Women in politics: What has been the impact of gender quotas?

Politicians and researchers from around Latin America gathered for three days in midOctober 2008 to assess the progress that has been made in womens political participation and representation since the regions first quota laws were passed more than 15 years ago. Appropriately, the seminar was held in the Dominican Republic, the country that three decades ago ushered in the democratic wave that later swept through Latin America, and which implemented the first quota law. The event was organized by the Junta Central Electoral of the Dominican Republic with support from the Dominican Congress, the Ministry of Women and International IDEA. The design of an electoral system is a decisive factor for womens political participation. Its encouraging to see the commitment of the Dominican electoral commission to ensuring that the countrys current electoral reform process benefits from 15 years of international experiences. said Kristen Sample, International IDEAs Senior Programme Officer for the Andean Region and for gender issues. Statistics show that quota laws have increased the number of women in politics in Latin America, but much remains to be done. Seminar participants highlighted a number of lessons learned from the regions experience with quotas. First, the impact of such a law depends on the structure and characteristics of the countrys electoral system. It is crucial to make concrete, concerted efforts to guarantee that electoral systems promote equality, said Sample. There should be more electoral engineers dedicated to electoral analysis and advocacy. Political parties also play a role in promoting womens participation or placing obstacles in their paths, by serving as gatekeepers when candidate lists are drawn up. How proactive a party is in promoting womens representation is often a sign of how democratic its internal workings are. Changes in party and campaign financing can also benefit women. Though research is limited, the few studies that exist show that women benefit when accounting is transparent, there are reasonable limits on spending, and there is public financing. At the International Seminar on a Decade of Womens Quotas in Latin America, speakers from Costa Rica, Argentina, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Peru, Panama, Paraguay, Colombia and Venezuela discussed the progress that has been made and the challenges that women still face as they seek to attain greater representation.

The seminar participants noted that political parties still tend to exclude women and are reluctant to implement affirmative action measures or seek ways to circumvent quotas. This underscores the need for more in-depth analysis of electoral systems, to determine the best ways to implement quotas and ways of imposing sanctions if they are ignored. One incentive, they said, could be to make gender equity a requirement for obtaining political financing and a criterion for evaluating the use of public funds. Above all, however, there is still much to be done to win public support for an equal role and equal representation for women in politics and keep the issue on the public agenda