Legislative Quotas for Women: A global and ... - Aurat Foundation

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Political Party Quotas are rules or targets set by political parties toinclude a certain percentage of women as election candidates. Thereare several different examples of how a quota has been utilized in thepolitical process.In total 108 political parties in 54 countries have introduced voluntaryquotas for women with proportions ranging from 20% to 50%. Thismodel is present in all continents, in developed Nordic and Europeancountries, as well as in African and Latin American countries. InAsia, only a few countries have adopted it. Some of the countries are:Australia, Austria, Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, CostaRica, Cyprus, France, Germany, Czeck Republic, Greece, Hungry,Iceland, Italy, Kenya, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Mozambique,Morocco, Norway, Niger, Romania, Spain, Sweden, South Africa,Switzerland, Thailand, Tunisia and United Kingdom.These quotas have contributed immensely to high and growingproportion of women’s representation in parliaments and the globalaverage, i.e. 19.4%.In Tunisia, it has been decided that political parties will submit lists ofcandidates comprising of 50% women for the next parliamentaryelections.In Norway, four major political parties, Norwegian Labour Party,Socialist Left Party, Centre Party and Christian People’s Party havevoluntary quotas ranging from 40 to 50 % for both sexes; NorwegianLabour Party says that in all election lists there must be a 50 percentquota for both sexes, and both sexes shall be represented in the firsttwo positions.In UK, the Labour Party members have two votes - one for a womanand one for a man. The man and woman with the most votes isselected. In 2001, the Liberal Democrats adopted a 40 percent targetof women candidates, and at the same time rejected all-womenshortlists. Prior to the 2005 elections, the party placed women in 40percent of the "winnable seats".Sweden has set another shining example. The Social DemocraticParty has fixed party quotas under Zipper system (one sex alternates25
the other on party lists), The Left Party has set a 50% minimum quotafor women on party lists. Green Party also has a 50 % gender quotaon party lists. The Moderate Party has gone a step further by sayingthat two women and two men shall be placed on the top four positionson the party list for the election to the European Parliament.Out of top 30 rankings in world for over 30% proportion ofrepresentation in lower house of parliament, 23 countries have quotas;most of these countries have political party quotasPolitical party quotas have brought seven countries to the threshold ofgender party (50-50) in national parliaments. One (Rwanda) hasalready achieved it.Political parties, who voluntarily adopted quotas for women, in fact,accepted and internalized the vision of gender equality, as partypolicy and not just as official obligation.Political party quotas have reformed several institutions ofgovernance – political parties, legislatures, governments – as well asthe constituents in favour of women’s role in leadership and decisionmaking.Women contest direct constituency-based elections and have risen tohigh positions of decision-making in their countries, as well as, intheir own parties.One country may have several quota types. Most of the countries withpolitical parties have the Proportional Representation system; thoughother systems like FPTP and parallel are also being used.High proportions of representation (from a minimum of 33% to 50%)and direct constituency-based elections are the key to success forwomen’s effective representation in elected houses of parliaments.26
Page 2 and 3: Legislative Quotasfor WomenA Global
Page 4: Table of ContentsNo. Content Page12
Page 7: For some experts, types of electora
Page 10 and 11: in and its impact on political deci
Page 13 and 14: The Beijing Platform for Action, ad
Page 15 and 16: it is argued, compensatory measures
Page 18 and 19: 2 The QuotasAs already stated in th
Page 20 and 21: acknowledged that the quota brought
Page 22 and 23: Gender quotas around the world 20Th
Page 24 and 25: Usually, this model has guaranteed
Page 28 and 29: 3 Reserved seats in PakistanHistori
Page 30 and 31: assemblies serving as electoral col
Page 32 and 33: elected in 1997; 2.4 in the Senate
Page 34 and 35: Ministry of Women’s Development o
Page 36: In the second general elections hel
Page 39 and 40: AfghanistanAfghanistan’s National
Page 41 and 42: legislation by the Parliament. The
Page 43 and 44: “Nothing in the world is perfect,
Page 45 and 46: Sri LankaSri Lanka’s unicameral H
Page 47 and 48: Quantum of representationThe women
Page 49 and 50: legitimacy of the system in its obs

Legislative Quotas for Women: A global and ... - Aurat Foundation

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