Pros and Cons of Gender Quotas in Politics

Past Paper Questions:

1. What are the pros and cons of gender quota in politics?

Gender Quota
i. What are Gender Quotas?
A gender quota is a measure to counter discrimination, created with the intention
of recruiting enough women into political positions to ensure that they are merely
token actors in the political arena. It seeks to overcome the obstacles which have
led to underrepresentation of women in politics.

ii. Types of Gender Quotas:

There are different types of gender quota systems, the most common ones are
political party quotas, legislative quotas and reserved seats.

1. Political Party Quotas:

Party quotas are the most common types of quota systems in use and were
first invoked in 1970s in western Europe. They are voluntarily adopted rather
than legally mandated. Such quotas commit political parties to aim for certain
proportion of women among their candidates and usually apply to party lists
presented to electorate.

2. Legislative Quotas:
Legislative quotas, which also apply to candidate selection process (often
requiring women to constitute 25 to 50 % of all candidates ) by parties, differ
from party quotas in that they are not voluntarily adopted but rather are
legally mandated quota that apply to all parties. They are newest form of
quotas system and first adopted in eastern Europe in 1990s.

3. Reserved Seats:
Reserved seats quotas are different from other two types of quotas in that they
mandate a minimum number or percentage of female legislators. This type of
quota applies to final results of an election and have only mandated low levels
of female representation, usually between 1 to 10 percent.
iii. Pros and Cons of Quotas in Politics:

a. Pros of quotas in politics:

1. Quotas will ensure that both women and men will be part of political
decision-making and will advance democracy by ending exclusion of
women:

Quota system are necessary to counter the historical exclusion of women

from the political system across major democracies. Even in oldest
democracies like USA and France it took century of activism to obtain
formal political rights for women. However these rights did not eradicate
exclusionary practices. That’s where quotas system came in play in those
countries and it is expected that they will play the same role in developing
countries.

2. Quota system will force political parties to recruit and include more
women in their leadership roles:

In their book ‘Electoral Politics’, Hooma Hoodfar and Mona Tajali argued
that political parties, almost all of which are run male political elites, tend
to favor men over women, on the basis of their assumption that women
are not electable. Party gender quotas will help to correct these patriarchal
basis of most parties.

3. Women constitute half the population- thus it is democratic right for

them to hold 50% of parliamentary seats to ensure women’s voices are
present in decision-making process:

This argument has been advanced against the claim that quotas for women
make it necessary for other social groups to also have political quotas.
However, women are not a separate social group; 50% of all natural social
groups are made of women and thus quotas for women can represent all
social categories.

4. Quotas in larger percentage, enable women to enter into political

structures as a group, ensuring a critical mass and not just a few token
representatives:

When women are not present in parliament in sufficient numbers,

individual female MPs are more hesitant to raise women’ issues. This is
because of culture of most parliamentary institutions which belittles
 women’s concerns. Therefore a critical mass is necessary in the legislature
to effectively address issues that are of concern to at least half of any given
constituency. In sum, reserved seats quotas are uplift women’s voices.

5. Women’s qualifications are always undervalued relative to their male

counterparts and quota system helps in undermining this perception:

Systematic gender discrimination in political structures and institutions

favor men over equally qualified women. It is a fallacy that there are not
enough qualified women. This is because ‘appropriate qualification’ is
defined by male political elites. In this regard quotas are important
measure for making the political landscape more democratic.

6. Quotas enhances the image of the party:

Female candidates can be appealing to the public. Parties that nominate

women may thus be favored by the electorate, who see such parties as
more egalitarian and more justly oriented. Such measure have also helped
political parties in Europe including some conservative parties.

b. Cons of quotas in politics:

1. Unqualified Women may displace qualifies men since quotas violate the
merit principle:

One of the major disadvantage of gender quotas is that they deprive

citizens of the ability to choose from among the most qualified candidates.
Candidacy and election in liberal democracy should be based solely on
merit and in case of elections people define the merit. By taking the choice
from the people gender quotas defy the idea meritocracy.

2. Quotas emphasize the sex of politicians over their qualifications and

political beliefs:

This disadvantage is a variation on the previous one and refutations are

similar as well. Emphasizing the sex of politicians over their qualification
means there may be many male candidates with much higher
qualifications available but left behind due to mandatory conditions of
choosing women candidates on certain constituencies.
 3. Quotas are undemocratic:

One of the main features of democracy is that government is formed by

including the will of the majority. One the contrary in quota system
representatives who are part of the government are selected mainly by the
political leadership instead of the people. And political leadership
constitutes the minority not the majority.

4. Quotas may actually act as a maximum threshold for female

representation, instead of a temporary measure to permanently
empower women, since states may nominate or elect only enough
women to meet the quota:

Some liberal democrats and feminists have expressed the concern that
quotas may ultimately act to limit the numbers of women in parliament. In
other words it means that political elite may use quota system to put limits
on the maximum number of women that can participate in politics. Once
they fulfilled the quota, they are not anymore bound to allow women in
political arena.

5. Quota implementation is too unreliable, depending too heavily on

political electoral and social factors:

Finally quotas can be difficult to apply, and thus require careful design and
implementation of laws. It is evident from the fact that political party
quotas are rarely implemented in comparison with legislative quotas,
because of their voluntary nature. Even in countries with loopholes in their
electoral laws, leadership fails to apply even legislative and reserved seats
quotas.

iv. Conclusion:

Gender quotas are very instrumental in eliminating the underrepresentation of

women in politics especially in developing countries. Although there are different
types of gender quotas but all have some purpose behind them. Success of
different types of gender quotas also depend upon the political and electoral
system of countries. Despite the fact that there are many disadvantages to quota
systems, still there pros outnumber and outweigh their cons.
 Pros Cons
Most effective way of achieving Discriminatory towards men
better gender balance in
governance
Once elected women serve as role May result in less competent
model for other women in all legislature
aspects of life
Rather than limiting choice they Women elected through quotas
give the chance to elect both men would be less respected
and women
Does not discriminate but Could benefit the wrong men
compensate
Aims to ensure that women Goes against equal opportunities
constitute as a ‘critical minority’ of and puts women at advantage
at least 30 to 40 percent
Political parties control the Better skilled men may be pushed
nominations so it does not take aside
any freedom away from voter
Quotas are usually meant to be
applied temporarily therefore any
conflict towards it is likely to be
temporary