Electoral quotas for women: an international overview
- Electoral quotas have gained international support and have proven to be effective in ‘fast-tracking’ women’s political representation to produce equality of results, not just equality of opportunity.
In 2012 the Australian Government committed $320 million to support a 10-year initiative to ‘empower women and to promote gender equality in the Pacific’ region, which has the world’s lowest proportion of women parliamentarians.[1]
Whilst Australian governments have endorsed the concept of gender equality through a range of equal opportunity and anti-discrimination laws and policies, the matter of women’s parliamentary representation has been left to the political parties. In common with other countries, the argument about electoral gender quotas in Australia is divided along ideological lines, with the Australian Labor Party supporting voluntary party quotas and the Liberal ̶ Nationals Coalition parties opposing them.
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party adopted an Affirmative Action Rule in 1994 that committed the party to achieving preselection of women for 35 per cent of winnable seats at all parliamentary elections by 2002.[65]
Coalition parties
The Coalition parties, comprising the Liberal Party of Australia and the Nationals, do not formally support gender quotas on the basis that they contradict the principle of merit for political candidates. Instead, the parties have adopted strategies to develop women’s networks within the party and provide support for women to stand for preselection.[68]
Minor parties
Australia’s larger minor parties, the Australian Democrats (formed in 1977) and Australian Greens (formed in 1992), have both embraced gender equity as a founding principle. Neither party has adopted a gender quota, although each has achieved a relatively high percentage of women candidates, and both have had women as party leaders.
Conclusions
- Electoral gender quotas are a type of special measure or affirmative action designed to increase women’s political representation. They may be mandated through constitutional or legislative change to create reserved seats or legal candidate quotas, or achieved through voluntary quotas adopted by individual political parties.
- Gender quotas have gained the support of international organisations, including the United Nations, and have proven to be effective in ‘fast-tracking’ women’s political representation. However, they continue to be controversial, particularly in liberal democracies where critics oppose them on the basis that they discriminate against men and undermine the selection of candidates or parliamentarians on the basis of merit.
- Certain factors contribute to the effectiveness of quota systems:
– a commitment to women’s political representation from key decision-makers
– political parties play a crucial role as gatekeepers in recruiting, nominating and pre-selecting candidates
– voluntary party quotas require rules concerning the order of candidates on party lists to ensure that women candidates have an equal opportunity to contest ‘winnable’ seats
– candidate quotas, whether legal or voluntary, may require additional incentives or sanctions for non-compliance in order to be effective
– quota systems should be supported by appropriate mentoring and training programs to attract and support women candidates, and
– gender-sensitive parliaments are necessary to ‘remove the barriers to women’s full participation and offer a positive example or model to society at large’.[76]
- While gender quotas offer a mechanism for increasing the number of women in parliament, countries also need longer-term strategies that address historical barriers to women’s participation and actively promote gender-sensitive parliaments.
http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp131...
