2021 Federal Election: Female MPs in the new Bundestag

The survey was conducted as part of the Helene Weber Kolleg, which is funded by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs. You can find all the results and charts here.

The proportion of women in the German Bundestag has remained at a similar level for 20 years, falling from a peak of 37.1 percent in 2013 to 30.7 percent following the 2017 election. This returned the figure to 1998 levels.

Slightly more women in the 2021 Bundestag

With the 2021 election, the share of female members of parliament has risen to 34.7%. While this represents a four-percentage-point increase compared to the 2017 election results, the proportion of women in the 20th Bundestag remains below the previous record of 37.1 percent.

The slight increase in the proportion of women can be attributed to the fact that two parties with mandatory gender quotas—the SPD and Alliance 90/The Greens—improved their results. In contrast, the CDU/CSU, FDP, and AfD either nominated few women (FDP, AfD) or placed women in less promising positions on their party lists and in direct constituencies (CDU/CSU).

Party lists: Are women in promising positions?

The proportion of women among candidates on party lists is not in itself very informative, as it does not reveal whether women were placed in positions with a realistic chance of winning. Comparing the proportion of female candidates with the election results shows that where there is a negative discrepancy, women were more likely to be placed in positions with low chances of success. The CDU/CSU is one example, with a 9-percentage-point gap between their candidates and those elected. The FDP and AfD placed fewer than a quarter of women on their party lists (25% and 14%, respectively) and performed one percentage point worse in terms of those elected.

The opposite is true for the SPD, the Greens, and The Left, where the proportion of women entering the Bundestag via party lists is 5–11% higher than the proportion of female candidates. This suggests that women were well-positioned on their lists. This difference is particularly high for the SPD.

Women in the constituencies

In about a quarter of all constituencies, a female candidate received the most votes and won the direct mandate. Four percent more women were nominated than actually won direct mandates. This figure suggests that some women were nominated in constituencies with little chance of success. The difference between the proportion of female candidates and those elected also allows for conclusions to be drawn about the nomination process here. Only Alliance 90/The Greens had a higher proportion of women among their directly elected politicians than among their candidates, with their share rising by 8 percentage points to 56 percent. All other parties show negative discrepancies. This difference is most pronounced for the SPD, whose proportion of women in the constituencies fell by 8% compared to the election results. It should also be noted that the Social Democrats won many additional constituencies in the 2021 election compared to the previous one. The trend also continues for the CDU/CSU, where more women ran than were elected, with a 5% gap between the two figures. For the AfD, the proportion remains similarly low (12.5% elected vs. 13% candidates), with women running in fewer than one-seventh of the constituencies. The Left won only three direct mandates, one of which was won by a woman. The FDP won no direct mandates.

Women with direct mandates

Here you can see the constituencies where women received the most votes: