scholarly journals Gendered Pathways to the County-level People's Congress in China

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Xinhui Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Hunan Province ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
County Level ◽  
Vote Buying ◽  
Women's Representation ◽  
Women’S Representation ◽  
Gender Quota ◽  
People's Congress ◽  
Gendered Pathways

Abstract Women are underrepresented in legislature almost worldwide, and China is no exception. Although the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) implemented its first gender quota in 1933, gender quotas and women's representation in China remain understudied. This study fills the literature gap by examining the subnational variation in gender quota implementation and women's representation in the county-level people's congresses (CPC). Through a comparison of four county-level units in Hunan and Hubei with similar socioeconomic features yet contrasting results in the numbers of female representatives elected in the 2016 CPC election, this study argues that women's access to CPCs is affected by the CCP's adoption and enforcement of grassroots quotas. The fieldwork shows that although all cases introduced a 30 per cent gender quota, only CPCs in Hunan province were able to meet the quota requirements. This was because the grassroots quota threshold was raised in Hunan and strictly enforced, partly as a response to the 2013 Hengyang vote-buying scandal. In contrast, CPCs in Hubei province nominated a large number of “first hands” (yibashou) candidates, very few of whom were women.

Gender and Family Ties in Latin American Legislatures

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Leslie A. Schwindt-Bayer ◽  
Agustín Vallejo ◽  
Francisco Cantú
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
Women's Representation ◽  
Family Ties ◽  
The Past ◽  
Women’S Representation ◽  
Gender Similarities

Abstract Are women disproportionately more likely than men to have family ties in politics? We study this question in Latin America, where legacies have been historically common, and we focus specifically on legislatures, where women's representation has increased dramatically in many countries. We hypothesize that, counter to conventional wisdom, women should be no more likely than men to have ties to political families. However, this may vary across legislatures with and without gender quotas. Our empirical analysis uses data from the Parliamentary Elites of Latin America survey. We find more gender similarities than differences in legislators’ patterns of family ties both today and over the past 20 years. We also find that women are more likely to have family ties than men in legislatures without gender quotas, whereas this difference disappears in legislatures with quotas.

Not much happened: The impact of gender quotas in Poland

2014 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Millard
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Relative Size ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
Women Candidates ◽  
Women's Representation ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Women’S Representation ◽  
Electoral Laws ◽  
The Impact

Poland maintained its open-list PR system but introduced gender quotas in the 2011 parliamentary elections in order to increase the number of women deputies. Yet this change had only a limited impact on women’s representation. The 2011 election confirms that ‘favorable’ electoral laws provide opportunities for women, but they cannot guarantee that women will be elected. In particular, the use of quotas alone is not sufficient to ensure high levels of women’s representation. The most important factors in explaining the Polish result were 1) the absence of a ‘zipper’, a list ordering that alternates men and women candidates, thus ensuring high list-places for women 2) the parties’ favoring of men in their list placement 3) the relative size of the political parties and 4) voters’ support for list leaders and incumbent deputies. Despite a disappointing outcome, quotas may be seen as beneficial in increasing women’s presence and the potential for further evolution of the electoral system.

Women and the 2015 General Election: Shattering the Political Glass Ceiling?

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 389-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meryl Kenny
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Glass Ceiling ◽  
General Election ◽  
The Political ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
Women's Representation ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Women’S Representation

While the 2015 General Election produced mixed electoral fortunes for the major parties, the results for women have been historic – 191 women were elected to the House of Commons on 7 May, including a record number of Scottish women MPs. This article reports on the 2015 GE from the perspective of women's representation, providing a gendered analysis of the election campaign and assessing the parties’ efforts to increase the number of women elected in Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom. It argues that while the 2015 elections may have made some cracks in the political ‘glass ceiling’, further increases in women's representation are unlikely without greater commitment by all of the parties and without the use of strong equality measures, including legislative gender quotas.

scholarly journals Defining Women’s Representation: Debates around Gender Quotas in India and France

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 124-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginie Dutoya ◽  
Yves Sintomer
Keyword(s):  
Political Representation ◽  
National Level ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
Dual Nature ◽  
Women's Representation ◽  
Parliamentary Debates ◽  
Women’S Representation ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
The Way

In 1999, after a heated debate on gender parity in political representation, the French constitution was amended to include the principle of “equal representation” of both sexes. This paved the way for the introduction of gender quotas. In the same period, a bill providing reservations for women at the national level provoked a political crisis in India. The objective of this article is to compare both debates, looking in particular at the way women’s representation was framed. In France, the main argument against quotas was that republican representation should be unitary and transcend social differences, but at the end of the 1990s, women in mainstream politics were seen as one element of the dual nature of human kind, different from other categories such as class or race. In India, the specific representation of certain groups (Dalits, lower castes, tribal groups) had been the traditional framework for political representation since independence in 1947. But when the bill proposed to extend reservations to women, opponents of the project claimed that women did not constitute a category in themselves, and that sex should be intersected with caste and religion for the attribution of quotas. Looking at parliamentary debates, articles, and tribunes supporting or opposing quotas in both countries, we show that the arguments mobilized reveal different conceptions of the political representation of gender difference, which are partly transversal and partly specific to each country.

Women’s Representation in Argentine National and Subnational Governments

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany D. Barnes ◽  
Mark P. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Women's Representation ◽  
Female Presidents ◽  
Selection Processes ◽  
Women’S Representation ◽  
Successful Case ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Legislative Representation

Tiffany D. Barnes and Mark P. Jones provide an analysis of women’s representation in Argentina. Argentina no longer retains the title of the most successful case of women’s representation in the region. Women’s legislative representation is just over the quota threshold—33%. They point out that the country has had more female presidents than any other Latin American country but lags behind in women’s representation among subnational executives, in national and subnational cabinets, and in party leadership. Gender quotas and electoral rules explain legislative representation, while political factors and informal institutions related to party selection processes for candidate and elected leadership positions are key for executives and parties. The consequences of women’s representation in Argentina have been significant in getting women’s issues represented and increasing men’s and women’s trust in government, and political engagement of women highlights that quotas have had pros and cons for women in Argentina.

The Global Impact of Quotas

2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 338-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aili Mari Tripp ◽  
Alice Kang
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
Women's Representation ◽  
Cultural Considerations ◽  
Representation Systems ◽  
Women’S Representation ◽  
Economic Underdevelopment ◽  
Cross National

Quotas have become an important mechanism through which women today are entering legislatures worldwide. This study shows that the introduction of quotas has helped overcome constraints on women's representation posed by economic underdevelopment, cultural influences, and even electoral systems. This study also demonstrates that the introduction of quotas offers the most explanatory power for women's representation today, together with electoral systems that allow for greater candidate turnover (i.e., party-list proportional representation systems). The majority of studies explaining women's legislative representation prior to 2000 focused on electoral systems, cultural considerations, and the strength of leftist political parties. Since the mid-1990s, however, an increasing number of countries have introduced gender quotas, which this article incorporates into older models in cross-national multivariate analysis.

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