parties, typically with their leaders at the top. "We see more men, and then we see women lower on the lists," says Zahra Runderkamp, political scientist and lead researcher at Stem op een Vrouw. Voters tend to favor candidates on top of these lists, but to boost women's representation, Stem op een Vrouw encourages voters to support women ranked lower down, especially those just below the projected seat threshold. This strategy has helped Muhumed and 503 other women across the Netherlands get elected in the latest elections. Women are underrepresented, particularly in local politics At the national level, women's representation in parliament is currently 43.3% in the Netherlands. That's way above last year's EU average of 33.6% and the highest level since the first female Dutch MP was elected in 1918. However, at the local level, a different picture emerges: In the nationwide municipal elections in March this year, women only reached 36.9%. And without the kind of strategic preferential voting described above, according to Stem op een Vrouw, this percentage would have been 32.7%. Runderkamp is proud of the number of women who claimed a seat — a record in her organization's almost 10 years of campaigning. But gender parity is still far from achieved. Clear left-right divide Gender parity varies greatly from party to party, and there's a clear trend from left to right in the Netherlands. The only party that had a majority of women candidates at the last elections was the left-wing Party for the Animals, with just over half. Only 2% of the conservative Reformed Political Party's (SGP) candidates were women. But, in a way, that's a feminist success: Until 2013, the SGP, based on its interpretation of the Bible, prohibited women from standing for political office altogether. Only after a seven-year legal battle and a court ruling that its position was discriminatory did the SGP change its rules. The SGP is an extreme example. But across parties, only 32% of candidates were women. "You can't deny that more is needed than voters voting smart to sort of hack the system a little bit,” says Runderkamp, emphasizing parties should work on the parity of those electoral lists. The barriers, however, don't begin — or end — with electoral lists. How open is the job for women? Research shows that girls often see politics as a male-dominated space, a perception that strengthens as they grow older and is linked to lower levels of political interest. Underrepresentation also means fewer visible role models. Runderkamp says this sends an early message that politics is "not really a place for them.” It's a self-reinforcing cycle, she explains: With fewer women in office, policies are less likely to reflect women's everyday realities. This can deepen political alienation and discourage women from stepping forward. Stem op een Vrouw is trying to break that cycle. Alongside its campaign to get more women elected, the group also connects aspiring candidates with experienced women in politics to build networks, learn how the system works, and gain a foothold. Fatuma Muhumed, for example, took part in training sessions on how to apply for political posts and how to campaign. But the barriers don't just affect who enters politics — they also shape who stays. In the Netherlands, local councilors do the political work next to their jobs, mostly in the evening and at weekends. As women still perform a disproportionate share of unpaid care tasks, this might not be compatible. "I think the question is how open it is for women to participate and especially to stay for four years and re-run,” says researcher Runderkamp. In addition, a 2024 Ipsos I&O report commissioned by the Dutch Interior Ministry found that 55% of women politicians in office are confronted with aggression, compared with 37% of men. Muhumed has also experienced offensive insults, even before she took office. "I started using TikTok for my campaign and I got a lot of sometimes really racist comments," she said. Women leave politics faster Could aggressive behavior be why women politicians drop out earlier and more often than men? Across Europe, women are reportedly leaving politics due to threats and smear campaigns, with research by British non-profit HateAid finding that they are subject to significantly more abuse that their male peers. Runderkamp cautions that there is no clear statistical evidence for this: "In political science, we are not sure if hate and aggression are a direct reason for leaving politics," she said. Rather, she argued, such factors add up to deter women from running for or staying in office. On the day of her inauguration, Muhumed is determined to complete her term. She also plans to bridge the gap between people and politicians: "I'm really happy that I can now represent more people of color, but also young women.” She knows this won't be a 9-to-5 job, but Muhumed is itching to get her political work started. "Sundays are for rest, though," she says, smiling. Edited by: R. Casey