La rappresentanza femminile nelle istituzioni politiche elettive

The problem at the core of this essay is: "Why do women, when interested into politics, find more difficult than men to stand as candidates and then to get elected to political positions?". We shall try therefore to find out here which factors - cultural or institutional - can contribute to increase or, viceversa, to limit female insitutional representation, focusing in particular on the main measures adopted in different countries to balance this situation such as the definition of "gender quotas" in electoral lists or, more seldom, in the elective assemblies themselves. After the discussion of the topic at international level, a final part will deal with women's representation in Italy's "Camera dei Deputati" (Lower House) in last decades.