Electoral quotas for women are an affirmative-action measure designed to correct the unequal participation of women in decision and policy-making positions in government.

There are different types: minimum percentages prescribed in laws and in rules or statutes governing political parties. These may take the form of closed or open lists or the determination of seats by parties, among others.

The political history of our country reveals a conspicuous absence of women from government and decision-making. Women have very occasionally played minor roles in major struggles. In spite of the fact that conditions for women have changed substantially in some respects (a higher proportion has access to, and successfully completes, education), these advances have not been matched in the political sphere.

What is true, however, is that in countries like Panama, where there is a Quota Law (30%) on the statute books, the presence of women in candidate lists for elected posts has increased and we have seen a slight increase in the percentage of women elected; from 7% to 13%. However, we have a long way to go before we reach the statutory minimum.

Elia López de Tulipano
President
Foro Nacional de Mujeres de Partidos Políticos [National Forum of Women in Political Parties]
Panama

This comment was originally posted on the Spanish E-Discussion Forum at http://www.iknowpolitics.org/es/node/5961#comment-1848

Women’s involvement in Politics is intrinsically linked to development; in that, the latter can not truly exist if the former is not facilitated at a level where can have an equal effect on policies and legislations. Many scholars such as Antrobus (Mohammed & Shepherd, 1999) have used this argument to promote women’s increased participation in governance.

Gender quotas are a calculated attempt to increase the number of women playing a direct role in the decision making process of a state. There are three types of gender quota systems; these are (Krook, 2003):

Reserved seats: National policies that mandate a set number of seats in parliament for women. Seats may be distributed by either:
- designating certain districts as ‘women’s districts’ for a period of one electoral cycle; or
- granting political parties to appoint a certain number of women in accordance with the percentage of votes the party received in the most recent election.

Political party quotas & targets: The political party has the right to have a specific percentage/proportion/numeric range of women among the party candidates/ elected representatives. This method is less binding, as its use is dependent on the political party’s policies/stance towards increasing women’s political participation rate.

National legislative quotas: National policies stipulating that political parties nominate a certain percentage/ proportion of women among their candidates. These quotas are embedded in the constitution or in electoral laws. National legislative quotas differ from reserved seats in that it is more input oriented, as it concentrates on the selection process as opposed to the final proportion of women in parliament.

The effectiveness of each quota system has been discussed throughout academia and any one quota system has yet to be definitively pinpointed as the most effective method of increasing women’s participation rate in governance. According to Krook each quota system has its fair share of successes and failures. With that said, the effectiveness of either is dependent on numerous factors relating to culture, political system, and level of development.

As far as women’s participation in politics goes, there is no policy in place to mandate the number of women included in the government. Jamaica has however, sought to implement gender sensitivity in the formulation of new and amendment of old legislations and policies.

The political realm was transformed when the Hon. Portia Simpson Miller gained the coveted seat of Prime Minister of Jamaica in 2006. With rumours of an impending general election, the Jamaican society was poised to usher in a new era; an era that facilitated women’s increased involvement in politics. This belief was quickly dispelled when the candidates put forward by both parties showed a highly disproportionate male-female composition (see table 1). The total female candidates as a fraction of the total candidates put forward by the Jamaica Labour Party and People’s National Party were 11.9 per cent and 16.9 per cent respectively.

The male-female breakdown of the Ministers of Government in 2008 also shows a disproportionate composition that is highly in favour of men.

The quota system is very necessary in increasing the representation of women in decision-making and power sharing positions especially in conflict and post-conflict countries like Sudan, where the issue of power sharing is one of the main causes for the on-going conflicts in the country (East, South, Darfur, and other areas). In addition, the long years of war in Sudan have compounded gender inequalities in the socio-political and economic spheres and have escalated the scale and incidence of gender-based violence and gender discrimination in all spheres of life. A sustainable basis for the peace building process therefore requires investments in upholding and protecting the equal rights of women; increase women’s representation at different levels; and ensuring women’s political participation.

The quota system was introduced for the first time in Sudan under the Comprehensive peace agreement (CPA), the interim constitution and the bill of rights that granted 25% representation for women at different levels starting from the local government. However, the CPA did not come up with a mechanism to ensure the implementation of the Quota system in an equitable way to ensure women’s representation, taking into account the diversity in Sudan (ethnicity, geographic representation, east, south, Darfur, transitional areas, etc”).

The introduction of the quota system created a real challenge for the Sudanese women and the international community who support their efforts to promote gender equality issues in Sudan. However, due to the political context (political instability, on-going conflict, dictatorships and deteriorating socio-economic conditions) that resulted in lack of solidarity, coherence, feminist consciousness and mis-trust among the Sudanese women the realization of the quota system needs more effort to bring the Sudanese women together to build their solidarity and unite them to have a common vision to participate in the upcoming election in 2009. Add to this that in many cases the political agenda (political affiliation) overrides the women agenda (and the feminist consciousness). When it comes to women issues that conflict with the political agenda normally the women stick to their party agenda and forget about the joint commitment that the Sudanese women movement has made to address gender equality issues in Sudan.

This proved that unless the introduction of a quota system will be followed with programmes that bring women together, unite them, and build their capacity to be capable of filling in the 25% seats that are granted for women by CPA and the constitution, the quota system will be “a curse and not a blessing”

Rabab M. A. Baldo

Quotas in combination with long-term and consistent involvement of women's NGOs in the process of capacity strengthening of local women from all provinces of country may lay a basis of guarantees that elected women will be legitimate representatives of women in the country and be real change agents in Parliaments. For example, a rural activist has been elected and there is a very positive cooperation between her women's movement in Kyrgyzstan.

Thanks to quotas, in Kyrgyzstan we have about 5-7 % women in the Parliament, while in our previous Parliament we had 0 women. Quotas are absolutely necessary to help women to be elected in Parliaments, where they get political experience and needed political skills. If we empower women candidates and leaders with strong skills long before the elections, we (women activists, feminists) may have substantial and sustainable cooperation with them after they win in elections. This way,women MPs will become women's voice in parliaments.

The last Parliamentary Elections in Kyrgyzstan, held on December 16, 2007, were based on political party lists. This system was introduced by the new Elections Code adopted in October 2007.

Based on the national referendum of 21 October 2007, a new Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic and the new Elections Code regulated political life of Kyrgyzstan. Due to the efforts of women and women’s NGOs, the new Elections code contains quota provision and a new statement on the order of nomination of candidates with the consideration of both genders representation.

Based on a personal initiative of the head of the Central Electoral Committee, who is a woman, a regulatory statement was issued after the National referendum. The referendum was held one month before the Parliamentary Elections to interpret the article on gender quotas in political party lists. The article said that in political party lists, submitted for the registration in the Parliamentary elections, not more than three positions should be given to the same gender. As a result, to be eligible for the registration for the Parliamentary Elections political parties had to have women at least in every fourth position. So, this order has actually guaranteed that women will have at least 20% of the seats in the Parliament.

The President of the Kyrgyz Republic in 2006 signed a degree “On measures to improve gender policy” targeting the introduction of 30% quota for women in political positions.

12 political parties participated in the Parliamentary Elections and 25 political parties applied for the registration to the Central Electoral Committee (CEC). Several political parties failed to register because they made mistakes in the political parties lists. For example, Veterans Party had twice broke the rule on the maximum of three consequent seats given to one gender. CEC refused to register three parties (Taza Koom, Party of Afghan veterans and the Communist party of Kyrgyzstan) exactly because of non-confirmity with this requirement.

Challenges

· Political parties were not ready for quotas: gender, age and ethnic minorities. This led to failure in registration of some quite strong political parties.

· The development of political parties and their internal decision-making machinery were not ready for Elections.

· Extremely short time for preparations to the Parliamentary Elections and for effective mobilization around potentially progressive political parties.

· Identification, selection and attraction of women-leaders to party lists.

Advantages

· Traditionally marginalized groups were able to be included in high level positions within political party lists. Among them were women and young people.

· Political parties had to strengthen their structures and processes under pressure.

· Cooperation between political parties was demanded by the circumstances.

The role of women’s NGOs

Undoubtedly, certain women’s participation in the Forum of Women’s NGOs program “Women’s participation in political processes”, which started in 2005 and continued in 2006-2007, was instrumental in highlighting their political activities. About 17 Women from the program of the Forum of women's NGOs in Kyrgyzstan (bringing 50 women to Parliament) were offered seats in political party lists. Among them, there were some who were successful and some failed to register with CEC, as well as three of them are MPs now. About 12 of our women in party lists passed series of training sessions, including training of APWLD conducted by H.E. Swanee Hunts, which was supported by the Global Fund for women and HIVOS.

Elections results:

o Number of Parliamentary Caucuses: 3 (Ak Jol, Social-Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan, Party of Kyrgyzstan Communists).
o number of women MPs -24
o Status of women in the new Parliament
Out of 12 Parliamentary Committees only one is headed by a woman -Sadykova Leyla, Committee on defense, security, law and order and judicial legal reform.

There are four women (33,3%) deputies of heads of Parliamentary Committees.

Women as deputy of head of Parliamentary Committees:

Abdullaeva Cholpon, Committee on youth and gender policy, physical training and sports
Sidorenko Raisa, Committee on land-agrarian issues and ecology
Kulikova Galina, Committee on education, science, culture and informational policy
Moldosheva Dinara (28 years old, lawyer, before worked as a lawyer in the Parliament), Committee on ethics and regulations of Jogorku Kenesh (Parliament) of Kyrgyz Republic

Sincerely,

Dr. Nurgul Djanaeva
Forum of women's NGOs of Kyrgyzstan

Quotas have been key to increasing the numerical representation of women over the past decades. From an average of just over 12% a decade ago, women now hold more than 18% of seats across all parliaments. The main contributing factor? The implementation of electoral quotas.

The effectiveness of quotas for sure varies from country to country depending on the type of quota and the enforcement arrangements. Other factors like the women's movement and electoral systems matter too. But the numbers speak for themselves:

- Of the nearly 70 countries with either legislated quotas, voluntary party quotas or reserved seats, the overall representation of women stands at around 22%.

- For the countries with no quotas the average stands at around 14%.

- In elections held in 2007: countries with quotas elected 19.3% women on average, as opposed to 14.7% for countries with no quotas. http://www.ipu.org/pdf/publications/wmn07-e.pdf

A common question that tends to go hand-in-hand with the effectiveness of electoral quotas is whether quotas empower women in parliament. The purpose of quotas is to elect or appoint women to parliament. How women perform or are able to work and make their presence felt in parliament is related to a whole other set of factors, and possibly the least influential is whether a woman was elected by a quota.

Parliaments are highly gendered institutions and largely operate according to rules that were established before women were even in parliaments. Political parties have a highly influential role. The institutional structures of the parliament matter, such as if committees on gender equality exist or whether women have organized themselves into a women's caucus. In parliaments with few women members, there simply are not enough women to take part in all the committee assignments, reducing their overall influence. Women also tend to be centralized in committees that address social and development issues, and have a lesser numerical presence in committees dealing with finance and trade. There are also fewer women in the executive and decision-making structures of political parties.

These are all factors that when combined can greatly affect the influence of women in parliament, and are less contingent upon the method in which a woman gained access to parliament. These factors are outlined in more detail in the recent IPU Survey of women and men parliamentarians, entitled Equality in Politics ( http://www.ipu.org/english/surveys.htm#equality08 ). The fact remains though, that when taken at face value, quotas remain the most effective way to increase the numerical presence in parliament. But taking women's empowerment further and bolstering their impact in parliament requires tackling a whole other set of challenges.

Julie Ballington, IPU

I appreciate your initiative for support of women in politics.

With the wish that my opinions and experience in politics contribute to your discussion, accept my views on the four issues:

1. The experience of women represented in politics, at the local and central level in Kosova, accepted by all political parties and other relevant factors, with quotas representing 30% women, gave good outcomes. I think that this form of political women's representation has to continue for some time, without harming quality, while investing in the development of women's skills towards politics aspects (Leadership and Management). This will open the route to real representation of women in decision taking and responsible positions.

2. The last election in Kosova has shown that the representation of 30% women, and an electoral system using open lists created possibilities for women's participation in politics during this provisional phase, taking care of representation quality by political subject.

3. The critic's observation is the quality of women represented in politics, which is still going on. The only solution is a women's support network regarding skills, leadership development, management etc.

This value changes with continuous investment, increment and financial support of women projects (…"Learning by doing")

4. Practices have shown that the promotion of women have been more due to family and friendship relations than institutional. This happened due to lack of faith in the leadership and managerial values of women. The largest obstruction is the absence of women in decision making and the lack of orientation of resources towards women's support.

Wishing to achieve your objectives on these issues through the electronic discussion I kindly greet you.

Drita Kadriu

Deputet e Kuvendit te Kosoves (Member of the Kosova Assembly)

There have been extensive debates on the issue of quotas. I would like to hear from all sectors on whether the quota systems have weakened or strengthened the legitimacy of women's representation.

My concern is not the implementation of quotas, it is what happens afterwards. If women and their campaigns are not properly trained or financed, they are marginalized during the campaign and have little hope of winning. This creates more hostility toward the quota system in the first place, by both genders, as women are often continued to be identified as token candidates.

Deb Carlson, former Member of the Alberta Legislature, Canada

INTENSE DEBATE ON GENDER EQUALITY MIGHT MATTER MORE THAN QUOTAS:

Introducing gender quotas is no magic cure ensuring influence for women in politics. On the contrary, quotas might have a laming effect on gender equality processes. What I believe is most important for increasing the number of women in powerful positions is to implement measures that (i) first of all have acceptance within the specific context, e.g. political party or interest organization, which it is supposed to affect, and (ii) secondly have the possibility to inspire continued debate on gender equality within that same context. In order to substantiate my view I will make a comparison between Norway and Sweden.

The current (2008) number of women in the Norwegian parliament is 36 percent whereas it is 47 percent in the Swedish parliament. However, regarding gender equality measures, Norway come for as more radical than Sweden. Hard measures have played a much more prominent role in Norway than Sweden. Today quotas and positive action policies formally regulate admission into most areas of Norwegian society, where gender imbalances exist. These policies, especially the strict quota procedures, evidently manage to secure a minimum 40 percent representation of women within important fields of the Norwegian society, such as in publicly appointed boards and committees, in those political parties who have voluntary agreed upon quota arrangements and recently in the boards of the public limited companies.

In Sweden so called soft quotas have been a dominant feature of public life since the beginning of the 1970s. The exact features of these soft quotas vary over time and between different settings, however a common ground is informality in contrast to the formal regulations used in hard a measure system. In Sweden, the use of soft quotas has often been paralleled by rather intense debates on how to achieve gender equality in a wider sense than the sheer number of women elected. Despite the fact that the Norwegian quota-regime appears to constitute a feature of radicalism in Norwegian gender equality policy, women are actually more strongly represented in top-positions in Sweden. The presence of women in elite positions in society is higher in Sweden than in Norway in all sectors: politics, culture, public administration, academia, mass media, interest organizations and business. In other words, this situation indicates that the broad and intense Swedish gender equality discourse have a more positive effect on gender equality than the Norwegian quota measures. Quotas as expressions of state-feminism "from above" may have had a rather laming effect on the public gender equality discourse. Norwegian quota policies may have the effect on the public that problems of gender equality are perceived as something that is dealt with as a matter for state interventions, and thus nothing for the public to bother with.

Further reading:
Teigen, Mari. 2002. "The Universe of Gender Quotas." NIKK-magasin.Oslo: NIKK, The Nordic Institute for Women's studies and Gender research, 4-11.
Wängnerud, Lena. 2000. "Representing Women". In Beyond Westminister and Congress, eds. Peter Esaiasson and Knut Heidar. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press.

Lena Wängnerud, Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg.

The Pacific Island states have the lowest level of women in parliament in the world. Only 4.1% of members of Pacific parliaments are women, well below the world average of around 16%. Levels of women’s participation in parliaments vary markedly across the Pacific region. The French territories have been able to attain higher than average levels of women’s representation, owing to their usage of list proportional representation systems and because of their adoption of the French Law on Parity. Nauru, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu are among the very few countries in the world to have zero women in their parliaments. Papua New Guinea, and the Marshall Islands each have only one female MP, and Cook Islands, Kiribati and Vanuatu have only two. Gender inequality in Pacific parliaments is often not a reflection of poor women’s performance in education, or an indication of some inability to break through into the top echelons of the civil service. In some of the Pacific states, women have obtained key positions in the more meritocratic spheres of the public sector. Elected assemblies are rather a last bastion of male supremacy in the Pacific; their membership fails to reflect women’s advancing socio-economic position.

To substantially increase the number of women in parliaments, the most usual methods are to introduce large multi-member district based electoral systems or some direct form of affirmative action. Adopting list PR, the most commonly used large multi-member constituency-based electoral system, would not be effective in those Pacific countries without well-developed party systems (or, at the very best, would entail a sudden and probably difficult transformation towards more party-based systems). For similar reasons, quotas introduced by Act of Parliament or Constitutional Amendment are unlikely to work effectively in those countries without robust political parties, or where party allegiances are fluid or where there exist a large number of independent MPs. Quotas like the French Parity Act, for example, which requires parties to alternative men and women on their lists, would obviously have minimal effect if applied to countries where large numbers of independent candidates enter parliaments. The example of list-PR-using Wallis & Futuna, where the number of women in the territorial assembly fell after the introduction of the French Law on Parity shows the likely fate of such legislation in many Pacific countries where political parties do not exist in any meaningful way. Those countries with stronger party systems, such as Fiji or Samoa, could consider introducing quotas, whether by statute or, better still if possible, by voluntary agreement within political parties.

For those countries without developed party systems, the effective way to fast track increased women’s representation is by the introduction of reserved seats for women. These are usually constituencies specifically set aside for women candidates, which the entire eligible voter participate in selecting. The Autonomous Government of Bougainville is the only elected body in the Pacific which has such seats; three women MPs are elected from reserved seats to the 39-member House of Representatives. Other novel measures to encourage women to stand as candidates, such as usage of campaign finance laws, are found to be less successful. Papua New Guinea’s provisions for refunding campaign expenditures to parties who field women candidates have not worked effectively. National-level agitation to increase numbers of women in politics need to be combined with local level initiatives. In Tuvalu, for example, the 1999 Falekaupule Act gave speaking rights to local customary assemblies, and devolved power down to this local level. Women have consequently become highly involved in Falekaupule committees, although this has yet to translate into national-level representation. Campaigns also need to be focussed not only on the urban centres, but to target also rural areas, as the success of the two women MPs on the Island of Epi in Vanuatu indicates.

Contributed by Jon Fraenkel

State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program, Australian National University, Canberra. Jon.fraenkel@anu.edu.au

I think there is no one solution to how we can increase the percentage of women participating in politics. The situation differs from a country to country. In Sweden, we have almost 50 percent women in Parliament, but we have not used any quotas. The parties gradually started to make up the lists of candidates for elections so that every second candidate is a woman and every second one is a man. This was mainly the result of pressure from women`s lobby groups.

From my experience, an important thing in order to move forward is that women politicians form networks in between themselves and have supporting alliances outside parliaments. It has been rewarding for women in politics to concentrate on matters important to the citizens such as child health, child care, social welfare, health care, working conditions, maternity leave, anti-smoking activities, activities against violence in any form etc.

We have also found it important to develop competence in areas usually "inhabited" by men, which are taxes, finances, military services, etc,

With kind regards,

Barbro Westerholm
M.P. Sweden, Liberal party.