The presence of women in positions of power is increasingly notable. Even so, the front line seems to still be monopolized by men. Much of what well-know about this issue is based on data about women's appointment to cabinets, but we still know very little about the actual decision-making processes of leaders when creating party tickets and governments. To shed light on the puzzle, I conducted a conjoint experiment in a novel survey of 979 Spanish mayors. Because mayors have the power to appoint governments, they are asked to select a team member between two randomly-varied profiles of would-be politicians. The paper also explores whether age, level of education, and having children influence team selection; as well as if male or female stereotypes (i.e., being described as competitive and self-confident, or kind and conciliatory) influence political advancement. This latter question addresses the fact that women tend to face higher development barriers in politics than men. In all, the experimental data confirms that gender, having children, and stereotypes influence teams selection. The contribution of the paper is focused on exploring if there are some patterns that define female leaders’ pathways to power. Specifically, the paper contributes to the understanding of the effects of intraparty leadership selection mechanisms, with special attention to party leaders’ motivations and incentives of appointing women on their teams.