City of Launceston has eight women standing for council out of 33

For the City of Launceston municipality, only eight nominations are women out of 33 total nominations.

Launceston appears to be one of the most unequal municipalities for its male-to-female ratio of nominated candidates, with none running for the mayoral role.

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The highest ratio in the Northern areas appears to be Dorset council - with eight out of the 15 candidates being women.

Australian Local Government Women's Association Tasmania president Dr Mary Duniam has spent years researching the area of women in local government.

She said women show "unrecognised leadership" in areas like committees, welfare, education and training - but this doesn't translate to local government.

"It is the cultural dynamics between men and women which may explain why women doubt their capacity to run for local government elections and aspire to roles in civic leadership. This may also explain the so-called political ambition gap for women," she said.

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Dr Duniam said another "significant obstacle" she found women faced was local government is known as "the old boys club network".

"It is unfortunate that there is such a low number of women nominating for City of Launceston council, particularly as research into women's participation as civic leaders in local government identifies that women's connection to community, their skills and unique perspectives mean they are rich with potential as councillors in local government," she said.

University of Tasmania Professor David Adams said standards need to change to encourage women to stand for local government.

Professor Adams has a background in regional development and policy management and was the former director of Northern Tasmania Development.

"Most everything about the culture and structure of local government works against women at the moment," he said. "The professional ethics or lack thereof, means that it's an unfriendly environment."

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This year elections nominations have one more female candidate nominated than the 2018 elections for Launceston, which had seven out of the 32 candidates being women.

Former president for ALGWA Tas, Debra Thurley said research identifies three possible barriers to women's candidate emergence.

"Women see themselves as significantly less qualified to run, women aren't encouraged enough to run compared to men and some women still bear most of the household and childcare responsibilities in the family," she said.

Out of the three female councillors currently on Launceston council - Andrea Dawkins and Krista Preece are running again and also for deputy mayor while Karina Stojansek is not running again after two terms in council.

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In attempts to continue to increase female participation ALGWA ran state-wide WomenCan campaigns to encourage interested women to nominate for local councils.

These campaigns informed potential women candidates of what to expect on the roles and responsibilities of Local Government participation via information sessions and workshops in the South, North and North West.

Hobart City Council candidates also present a gender disparity with just 14 women running compared to 30 men.

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