Electoral Institutions and Women’s Representation

While there are many factors that drive women’s descriptive representation (i.e., the percentage of women in the legislature) the electoral institutions generate some of the most powerful and consistent effects. In the first breaths of this literature, the focus was firmly on the impact of majoritarian electoral systems versus proportional representation (PR) systems on women’s descriptive representation. Since then, the literature has grown to engage broader ideas regarding the complicated nature of analyzing institutions in different cultural contexts and under different social conditions. Particularly in the later decades of the 20th century, scholars found that structural factors, such as economic disparities between men and women and the balance of women in careers that are typical paths to political office, were important to consider in concert with electoral rules. More recently, as more women gain access to the economic elite, the literature has focused more on cultural factors such as the historical legacies of Communism and the general societal reactions to women’s leadership. These non-institutional factors are now widely engaged as an important component of understanding why and to what extent we can expect an electoral system to generate a certain outcome. Beyond the impact of the electoral system itself, there is also relevant literature that engages how electoral institutions such as gender quotas and candidate selection processes affect women’s descriptive representation. There is wide variation in the design of gender quotas as well as candidate selection processes, just as there is in the design of electoral systems, and therefore a fuller understanding of the relationship between electoral institutions and women’s representation requires consideration of the interaction of candidate selection procedures, gender quotas, and electoral systems. For example, the presence of a placement mandate (i.e., a requirement stipulating where on the list women candidates must be positioned) or a decentralized candidate selection process each has a different effect on women’s representation in an electoral system that includes a preference vote. The sections below highlight some of the existing literature on electoral institutions and their impact on women’s descriptive representation. This is by no means an exhaustive list but does offer insight into the general themes and research areas that are common in this field of study.

Not much happened: The impact of gender quotas in Poland

Communist and Post-Communist Studies ◽

10.1016/j.postcomstud.2014.01.004 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 47 (1) ◽

pp. 1-11 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Frances Millard

Keyword(s):

Political Parties ◽

Relative Size ◽

Electoral System ◽

Gender Quotas ◽

Women Candidates ◽

Women's Representation ◽

Parliamentary Elections ◽

Electoral Laws ◽

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.

Personalism or party platform? Gender quotas and women’s representation under different electoral system orientations

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0257665 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (9) ◽

pp. e0257665

Author(s):

Aliza Forman-Rabinovici ◽

Lilach Nir

Keyword(s):

Electoral Systems ◽

Electoral System ◽

Substantial Contribution ◽

Gender Quotas ◽

Electoral Rules ◽

Social Scientists ◽

Gender Gaps ◽

Women's Representation ◽

Underrepresentation Of Women

Underrepresentation of women in politics is a matter of great concern to social scientists, citizens, and policymakers alike. Despite effort over the past decade to ameliorate it with gender quotas of different types, scientific research provides a mixed picture on the extent to which quotas can close these gender gaps under different conditions. We approach this puzzle by focusing on the orientation of electoral systems—candidate-centered vs. platform-centered—as a context that conditions the effect of quotas on representation. Our analyses of 76 countries’ electoral rules and legislatures show that contrary to expectations, it is in candidate-oriented systems that quotas facilitate stronger effect on women’s representation. Even after considering proportional representation, district magnitude, human development, or labor-force participation as alternative explanations, we show that quotas foster greater increases in gender representation in candidate-oriented systems. The broader implications are that in electoral systems that tend to have larger gender gaps, quotas have a substantial contribution to equal representation.

Understanding the Impact of Electoral Systems on Women's Representation

Politics & Gender ◽

10.1017/s1743923x16000325 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 13 (03) ◽

pp. 379-404 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Frank C. Thames

Keyword(s):

Political Science ◽

Electoral Systems ◽

Vote Share ◽

Political Systems ◽

Women's Representation ◽

The study of electoral systems is a key area of research within political science. In part, the attention paid to electoral systems reflects their importance to democratic political systems. Electoral systems define “what constitutes” a vote, establish “a rule for how votes are totaled,” and create a mechanism for “translating vote share into seat allocations” for representative institutions (Bawn 1993, 966). These roles mean that electoral systems impact not only how interests are represented, but also how accountability is structured.

Quotas and qualifications: the impact of gender quota laws on the qualifications of legislators in the Italian parliament

European Political Science Review ◽

10.1017/s1755773914000095 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 119-144 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Ana Catalano Weeks ◽

Lisa Baldez

Keyword(s):

Institutional Design ◽

Political Competition ◽

Electoral System ◽

Candidate Selection ◽

Gender Quotas ◽

Government Experience ◽

And Performance ◽

Mixed Electoral System ◽

Gender Quota ◽

This article addresses concerns that candidates nominated because of gender quota laws will be less qualified for office. While questions of candidate quality have long been relevant to legislative behavior, quota laws requiring a certain percentage of candidates for national office to be women have generated renewed interest. Gender quotas are often perceived to reduce the scope of political competition. By putting gender identity center stage, they preclude the possibility that elections will be based on ‘ideas’ or ‘merit’ alone. Other electoral rules that restrict candidate selection, such as the centralization of candidate selection common in closed list PR systems, have been found to reduce the quality of candidates. Rules that open selection, such as primaries, result in higher quality candidates. We exploit the institutional design of Italy’s mixed electoral system in 1994, where quotas were applied only to the PR portion of the list, to compare the qualifications of men, women, and ‘quota women’. We estimate regressions on several measures of deputies’ qualifications for office and performance in office. We find that unlike other rules limiting candidate selection, quotas are not associated with lower quality on most measures of qualifications. In fact, quota women have more local government experience than other legislators and lower rates of absenteeism than their male counterparts. Contrary to critics, quota laws may have apositiveimpact on legislator quality. Once the quota law was rescinded, quota women were less likely to be re-elected than non-quota women or men, which suggests that discrimination – not qualification – limits women’s status as candidates.

Does Non-Quota Strategy Matter? A Comparative Study on Candidate Selection and Women's Representation at the Local Level in Germany

Politics & Gender ◽

10.1017/s1743923x18001083 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1-30

Author(s):

Florian Ruf

Keyword(s):

Local Level ◽

Party Competition ◽

Candidate Selection ◽

Data Set ◽

Women's Representation ◽

Local Council ◽

Explanatory Factors ◽

The Impact ◽

Local Party

Abstract The intraparty mechanisms through which parties recruit, motivate, and select their candidates are central explanatory factors for the representation of women. This article analyzes the effects of intraparty factors on women's representation by measuring the impact of (1) parties’ non-quota strategies at the regional level—such as establishing women's sections, mentoring programs, or campaign funding for women—and (2) central party gatekeepers at the local level. Exploiting an original, newly compiled data set consisting of 1,475 electoral lists from the 2014 local council elections in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, this article shows that parties’ non-quota strategies and central gatekeepers play crucial roles in determining the share of women on local party tickets. This means that who runs for office is, in this case, a question of intraparty dynamics. These dynamics are caused by different mechanisms of non-quota strategies and gender-biased candidate selection combined with interparty effects of local party competition and left-party strength. The almost consistent conditions that the subnational level provides show that the parties’ capacities (or lack thereof) for gendered recruitment is one major explanatory factor and should be tested at least in cross-national comparisons.

Women’s Representation in Argentine National and Subnational Governments

10.1093/oso/9780190851224.003.0007 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Tiffany D. Barnes ◽

Mark P. Jones

Keyword(s):

Latin American ◽

Gender Quotas ◽

Political Factors ◽

Women's Representation ◽

Female Presidents ◽

Selection Processes ◽

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

Comparative Political Studies ◽

10.1177/0010414006297342 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 41 (3) ◽

pp. 338-361 ◽

Cited By ~ 213

Author(s):

Aili Mari Tripp ◽

Alice Kang

Keyword(s):

Electoral Systems ◽

Explanatory Power ◽

Cultural Influences ◽

Gender Quotas ◽

Women's Representation ◽

Cultural Considerations ◽

Representation Systems ◽

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.

Electoral Institutions and Legislative Behavior: Explaining Voting Defection in the European Parliament

World Politics ◽

10.1353/wp.2004.0012 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 56 (2) ◽

pp. 194-223 ◽

Cited By ~ 170

Author(s):

Simon Hix

Keyword(s):

Electoral Systems ◽

European Parliament ◽

Proportional Representation ◽

European Union Member State ◽

Candidate Selection ◽

Legislative Behavior ◽

Electoral Institutions ◽

Selection Rules ◽

The Impact ◽

The Relationship

Despite a sophisticated understanding of the impact of electoral institutions on macrolevel political behavior, little is known about the relationship between these institutions and microlevel legislative behavior. This article reviews existing claims about this relationship and develops a model for predicting how electoral institutions affect the relationship between parliamentarians and their party principals in the context of the European Parliament. The European Parliament is an ideal laboratory for investigating these effects, because in each European Union member state, different institutions are used to elect Members of European Parliament (MEPs). The results of this model, tested on four hundred thousand individual MEP vote decisions, show that candidate-centered electoral systems (such as open-list proportional representation or single-transferable-vote systems) and decentralized candidate-selection rules produce parliamentarians independent from their party principals. By contrast, party-centered electoral systems (such as closed-list proportional representation systems) and centralized candidate-selection rules produce parliamentarians beholden to the parties that fight elections and choose candidates: in the case of the European Parliament, the national parties.

The Irish legislative gender quota: The first election

Administration ◽

10.1515/admin-2017-0013 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 65 (2) ◽

pp. 15-35

Author(s):

Mary Brennan ◽

Fiona Buckley

Keyword(s):

Political Parties ◽

Political Reform ◽

General Election ◽

Candidate Selection ◽

Descriptive Representation ◽

Gender Quotas ◽

Reform Agenda ◽

Gender Quota ◽

The Impact ◽

Do So

Abstract In 2012 legislative gender quotas were introduced as part of the Fine Gael/Labour coalition government’s political reform agenda. The legislation specifies that payments to political parties ‘shall be reduced by 50 per cent, unless at least 30 per cent of the candidates whose candidatures were authenticated by the qualified party at the preceding general election were women and at least 30 per cent were men’. The 30 per cent gender threshold came into effect at the 2016 general election. Research demonstrates that gender quotas work to increase women’s political descriptive representation, but to do so, political parties must engage with them in ‘goodwill’, be ‘wellintentioned’ or place women in ‘winnable seats’. This article examines if this was the case at the 2016 general election. Using statistics, as well as drawing from interviews with party strategists, the article assesses the impact of gender quotas on women’s candidate selection and election. We conclude that parties did embrace the spirit of the gender quota law but resistance remains.

Electing women to new Arab assemblies: The roles of gender ideology, Islam, and tribalism in Oman

International Political Science Review ◽

10.1177/0192512117700949 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 90-107

Author(s):

Ahlam Khalfan Al Subhi ◽

Amy Erica Smith

Keyword(s):

Electoral Systems ◽

Gender Ideology ◽

Older Men ◽

Simultaneous Equations ◽

Electoral Institutions ◽

Female Leaders ◽

Women's Representation ◽

Younger Men ◽

Generational Shift

As Arab monarchies increasingly adopt and empower consultative assemblies, women’s representation varies markedly across countries. What leads citizens in these new electoral systems to vote for women? This study investigates the determinants of support for women’s representation using the first electoral survey ever conducted in Oman, prior to the October 2015 Majlis al Shura elections. It considers cross-nationally recognized factors – gender ideology and religion – and tribalism, a factor heretofore largely unexplored. Confirming prior studies, citizens with traditional gender ideology are much less supportive of women’s representation. Developing a simultaneous equations model, we show that religiosity and tribalism shape gender ideology. Unlike in Western countries, education is unassociated with attitudes, and there is no generational shift towards equality; younger men are less supportive of women’s representation than are older men. Increasing women’s representation requires not only increasing citizen demand for female leaders, but also changing informal tribal and formal electoral institutions.