Gender Quotas

  • reserved seats- some # of seats of a legislative body are reserved for a gender

    • ex. rowanda reserves 24 of 80 seats for women

  • legislative candidate quotas- parties must put up some # of candidates of a certain gender

    • ex. mexican political parties must guarantee that at least 50% of candidates are women

  • political party quotas- parties must put up some # of candidates of a certain gender, but the quota amounts are self-imposed

    • ex. south africa, the ANC set rules for their party that at least 50% of their candidates are women

  • as of now, women make up 27.2% of parliaments worldwide

    • most of these come from nordic countries, the Americas, Europe, and Sub-saharan africa

  • Gender Quota Pros

    • helps ease discrimination/levels the playing field

    • helps eliminate bias

    • provides more representation

  • Gender Quota Cons

    • can undermine womens education/skills/qualifications

    • can take away the voters right to completely and fully elect people

    • since more quotas are established, violence against female politicians has risen

  • Other possible quotas

    • ethnic/national minorities (Croatia)

    • religious minorities (Iran)

    • expatriates (Italy)

    • aboriginal papels (NZ)

    • women AND religious/national minorities (Jordan)