Gender quotas, constituency service, and women's empowerment

Abstract

In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, women’s representation increased in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) due to the adoption of gender quotas, including Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates. Gender and politics scholars are starting to explore whether there is a link between women’s descriptive representation (proportion of seats held by women) and women’s substantive representation (advocacy on behalf of women). But there has yet to be an in-depth study of women’s representation in Algeria, where there was a significant increase in women’s presence in parliament after the adoption and implementation of a gender quota in 2012. To fill a gap in the literature, I draw from in-depth interviews with 30 women parliamentarians to explore the impact of the gender quota on women’s empowerment. Women deputies in Algeria rejected the notion that they have an obligation to introduce and pass women’s rights laws. But they emphasized that they want to change perceptions of women leaders by helping ordinary citizens solve their everyday problems. So, in Algeria, there is not much support for a link between women’s descriptive representation and women’s substantive representation. Instead, there is more support for a link between women’s descriptive representation and men’s substantive representation, which might contribute to more liberal attitudes toward women leaders in the long term.