Electoral gender quotas systems and their implementation in Europe

districts, quota rules are often not fully applied. There are examples of lists that contain no womenor just one woman (Mainz-Drais, Spiesen-Elversberg, Eppstein and Flomersheim of StadtFrankenthal). But, despite these ‘commonplace exceptions’, it is clear that most local electoral listsof parties that have quota rules provide more women in better positions than do those of theparties that do not have quota rules.Although at elections to the European Parliament Germany forms a single electoral district, partiesare allowed to present lists of candidates at either state or nation-state level. The national party listsgenerally stick to the rules of the respective zipper system. The party lists of the states differslightly, but on the whole follow their specific zipper systems.4.3. Women in legislative and executive bodies: success of quota rulesWhat about the numerical representation of women? For decades women’s political representationin Germany lagged behind. Until the early 1980s fewer than 10 per cent of elected legislators in theBundestag were women, but this share climbed to 20 per cent in 1990 and 30.9 per cent in 1998,and it has been stagnant at around 30 per cent since then (see table 11).Table 11. Women in the German national Parliament (Bundestag) 1949–2007Figures are for the beginning of the parliamentary term.Parliamentary term% of women members1949–53 6.81953–7 8.81957–61 9.21961–5 8.31965–9 6.91969–72 6.61972–6 5.81976–80 7.31980–3 8.51983–7 9.81987–90 15.41990–4 20.51994–8 26.31998–2002 30.92002–5 32.32005– 31.8Sources: Penrose, Virginia and Geissel, Brigitte, ‘“The Long Run”: Partizipation und Engagement untergeschlechtsspezifischen Zusammenhängen’, in Ulrike Gentner (ed.), Geschlechtergerechte Visionen: Politik in derBildungs- und Jugendarbeit (Königstein/Taunus: Ulrike Helmer Verlag, 2001), p. 198; Hoecker, Beate (ed.),Handbuch politische Partizipation von Frauen in Europa (Opladen: Leske und Budrich, 1998), p. 72;, August 2003.As could be expected, there are significant variations in the proportion of women within theparliamentary party groups (see table 12). The results of the elections in 2002 and 2005 illustrateclearly that parties that have quota rules have performed much better regarding gender equality thanparties that do not.Table 12. The percentage of women in the parliamentary party groups of the Bundestag(Bundestagsfraktion), by political partyElection 2002 Election 2005SPD 37.8 36.0Green Party 58.2 56.9The Left/PDS (100)* 46.364