Women Running for the Office of MP under the Flexible Lists System in Latvia: the Case Studies of Milda Salnā and Berta Pīpiņa (1922–1934)
Women Running for the Office of MP under the Flexible Lists System in Latvia: the Case Studies of Milda Salnā and Berta Pīpiņa (1922–1934)

Summary/Abstract: Adopting the close reading approach for the case studies of two female social activists and their biographies, this article is an investigation of the outcomes for women candidates under an electoral system that differed from the closed list system used in other European countries. In Latvia, a flexible lists system was in use, and the result of this was gender specific: due to the crossing out of candidates’ names by electors, women were elected very rarely. The objective of the article is to examine the kind of voting tactics and affiliations that were deployed by female candidates from mixed-sex political parties in order to win popularity among non-party women’s organisations and succeed in being elected to parliament. The politician Milda Salnā (1886–1970) was the only woman whose candidature was put forward for the position of Minister of Welfare in 1925. The other female politician, Berta Pīpiņa (1883–1942), is the only woman who became a Member of Parliament under the flexible lists system.

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