50% Quota For Women

The Gender Advocacy Programme launched the 50/50 Campaign in South Africa in 2001. The Campaign focused on political parties using voluntary quotas. After an assessment it is clear that we have to advocate and lobby for a legislated quota as only one party has a voluntary quota.

We are looking to see if any country has ever managed to succeed in legislating a 50% quota of particpation for elected officials. If you have any information around this issue please share it with our organisation. The information must be centred around Campaigns to push for quotas.

As of yet we have been unable to find a case study on this issue.

Thanks for the help.

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Successful Implementation of Quotas

Soumis par iKNOW Politics le Thu, 2007-06-28 20:48.

Dear Claire,

With 48.8% of women elected in parliament, Rwanda reached the highest quota on women's parliamentary representation, higher that 45.3 per cent achieved in Sweden. Rwanda achieved such high numbers of women’s parliamentary representation despite the fact that Rwandan Constitution only requires 30 per cent of posts for decision making organs on the national level and 20 per cent of posts on sub-national level to be allotted to women.

In some countries political parties establish internal quotas for women on their party lists. For example, Swedish Social Democratic Labour Party and Green Party of Sweden require 50% quota for women on their party lists, while the Left Party of Sweden requires at least a minimum of 50% quota for women on its party list. According to the survey “Politics: Women’s Insight”, published by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, one or more political parties in Australia, Austria, Canada, Ecuador, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom require 50% of their party lists, either formally or traditionally, to be comprised of women. The most notable of these countries is Norway where all political parties require 50% quota for women in their party lists.

Interestingly, the Election Law in France, adopted in 2000, mandated that the parity reform (50-50%) to be applied to all elections with a proportional ballot.

For more information about the implementation of quotas, please visit the International IDEA’s Global Database of Quotas for Women - http://www.quotaproject.org/aboutQuotas.cfm
You can also find an interesting summary and analysis about quotas for women around the world in the following publications:

“From A Men’s Democracy Towards A Real Democracy” written by Selen Lermio lu Yılmaz - www.esiweb.org/pdf/esi_turkey_tpq_id_88.pdf

“Getting the Balance Right in National Parliaments” published by the Women’s Environment and Development Organization- http://www.wedo.org/files/5050factsheet4.pdf

“The Argentinean Women's Experience: From the First Quota Law in the World to the Feminist Power” published by the Women’s Environment and Development Organization http://iknowpolitics.org/en/node/2294

Strengthening Women's Participation in the Inter-Parliamentary Union (Excerpt from Implementing Quotas: European Experiences) published by the International IDEA http://iknowpolitics.org/en/node/311

The Implementation of Quotas: Latin American Experiences published by the International IDEA - http://iknowpolitics.org/en/node/140

The Implementation of Quotas: African Experiences published by the International IDEA - "> http://iknowpolitics.org/en/node/141