Report by IPR Honorary Professor Sue Maguire, funded by the Government Equalities Office (GEO).

The two broad aims of this rapid evidence review were to identify:

• barriers to women’s participation in local and national government
• evidence of policies and practices, sometimes referred to as Positive Action Mechanisms, which have increased their levels of participation.

The methodology comprised: an inception meeting to agree the parameters and key issues of the study; a scoping review to identify sources of data; a review of evidence and literature, through a search of the literature; analysis and synthesis to extract the key messages and provide a thematic analysis of barriers and positive action mechanisms; and reporting.

A wide literature search was undertaken, with special emphasis on key databases, relevant journals and policy and research outputs.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Dr Frances Maguire for the outstanding research support and assistance that she provided to the project.