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

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.

Women’s Representation and Implications for Fairness, Trust, and Performance in Local Government: A Survey Experiment in Sri Lanka

How do quotas for women in Sri Lanka’s local government institutions affect key governance indicators such as perceived fairness, institutional trust, and perceived performance? These dimensions of governance are underexplored in the context of gender quota policies in patriarchal societies like that of Sri Lanka. The study hypothetically varied the quota provision for women (decrease to 10%, increase to 45%, or keep at the current 25%) in local government, and then tried to understand people’s opinions about the three governance indicators. When examining the results of the experiment (around 1,200 samples), it was found that perceived fairness, institutional trust, and perceived performance increased along with the greater quota provision. Possible mechanisms for the increases in institutional trust and perceived performance may be associated with the signal of fairness generated by the increase of quota provision for women.

Money matters: The impact of gender quotas on campaign spending for women candidates

Despite concerns that women candidates are hampered by gender gaps in campaign financing, few scholars have examined how gender quotas impact women candidates’ access to campaign funds. We examine the effect of a party-based gender quota on women candidates’ financing and electoral success in Ireland. Under the gender quota, the number of women candidates increased and parties acted strategically to provide women challengers with increased financial support. However, women challengers spent less candidate funds than men challengers and were less likely to have prior officeholding experiences associated with fundraising. Women challengers’ disadvantage is concerning because candidate expenditures are associated with winning votes. Our findings show that the effectiveness of a gender quota is partly determined by how the quota interacts with the campaign finance system and the political opportunity structure.

Valuation Effects of Norway’s Board Gender-Quota Law Revisited

We highlight the complexities in estimating the valuation effects of board gender quotas by critically revisiting studies of Norway’s pioneering board gender-quota law. We use the short-run event study of Ahern and Dittmar [Ahern KR, Dittmar A (2012) The changing of the boards: The impact on firm valuation of mandated female board representation. Quart. J. Econom. 127(1):137–197] to illustrate (1) the difficulties in attributing quota-related news to specific dates, (2) the need to account for contemporaneous cross-correlation of stock returns when judging the statistical significance of event-related abnormal stock returns, and (3) the fundamental difficulty of separating quota-induced valuation effects from the influences of firm characteristics and macroeconomic events such as the financial crisis. We provide new evidence suggesting that the valuation effect of Norway’s quota law was statistically insignificant. Overall, our evidence suggests that, at the time of the Norwegian quota, the supply of qualified female director candidates was high enough to avoid the negative consequences of the quota highlighted previously in the literature. This paper was accepted by Renee Adams, finance.

Gender Quotas in Ireland

This chapter considers the implementation and effect of legislative gender quotas in the 2016 general election, a first for Ireland and a first for the proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote electoral system (PR-STV). It focuses on political parties and examines how they integrated the formal gender quota law into their candidate selection processes. Particular attention is paid to whether the law changed existing candidate selection practices, many of which are guided by informal candidate selection norms, such as a preference for incumbents and those exhibiting localist traits. The chapter concludes that the gender quota law did engender change in the candidate recruitment, selection, and election of women, but, as scholars of feminist institutionalism would describe, the change was ‘nested’ and ‘bounded’ within existing practices surrounding candidate selection, thereby denting but not dismantling the gendered norms of this process.

Islamist Parties and Women’s Representation in Morocco

Does electing Islamists help or hurt women? Due to the Party of Justice and Development (PJD) obtaining 13% of seats in the 2002–2007 legislature and the implementation of an electoral gender quota that resulted in thirty-five women winning seats in 2002, Morocco offers a rare opportunity to explore the intersectional impact of parliamentarians’ gender and party affiliation on women’s symbolic and service representation. Using visits to parliamentary offices in Tangiers, a city in northern Morocco, and an original survey of 112 Moroccan Members of Parliament (MPs) conducted in 2008, this chapter finds that responsiveness for female citizens depends on parliamentarians’ party and gender. Female legislators and Islamist deputies (including male Islamists) are also more likely to interact with female citizens than male parliamentarians from non-Islamist parties. It argues that the PJD’s stronger party institutionalization enhances legislators’ incentives to work in mixed-gender teams, leading to more frequent legislator interactions with female citizens. By offering novel evidence that developing a strong party system—in addition to electing women—is crucial for improving women’s representation in clientelistic settings, the results extend the literature on Islam, gender, and governance and offer insights into Islamist electoral success in clientelistic settings.

Female representation on the board of directors and accrual quality within the context of cultural dimensions and accounting values

Purpose This study aims to bridge the gap in the scarce and inconclusive literature concerning the impact of gender diversity on earnings quality by positioning this relationship within an institutional context. It aims to investigate the moderating effect of different cultural dimensions and accounting values on the relationship between board gender diversity and earnings quality. Design/methodology/approach The study uses an international sample from 46 countries (3,092 public firms) for the year 2017. A two-level hierarchical linear regression model is used to test the moderating effect of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and Gray’s accounting values on diversity and accruals quality relationship. Findings The findings suggest a positive relationship between board gender diversity and earnings quality. Results hold valid after controlling for endogeneity effect. More importantly, regarding national culture, results indicate that power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, professionalism, uniformity, secrecy and conservatism moderate the relationship between female directors and accruals quality. Furthermore, different levels of female representation are essential on boards of different societies to use the benefits of gender-diversified boards in enhancing earnings quality. Research limitations/implications The study provides empirical evidence on the effectiveness of various worldwide movements toward increasing board gender diversity. Additionally, the results speak directly to gender quota regulatory bodies suggesting that “no size fits all” for gender quota requirement. Originality/value The study contributes to the stream of literature concerning gender diversity and earnings quality by investigating this relationship through the lens of national culture and emphasizing the importance of considering institutional factors in examining social interactions.

Pacific Women in Politics: Gender Quota Campaigns in the Pacific Islands, Kerryn Baker (2019)

Review of: Pacific Women in Politics: Gender Quota Campaigns in the Pacific Islands, Kerryn Baker (2019) Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai‘i Press, 199 pp., ISBN 978 0 82487 259 5 (hbk), US$68