Electoral gender quotas systems and their implementation in Europe

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Source: Author’s own calculation on the basis of the parties’ candidates lists, Statistical Office data and data ofthe State Electoral Commission.4.3. Implementation of gender quotas for elections to the European ParliamentSlovenia has been a member of the EU since May 2004. An amendment to introduce genderquotas for elections to the European Parliament was accepted by the National Assembly shortlybefore the election in June 2004. There were 13 party lists competing for seven seats in theEuropean Parliament, and four got members elected: the NSi, the LDS, the SDS and the SD.Table 30. Number and placement of female candidates for election to the EuropeanParliament in Slovenia, 2004, by partyPartyNo. of womencandidates (for 7seats)Placement of womencandidatesNo. of womenelected/no. of MEPselected for the partySD (ZL, ZLSD) 3 2, 4, 6 0/1DSS 3 2, 4, 5 0GŽ 4 1, 2, 4, 5 0LDS and DeSUS 3 2, 5, 6 ½NSi 3 2, 4, 6 ½DS 3 2, 4, 6 0SDS 3 2, 3, 6 ½SEG 4 2, 3, 4, 5 0SLS 3 3, 5, 6 0SMS and Greens 4 1, 2, 3 0SN 3 1, 3, 5 0SNS 3 3, 5, 6 0SSN 3 2, 5, 7 0Total 3/7Source: Government information office.Table 30 shows that this provision forced all the political parties to follow the rule and there wasno party that did not place 40 per cent of women on its candidate list (for further details, see Fink-Hafner 2005). Only three small parties placed women at the top of their lists. Among the13 parties that competed for seats in the European Parliament, two put women in third positionand lower, eight (all the biggest parties) put a woman in second position, and three put a woman infirst position – the SMS, Slovenia is Ours (SN) and Women’s Voice (GŽ) – although none of thesethree got through. Three parties (the NSi, the LDS and the SDS) won two seats each and each hasone male and one female member of the European Parliament (MEP). It can be assumed thatthese three parties calculated if they got only one seat it would go to a male candidate, but if theygot two there would be a female as well. The party that put its first woman in third position, or thesmall parties that put their first woman in second position on the list, knew that they did not havea serious chance of being elected.Slovenia now has 42.9 per cent female MEPs (and takes fourth position among the EU countries)compared with 30.3 per cent women in the European Parliament as a whole. Without the provisionin the law on elections to the European Parliament, which required 40 per cent gender quotas andthe placement of a candidate of each sex in the first part of the list, this result would not have beenpossible.5. ConclusionA period of stagnation of women’s representation in politics, combined with the activities ofwomen activists in party politics and outside it (in the Coalition for Parity, and some researchers),90
led to an open public debate about legislated gender quotas for the elective positions in politics. Asa result, quota provisions were incorporated into the three laws for elections at the local, nationaland European levels. Immediate results at the local and European levels have been analysed in thiscase study, but in the long term the results are still to be seen. It is, however, clear that for now thatgender quotas serve their purpose – to improve the possibilities for women candidates to stand forelection in greater numbers and to improve their chances of being elected once they appear on theelectoral lists. This is more than obvious if one analyses the candidate lists and the statistics ofelected female councillors after the last elections at the local level in Slovenia.ReferencesAntić Gaber, Milica, Ženske v parlamentu (Ljubljana: Znanstveno in publicistično središče, 1998)Antić Gaber, Milica and Lokar, Sonja, ‘The Balkans: From Total Rejection to Gradual Acceptanceof Gender Quotas’, in Drude Dahlerup (ed.), Women, Quotas and Politics (New York and London:Routledge, 2006)Antić Gaber, Milica and Gortnar, Maruša, ‘Gender Quotas in Alovenia: A Short Analysis ofFailures and Hopes’, European Political Science, 3/3 (2004), pp. 73–9Fink-Hafner, Danica, ‘Evropske volitve 2004 v Sloveniji – učinkovitost volilnega inženirstva vkorist bolj uravnotežene zastopanosti spolov’, in Alenka Krašovec (ed.), Volitve v evropskiparlament: res drugorazredne volitve? (Ljubljana: Fakulteta za družbene vede, 2005), pp. 107–29Jalušič, Vlasta and Antić Gaber, Milica, Ženske – politike – možnosti: Perspektive politike enakih možnosti vsrednji in vzhodni Evropi [Women – politics – equal opportunities: Prospects for gender equalitypolitics in Central and Eastern Europe], Zbirka Politike (Ljubljana: Mirovni inštitut, Inštitut zasodobne družbene in politične študije, 2001)Državna volilna komisija, State Electoral Commission, Governmental offices for communication, Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, Lokalne volitve 1994–2006 [Local elections 1994–2006],Ljubljana, April 2007Local elections 2006, results,Resolucija o nacionalnem programu enakosti moških in žensk 2005–2013 [Resolution on theNational Program for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, 2005–2013],Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia,State Statistical Office, Ustava Republike Slovenije [Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia], Ustavni zakon RS, Uradni list RS, št. 69/2004, z dne 24.06.2004, Zakon o enakih možnostih žensk in moških [Law on equal opportunities of women and men],Uradni list RS, 59/2002, Zakon o lokalnih volitvah [Law on local elections], Uradni list RS 72/2005, Zakon o volitvah v Državni zbor RS [Law on election to the National Assembly], Uradni list RS109/2006, 91
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Directorate-General Internal Polici
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Electoral Gender Quota Systems andT
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AppendicesThe methodology of the qu
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Table 41. Women’s representation
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1. Mapping of electoral gender quot
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Committee of Ministers’ Recommend
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have occurred after election day -
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parties and take the form of intern
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Knowledge of different electoral qu
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support for female candidates has s
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of more women in politics. Many opp
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Figure 3. The incremental track mod
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is probably that gender quotas rema
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to gender quotas. Likewise, the dat
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‘Special organisation for women w
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individual parties that adopt them,
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political party in the Swedish Parl
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then the requirement of 50 per cent
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proportion of women elected in the
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and organisation of women are cruci
Page 44 and 45: Matland, Richard E., ‘Enhancing W
Page 46 and 47: Case studyBelgium: a best practice
Page 48 and 49: While the 1994 act applied to all e
Page 50 and 51: need to include at least one woman,
Page 52 and 53: introduced, individual parties adop
Page 54 and 55: Marissal, Claudie and Hansen, Ingri
Page 56 and 57: In order to correct the discriminat
Page 58 and 59: The legal vacuum pertaining to the
Page 60 and 61: y women in terms of number of seats
Page 62 and 63: 5. ‘Virtuous dynamic’: the symb
Page 64 and 65: Case studyGermany: successful quota
Page 66 and 67: party positions (Gruppenwahlen zu P
Page 68 and 69: districts, quota rules are often no
Page 70 and 71: Table 14. Success rates of female a
Page 72 and 73: Figure 5. Development of the percen
Page 74 and 75: so far no formal rules have been ad
Page 76 and 77: Case studyPoland: one step forward,
Page 78 and 79: 16 in Poland)Rady powiatów(second
Page 80 and 81: 3. Evaluation3.1. Candidate lists i
Page 82 and 83: List, in Ozorków Women of Tomorrow
Page 84 and 85: 3.4. Representation of women in oth
Page 86 and 87: Case studySlovenia: from voluntary
Page 88 and 89: council. The positions of candidate
Page 90 and 91: 3.2.2. The introduction of legislat
Page 92 and 93: Table 25 shows that only one of the
Page 96 and 97: Zakon o volitvah v Evropski parlame
Page 98 and 99: Advocates for quotas for women lobb
Page 100 and 101: Table 31. The percentage and number
Page 102 and 103: Table 33. Municipality elections in
Page 104 and 105: Case studySweden: small steps, big
Page 106 and 107: 40 per cent of either sex on the pa
Page 108 and 109: voluntary party quotas than in part
Page 110 and 111: The zipper system (50 per cent) int
Page 112 and 113: While quotas for minority groups ha
Page 114 and 115: Case studyThe United Kingdom: polit
Page 116 and 117: In contrast to Labour, the Scottish
Page 118 and 119: The twinning and zipping policies a
Page 120 and 121: differences across the political pa
Page 122 and 123: Appendix IThe methodology of the qu
Page 124 and 125: Brigitte Geissel is a political sci
Page 126: ZLSDZZPUnited List of Social Democr
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Electoral gender quotas systems and their implementation in Europe

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