Gender Quotas in Elections
How electoral quotas for women work, why they were adopted, and their impact on women's representation worldwide.
Three Types of Gender Quotas
Gender quotas are rules requiring a minimum proportion of candidates or seats to be held by women (or the underrepresented gender). There are three main types. Constitutional or legislative quotas mandate that a certain percentage of candidates on party lists must be women (common in Latin America and Africa). Reserved seats guarantee women a fixed number of seats in the legislature (common in South Asia and Africa). Voluntary party quotas are adopted by individual parties without legal requirements (common in Scandinavia).
The effectiveness of quotas depends on design details. A law requiring 30 percent female candidates means little if women are placed at the bottom of party lists where they have no chance of being elected. France's parity law requiring 50 percent female candidates allowed parties to pay fines instead of complying, which major parties sometimes chose to do. The most effective quotas include placement mandates (requiring women in every other list position, known as the 'zipper' system) and strong enforcement mechanisms.