Fatuma Muhumed arrived for a DW interview beaming, hours before she was sworn in as a municipal councilor in Apeldoorn — her first elected office alongside her work as a lawyer. Her victory was not assured: she was placed 15th on the GroenLinks-PvdA list, while the party won six seats. Muhumed made it onto the council thanks to preferential votes, a tactic championed by the campaign Stem op een Vrouw (Vote for a Woman) as a form of strategic voting.
How preferential voting helps
In the Dutch system, people cast a vote for a party but can also indicate a specific candidate on that party’s list. Parties typically rank candidates, often putting high-profile figures at the top. As Zahra Runderkamp, political scientist and lead researcher at Stem op een Vrouw, notes, lists tend to show “more men higher up, women lower down.” Voters usually select the top-listed names, so the campaign encourages supporters to give preference votes to women who are positioned just below the likely seat cutoff. That concentrated push lifted Muhumed and some 503 other women into municipal councils in the recent local elections.
National versus local representation
At the national level, Dutch parliamentary representation is relatively strong for women: 43.3% of seats are held by women, above last year’s EU average of 33.6% and the highest level since 1918. The municipal picture is less balanced. In the March municipal elections, women made up 36.9% of councilors. Stem op een Vrouw estimates that figure would have been 32.7% without their targeted preferential-voting efforts. Runderkamp welcomes the record number of women elected during nearly a decade of campaigning, but she warns that gender parity remains far off.
A clear political divide
Gender balance varies sharply by party and tends to track the left-right spectrum. The Party for the Animals was the only party with a majority of female candidates, slightly over half, while the conservative Reformed Political Party (SGP) had just 2% women candidates. The SGP’s low share reflects a prior policy — changed only after a 2013 legal challenge — that had effectively excluded women from standing on its lists. Overall, only about 32% of candidates across parties were women. Runderkamp says voters using preferential votes can only go so far; parties themselves must do more to place women in electable positions on lists.
Barriers to entry and staying in office
Perceptions and practicalities keep many women away from politics. Research shows girls increasingly see politics as male-dominated as they get older, lowering interest in political participation. Fewer women in office also means fewer visible role models, which reinforces the impression that politics is not for them. That becomes a self-reinforcing cycle: when women are absent from policy-making, politics feels less relevant to their daily lives, which can increase alienation and reduce participation.
Stem op een Vrouw tries to interrupt this cycle by mentoring aspiring candidates, connecting them with experienced women and teaching concrete campaign and application skills. Muhumed took part in training on how to apply for positions and run an effective campaign.
Practical obstacles also matter for retention. Local council roles frequently require evening and weekend commitments alongside paid work. Because women often shoulder a disproportionate share of unpaid care duties, such schedules can be harder to sustain. Runderkamp points out that the question is not just whether women can get into politics, but whether the system is open enough for them to stay a full term and consider running again.
Hostility and intimidation
A 2024 Ipsos I&O report for the Dutch Interior Ministry found that 55% of women politicians had experienced aggression, compared with 37% of men. Online abuse and sexist or racist comments are common: Muhumed encountered racist and offensive remarks during a TikTok-driven part of her campaign even before taking office. Across Europe, research and NGO reporting suggest women face more threats, smear campaigns and harassment than male counterparts; organisations such as HateAid document a higher incidence of abuse directed at female politicians.
Do threats push women out of politics? Runderkamp urges caution about drawing a direct causal link. Political scientists have not definitively proven that harassment alone forces women to quit, she says, but the accumulation of abuse, hostile environments, and structural barriers clearly deters many from running or continuing in office.
A hopeful start
On the day she took her oath, Muhumed said she intended to complete her term and to help bridge the gap between residents and their representatives. She hopes to increase representation for people of color and for young women. She acknowledges the demands of the role — it will not be a nine-to-five job — but she’s eager to begin, joking that Sundays will remain for rest.
While targeted preferential voting has helped many women win seats, advocates stress that it is only one tool. Lasting change will require parties to put more women in electable positions, sustained mentoring and support, institutional reforms to reduce barriers, and measures to address the aggression and hostility that can push women out of public life.