Electoral gender quotas systems and their implementation in Europe

List, in Ozorków Women of Tomorrow, and in the Szemudy local district the Equal Opportunityelection committee. Some of these consisted exclusively of women; others also included men onthe candidate lists. In some local districts women from these committees were elected, but never inany great number.Observations about the exclusion of women from politics and the need to increase women’srepresentation were the basis on which the Women’s Party (Partia Kobiet) was founded. Itpresented candidates for election in a number of electoral districts in the 2007 election. The party,which was founded by a famous female writer, was able to bring together well-known women whosupported it as well as many women who used to be active in smaller communities but lost theopportunity to work locally on women’s issues when the right-wing government took power in2005 45 . Unfortunately such initiatives have very little chance of gaining significant support and trulyentering the political scene 46 . The current system of political party financing means that new partieshave practically no chance to establish themselves. This applies not only to the Women’s Party butalso, for example, to the Green Party.However, the presence of the Women’s Party in certain electoral districts raised the overallpercentage of women on the electoral lists: women amounted to 97 per cent of candidates on theWomen’s Party lists.3.2. The presentation of men and women candidates in electoral campaignsOne of the most popular forms of presentation of candidates and programmes during the electioncampaign is television election shows. Analysis of shows prepared by the parties for Channel 1 ofpublic television within their free TV air time before elections in 1993, 1997 and 2001 indicates thatthe TV election campaign was ‘male’ – political parties promoted men, and devoted almost all theirfree air time to their statements. The vast majority of parties devoted less than 10 per cent of theirtime to women’s statements and more than 90 per cent of their time to men’s statements (Fuszara2006).3.3. Public opinion on gender equality in politicsPublic opinion polls show that the protest against the low participation of women in governingbodies is expressed, in the first place, by women, although there is an increase of men who thinkthat women’s participation in governing bodies is too low 47 . Society notices inequality ofopportunities: a large majority of respondents (74 per cent) maintain that women have lessopportunity to succeed in a political career than men. This opinion is presented a little more oftenby women (78 per cent) than by men (70 per cent). The percentage of women who feel that womenhave fewer opportunities has increased considerably: in 1993 48 , 64 per cent of female respondentsfelt certain about this, and in 2000 78 per cent of women thought that women have fewer chances.Public opinion polls in Poland also show that an increasing number of people think that thereshould be more women in the public sphere. In 2004, 54 per cent of respondents thought thereshould be more women in government, 53 per cent that there should be more in the Parliament,and 53 per cent that there should be more in local government 49 . Opinions on this issue are closelycorrelated with the gender of the respondents. All public opinion research shows that it is muchmore often women than men who want an increase in women’s participation in power (in45 Before the 2005 elections offices for gender equality were created on both the national and regional (województwo) levels. Afterthe 2005 elections these offices were dissolved.46 In elections in 2007 the Women’s Party did not pass the 5 per cent threshold for political parties.47 Research conducted in 2000, representative sample of 1,010 adult Poles.48 The sample in research conducted in 1993 included only women.49 Research conducted in 2004, a representative sample of 1,002 adult Poles.78