As gender representation in political leadership becomes a focal point of public and media scrutiny, political parties face growing pressure to increase women's access to influential roles. While much attention has been given to the proportion of women in parliaments and governments, unexpectedly high numbers of women serving as parliamentary presidents and vice presidents warrant scholarly investigation. This paper investigates whether parties systematically appoint women to parliamentary presidencies as a means of compensating for their underrepresentation in more powerful positions, such as the leadership of the parliamentary party group, committee chairs, and cabinet roles. We argue that male favoritism leads to the selection of men to the posts that will be most beneficial for their political career, by strengthening their party network, policy expertise, or policy-making power. Women’s pressure for inclusion in the light of men’s overrepresentation results in women being selected for the posts that parties perceive to be a less promising career steppingstone – which is the parliamentary presidency, as it involves serving as a neutral representative of parliament, with weak party ties and no policy specialization. Using data from the StatePol dataset, which tracks political officeholders in Germany's sixteen state parliaments over a thirty-year period, we test the “consolation prize” hypothesis. Our analysis finds that parties are more likely to select women as (vice) parliamentary presidents if male dominance persists in the leadership of parliamentary party groups. These findings offer new insights into how political parties manage gender representation across various leadership positions.