Women, Quotas and Politics

Drude Dahlerup, Drude Dahlerup

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781134186518
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politik & Internationale Beziehungen
• Subtopic: Politik

This is the first world-wide, comparative study of the controversial new trends of gender quotas now emerging in global politics, presenting a comprehensive overview of changes in women's parliamentary representation across the world.

This is important reading for all those working to increase women's influence in politics, because it scrutinizes under what circumstances gender quotas do increase women's representation – and why they sometimes fail.

These distinguished international scholars also show how gender balance in politics has become important to a nation's international image and why quotas are being introduced in many post-conflict countries. They present key case studies of Afghanistan, Iraq, Argentina, Sweden, South Africa, Belgium, covering almost all major regions of the world: Latin America, Africa, the Arab world, South Asia, the Balkans, The Nordic countries and Europe, New Zealand, Australia and the USA - and Rwanda, which in 2003 unexpectedly surpassed Sweden as the number one country in the world in terms of women's parliamentary representation.

Using a comparative perspective, this book contains analyses of the discursive controversies around quotas; it gives an overview over various types of quotas in use from candidate quotas to reserved seat systems, and it throws light over the troublesome implementation process. When do gender quotas lead to actual increase in the number of women parliament? When are quotas merely a symbolic gesture? What does it imply to be elected as a 'quota woman'? Tackling these and many more key questions, this is a major new contribution to the field.

Making an important contribution to our knowledge of gender politics worldwide, this book will be of interest to NGOs, students and scholars of democracy, policy-making, comparative politics and gender studies.

Part I
Introductory chapters

1Introduction

Drude Dahlerup

Gender quotas – a new global trend

In the autumn of 2003, Rwanda unexpectedly surpassed Sweden as the number one country in the world in terms of Womens parliamentary representation. In the election to the newly constituted Rwandan parliament, women received 48.8 percent of the seats as opposed to 45.3 percent in Sweden. For decades, a Scandinavian country, be it Finland, Norway or most recently Sweden, was at the top with the highest percentage of women elected to parliament. With this extraordinary result, Rwanda came to represent a new trend in world politics, which we in this study have conceptualized as the fast track to gender balance in politics. During just a decade-and-a-half, countries as different as Argentina, Uganda, South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, France and Costa Rica have, through the use of gender quotas, attempted to rapidly change Womens historical under-representation in political institutions. This book is the first world-wide comparative analysis of the introduction of electoral gender quotas, based on in-depth case studies from all major regions of the world.¹

Gender balance among political representatives is important for many reasons. Today, only about 16 percent of the world's parliamentarians are women, and according to feminist movements as well as to feminist theory this shortage of women in political institutions may have serious consequences for the political agenda, for the articulation of Womens interests and for the legitimacy of democratic institutions (Phillips 1995; Morris 2004). Furthermore, the under-representation of women as well as that of other groups may influence how various categories of people are constructed in our minds.

Today, around 40 countries have introduced gender quotas in elections to national parliaments, either by means of constitutional amendment or by changing the electoral laws (legal quotas). In more than 50 other countries major political parties have voluntarily set out quota provisions in their own statutes (party quotas). Even if quota provisions are often very controversial, the use of the quota tool to make historical leaps or jump starts in Womens representation is becoming a global trend.

Having gathered data on the use of quotas globally,² it is time to formulate new research questions. The use of electoral gender quotas challenges our ideas and theories about the relationship between Womens political representation and their socio-economic position, since quotas may lead to unprecedented historical leaps in Womens representation without simultaneous changes in Womens socio-economic position. What are the arguments for and against gender quotas in various regions of the world? What types of quotas are actually applied, and how do they match various electoral systems? What are the effects of gender quotas in terms of numbers as well as the empowerment of women? Are women politicians that are elected on the basis of quotas actually empowered if they have no power base in political parties or civil society? Does the inclusion of women further democratization? How can we explain the apparent paradox that an increasing number of countries with very traditional gender regimes and almost totally male-dominated parliaments provide opportunities for women through the introduction of electoral gender quotas? Why are electoral gender quotas popular in some regions of the world while highly contested in others? These are all crucial questions that need to be addressed by feminist research as well as by international institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

In this book we will argue that a country's image in the international community is of growing importance today. This aspect of globalization has increased the opportunities for Womens movements to play the international card in their lobbying on the national level. This trend may also, however, result in the mere symbolic inclusion of women in politics in order to make the country appear ‘modern’. For better or worse, the international community is strongly involved in most processes of nation-building and reconstruction today, and many international organizations are involved in the promotion of gender quotas, especially in post-conflict societies. On the global level, UN conferences and the CEDAW convention have been especially important for the issue of Womens political representation (Krook 2004a). In this introduction recent discursive changes involving Womens political representation are discussed. This is followed by a discussion of the theoretical framework for analyzing electoral gender quotas and definitions of various types of electoral gender quotas. Lastly, the research design and contents of this book are presented.

The Beijing World Conference on Women – New Discourses

Several new discourses, while contested, are gaining influence in the world today. On the global level, the Platform for Action, agreed upon at the Fourth UN World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, may be seen as representing a discursive shift in relation to women in politics (FWCW 1995). As this book will show, the Beijing Platform has been very influential, and Womens movements all over the world have attempted to give the controversial demand for gender quotas legitimacy by referring to the Platform for Action.⁶ A discourse is here defined as interlinked constructions of meanings, which includes perceptions of possible actions (but not actual actions). The relationship between general assumptions and possible political actions is central to the field of policy analysis (Bacchi 1999).

First, the Beijing Platform talks about ‘discriminatory attitudes and practices’ and ‘unequal power relations’ that lead to the under-representation of women in arenas of political decision-making. This may be labeled a discourse of exclusion. Whereas previously the focus was on Womens lack of resources or lack of will to participate in politics, attention is now directed towards those institutional and cultural mechanisms of exclusion that prevent women from obtaining an equal share of political positions in most political institutions in the world. Importantly, in this new discourse, the responsibility for promoting change is shifted from the individual woman to those institutions that are, consequently, expected to take action to identify and correct the causes of Womens under-representation.

Second, the demand for a certain minimum level of representation for women is being challenged by a new discourse of equal representation, often expressed by the term gender balance. WeDo's 50–50 campaign is a good example of this new discourse (WeDo 2005). Thus, the goal is no longer described as ‘more women in politics’ but as ‘equal participation’ and ‘equitable distribution of power and decision-making at all levels’. Somewhat contradictorily, however, the Beijing Platform also speaks of securing a ‘critical mass’, the latter often associated with figures of 20 or 30 percent women (Dahlerup 1988; FWCW 1995: Art. 181–95).

Third, affirmative action is suggested as a possible means of attaining the goal of Womens equal participation in political decision-making, although the controversial word ‘quotas’ is not used. For governmental and public administration positions, it is recommended that the world's governments use ‘specific targets and implementing measures ⋯ if necessary through positive action′(FWCW 1995: Art. 190.a). Concerning elections, it is stated that governments should commit themselves to ‘Take measures, including, where appropriate, in electoral systems that encourage political parties to integrate women in elective and non-elective public positions in the same proportion and at the same levels as men’ (FWCW 1995: Art. 190.b). Political parties should ‘Consider examining party structures and procedures to remove all barriers that directly or indirectly discriminate against the participation of women’ (FWCW 1995: Art. 191.a).

Even if the language is cautious, the Beijing Platform represents on the whole a new discourse, focusing on the mechanisms of exclusion through institutional practices, setting gender balance as the goal and demanding that governments and political parties commit themselves to affirmative action. In this book we identify what we call the fast track discourse and the fast track policy as an important part of the new directions set out in the Beijing Platform.

Theoretical perspectives on electoral gender quotas

In a narrow, technical sense, electoral gender quotas are simply a type of equal opportunity measure that force the nominating bodies, in most political systems the political parties, to recruit, nominate or select more women for political positions. However, as this study will show, quotas touch upon many fundamental principles in feminist theory, in political science and in contemporary political debates: the contested construction of women as a politically relevant category and principles of representation and of equality, vital questions that are discussed by Carol Bacchi in Chapter 2. Also involved are different types of equality policies, how quotas influence the relation between voters, political parties and their representatives, the effectiveness and value of representation as well as the possible link between Womens representation and the legitimacy of democracy. But first, the notion of the fast track versus the incremental track is developed.

The ‘fast track’ versus the ‘incremental track’

Electoral gender quotas represent ‘the fast track’ to equal representation of women and men in politics in contrast to ‘the incremental track’. Behind the fast track model is growing impatience with the slow pace of change of the position of women. The notion of the fast track versus the incremental track can be viewed as involving first two discourses, second different types of actual equality policies, and third an account of the actual speed of historical development in Womens representation (Dahlerup and Frei-denvall 2003, 2005). The Beijing Platform clearly represents the fast track discourse. This distinction between the two tracks may be relevant for many other policy areas but has been developed with respect to gender and political institutions.

In 1990 the United Nation's Economic and Social Council endorsed a target of 30 percent women in decision-making positions in the world by 1995 (United Nations Commission on the Status of Women 1995). This target was far from being met. In 1995, only 10 percent of the world's parliamentarians were women. In 2005, around 16 percent of the world's parliamentarians are women, still far from the target of 30 percent. This figure implies that politics is still predominantly a men's business, with men making up 84 percent of parliamentarians. The difference between various regions of the world is, however, substantial, as Table 1.1 shows.

Table 1.1 Women in national parliaments – regional differences^a

	Percent
Americas	18.8
Arab States	8.2
Asia	15.2
Europe (OSC.E member states, excluding the Nordic countries)	17.0
Nordic countries	39.9
Pacific	11.3
Sub-Saharan Africa	16.5
World average	16.0

Source: IPU (2005).

Note

a Lower or single houses.

The Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, have for a long time displayed the highest share of female politicians, consistently exceeding the 20 percent threshold since the 1970s and 1980s (see Table 1.1 and the Nordic chapter in this book). The rest of Europe, the Americas, Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are all close to the world average, while the figure for the Pacific is only 11.3 percent and in Arab countries 8.2 percent. However, there are also great variations within regions, and today countries like Costa Rica, South Africa, Rwanda and Mozambique have overtaken industrialized nations like the United States and the United Kingdom, which in the House of Representatives and the House of Commons only have 15 and 18 percent women, respectively. Today, we witness a challenge to the Nordic countries, which, together with the Netherlands, used to be very much alone at the top of the world ranking.

In the debate in Latin America, in South Africa and in many other countries, the extraordinarily high representation of women in Scandinavian parliaments has been used as an argument in support of the introduction of electoral gender quotas.⁴ This argument is, however, somewhat misleading, since the real boom for Womens representation in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden occurred in the 1970s and in Iceland in the 1980s, all before the introduction of any quotas. Gender quotas were introduced when women already comprised 20 to 30 percent in these parliaments. Moreover, in the Nordic countries electoral quotas have always been voluntary, never a legal requirement, and are only used by some of the political parties at the centre and at the left (see Chapter 3). In general, the Nordic countries come close to what we label the incremental track towards equal political representation for women and men. It took approximately 60 years from Womens enfranchisement for Denmark, Norway and Sweden to cross the 20 percent threshold and 70 years to reach 30 percent. This means that the Nordic countries, in spite of the high level of Womens representation,...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Series page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviation
• Frontispiece
• Part I Introductory chapters
• Part II Regional chapters
• Part III Short case studies
• Part IV Concluding chapters
• Index