The main objective of this paper is to analyse where women run for and win seats in local councils of Czech towns between 1998 and 2018. Our results are to some extent contradictory to those from Western Europe. More importantly, this study demonstrates that strategic context impacts on women’s emergence and success in local elections in a different way. First, we do not confirm that larger towns are more promising for women’s representation. While more fragmented party systems in larger cities contribute to making women’s candidacy more common, a large pool of female candidates does not result in their higher presence in local councils. Second, we identify openness of local environment to women, in terms of women’s previous representation, as a strong determinant of female representation in Czech towns, both in terms of candidacy and success.

本文的主要目的是分析1998年至2018年妇女在捷克城镇地方议会中竞选和赢得席位的位置。我们的结果在某种程度上与西欧的妇女相矛盾。更重要的是，这项研究表明，战略背景以不同的方式影响了妇女在地方选举中的出现和成功。首先，我们不确定大城镇在妇女代表制方面更有前途。虽然大城市中政党制度更加分散，有助于使妇女参选更加普遍，但大量的女性候选人并不能提高她们在地方议会中的席位。其次，就候选人的资格和成功而言，我们根据妇女的先前任职身份确定对妇女开放的地方环境，是决定捷克城镇中妇女任职人数的重要决定因素。