Definition and Purpose
= mechanism to guarantee a certain percentage of women are present either (1) the ballot paper or (2) in parliament |
- act as a process and a facilitator of women’s political inclusion |
- compensate for the many gendered barriers of accessing political office |
Types of Gender Quota's
- Constitutional (e.g. France, Rwanda) → aka reserved seats: are usually enshrined in a country’s constitution and guarantee that a certain proportion/number of parliamentary seats are reserved for women |
- Voluntary (e.g. Scandinavian countries; Germany) → quota’s are voluntarily set by political parties to facilitate the nomination of a certain number or proportion of women candidates |
- Legislative (e.g. ROI, Belgium, Spain, Poland, Argentina) → are enshrined in the election law, political party law or other comparable law of a country; usually apply to the nomination stage of candidate selection |
Application of Quota's
- Results /Outcome (Reserve Seats) |
- Nomination (Candidate Selection) |
Effectiveness of Quota's (Franceschet et al, 2012)
- imposing significant quota obligations and penalties |
- strong political will |
- combining (fit) with institutional structures |
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Reasons for Movement
- Legacy of (i) historical exclusion of women from political citizenship (ie suffrage); (ii) bias towards traditional gender roles have resulted in women’s under-representation worldwide; and (iii) challenge the gendered nature of political institutions and decision-making |
Men are over represented: 26.9% women parliamentarians; 73.1% men parliamentarians -> time to problematise men's overrepresentation rather than normalise women's underrepresentation (Rainbow Murray) |
- progress in women’s representation is slow, static, and subject to reversals |
Ireland is ranked 104th of the world today |
- growing pressures on states/political parties since 90s to tackle women’s under-representation |
endogenous pressure: e.g. women’s movements, growing electoral competition, political parties exogenous pressure: e.g. UN, and the EU |
Reasons for Implication
- women's mobilisation |
- democratic renewal/change |
- international pressure (UN) |
- elite support and strategic considerations -> often times key if positice action measures are to be introduced |
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Reason for Differences in Success
- Issues of system fit -> easier to 'fit' gender quota with PR-List electoral system |
- Placement rules/mandates |
- Sanctions, complience and enforcement -> how are the quotas enforced? finacial, disqualification, list rejection, etc. |
- winnable seats |
- political leadership & will |
- political & wider societal culture |
Lessons Learned
- it takes at least three electoral cycles to see numbers increase |
- Resistance from ‘local’ party and resentment from male candidates |
- Quotas have been associated with an increase in the introduction of women-friendly policy legislative proposals |
- need to manage ecpectations: "Women elected following the introduction of gender quotas shouldn’t carry the sole responsibility ‘to change the system’" |
Gender Quota's in Ireland
In Ireland, legislative gender quotas require that political parties nominate 30% women candidates for general elections.
- Passed in 2012 to address gender imbalance in Parliament.
- Quotas apply to parties running at least 30 candidates.
- Parties face financial penalties for not meeting quotas.
- Aims to increase representation of women in politics.
reasons:
- The under-representation of women in Irish politics
- Voluntary measures/’soft’ targets were tried but failed
-> Party investment on attracting and promoting women in politics was low
- Political reform, democratic renewal, ‘New Politics'
-> a desire to break away from the ‘old way’ of‘doing’ politics
- Women’s mobilisation and feminist activism in society and parliament
- Levelling the ‘political playing pitch’
- Party elite support in government
impact:
- 90 per cent increase women candidates
- 48 per cent increase in number of women TDs
- At the 2020 general election, 22.5 per cent women’s representation in Dáil Éireann
→ A record high but far away from gender parity |
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