Electoral gender quotas systems and their implementation in Europe

of quotas, the prediction that women elected on the basis of quotas (‘quota women’) would be metwith suspicion and stigmatisation has, in general, not turned out to be true. When stigmatisationoccurs, it is often found in countries with a generally negative attitude towards women politicians,no matter how they are elected. Again, the very design of the quota system may play a role. In50 : 50 per cent zipper systems women are not elected on the basis of quotas any more than menare. It is, thus, very important to design quota systems in such a way that they give the maximumdegree of legitimacy to those nominated and elected.The experience with quota systems so far is that, in general, the voters have little or no knowledgeof how nomination takes place. After the election, when an assembly starts to work, very littleattention is normally paid to how the MPs were nominated – all votes count. In fact, gender is justone category added to the many categories that are important in the nomination process, includingincumbency, occupation, trade union affiliation, age, residence and position within civil society.3.7. RecommendationsParties as gatekeepersA general conclusion of this study is that political parties are vital in the promotion of women inpolitics. The power to recruit, select and nominate candidates is in the hands of political parties,whatever the electoral system. Any attempt to address the issue of women’s under-representation inpolitics must, therefore, target the political parties and their views and strategies on more inclusivedecision-making assemblies.Recommendation 1All political parties should adopt an action plan for the recruitment of women and other underrepresentedgroups based on an analysis of the causes of this under-representation.Recommendation 2Political parties and women’s organisations as well as other stakeholders should develop tools forgender monitoring of nominations and elections.Recommendations, targets and additional measuresA second general conclusion of this study is that the goal of gender balance in decision making maybe attained by several measures and that multiple measures remain necessary for the achievement ofmore inclusive decision-making assemblies. As this study has shown, the proportion of women inelected bodies may very well be increased by measures other than quotas, such as targets andrecommendations, actions plans and capacity-building activities in individual parties. However, it isimportant to point out that the application of these measures depends on the good-faithcompliance of the political parties, since there are no legislated sanctions for non-compliance. Inaddition, this study has found that, without written quota provisions, the placement of women onparty lists and the distribution between female and male candidates in good or bad districts for theparty needs to be negotiated in every candidate selection process, which might result in less stableproportions of women parliamentarians across time.The presence of a strong women’s movement is also an important factor in the promotion ofwomen in politics. Women’s organisations may mobilise the electorate and put pressure on thepolitical parties or on governments to adopt special measures to enhance the politicalrepresentation of women. Without an active pressure group, women’s political representation mightnot increase as quickly as desired. In order to support women candidates and to ensure therepresentation of women’s diverse interests in public decision-making assemblies, the mobilisation37