Abstract
Abstract. The article reveals the experience of using gender quotas and the issues of their effectiveness in the political sphere of the European Union and Ukraine. The relevance of the article is due to the fact that gender quotas are a common and at the same time institutionalized mechanism for ensuring gender equality. The article uses historical, comparative and structural-functional research methods. The authors determined the legal basis of gender quotas, mechanisms for their implementation, types of quotas and criteria for their effectiveness. Legislative candidate quotas and voluntary party quotas have been found to apply in European countries. The experience of applying gender quotas in the EU and Ukraine was studied. Gender quotas have been shown to increase women's representation, but not immediately after application. The effectiveness of quotas is determined by a good legal basis and the use of quotas in combination with other means. It is determined that even a single application of gender quotas has a lasting effect on increasing the number of women in representative bodies. The adoption of voluntary party quotas by leading political parties also contributes to the equal representation of women and men. In addition to directly affecting the number of women in the legislature, gender quotas indirectly affect other aspects of life. Key words: gender, gender equality, gender quotas, affirmative action, European Union.
Highlights
Gender equality is recognized as one of the hallmarks of a democratic society
The relevance of the article is due to the fact that gender quotas are a common and at the same time institutionalized mechanism for ensuring gender equality, so it is advisable to study the experience of their application
Gender quotas have a broad legal framework based on international conventions, declarations and national legislation
Summary
Gender equality is recognized as one of the hallmarks of a democratic society. both men and women have the same opportunity to participate in all spheres of public life, including the political sphere. In northern European countries, Sweden and Finland, where there is a gender balance in the political sphere, no legal gender quotas are currently in place, left-wing Swedish and Finnish parties adhered to party quotas in the 1990s Both the Nordic countries, as well as Norway, which is not a member of the EU, underwent a phase of legislative and institutional regulation during the twentieth century, which maximally facilitated women's rights. In a number of countries with a low representation of women in national parliaments, such as Romania, Hungary and Slovakia, political parties apply voluntary party quotas, but there are no legislative candidate quotas. The code states that when forming electoral lists, a party must ensure that at least two candidates of each gender are present in each of the five electoral lists [Vyborchyi kodeks Ukrainy, 2020] This norm applies to elections to the Verkhovna Rada, oblast, rayon, rayon city councils, as well as elections in communities with 10,000 or more voters. This situation demonstrates the effectiveness of the mandatory quotas regulated by the Electoral Code
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