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

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