Braz. political sci. rev.2026;20(3):e0001.
The Glass Ceiling in Brazilian Political Parties: Gender Inequality in Party Leadership Positions
Karolina Roeder
, Bruno Schaefer
, Liliane Gobetti Fagundes
, Olga Caldas
DOI: 10.1590/1981-3821202600030001
Abstract
Although women constitute the majority of the Brazilian electorate, they remain underrepresented in party leadership positions, a pattern that the literature attributes in large part to the role of political parties in reproducing these inequalities. This article examines whether a glass ceiling exists in state-level party leadership in Brazil by testing three hypotheses: H1. in parties with stronger electoral performance, the likelihood that women hold leadership positions is lower; H2. more powerful positions have lower female representation; and H3. the effect of electoral strength is stronger in decision-making positions. We compiled an original database of 53,311 observations of state-level party leaders from 33 parties between 2018 and 2022, based on SGIP/TSE data. We classified positions by level of power and estimated linear probability models to assess the effects of party electoral strength and position type, controlling for ideology, internal democracy, type of party body, and state-level GDP per capita. Women hold under 30% of party leadership positions and about 15% of decision-making positions. The results support all three hypotheses: in parties with greater electoral strength, women are less likely to hold leadership positions; more powerful positions are held significantly less often by women; and this pattern is even more pronounced in decision-making roles. Greater internal democracy increases women’s access, while more right-leaning parties and wealthier states reduce it. The findings indicate the presence of a glass ceiling in Brazilian party organizations, with cumulative mechanisms of exclusion at the highest levels of power. The study contributes by applying the concept of the glass ceiling to parties’ internal dynamics and by highlighting the role of organizational structures in sustaining gender inequalities.
