Improving Women’s Representation in Politics through Gender Quotas

Abstract

Gender quotas for women in local government bodies can improve women’s representation in politics, increase provision of public services, and improve perceptions of women as leaders. Gender quotas are one policy tool designed to increase women’s representation in politics. Women hold fewer than 25 percent of parliamentary seats worldwide, and just 12 percent of the world’s heads of state and government are women. In many countries this imbalance extends to local governments. Countries are taking action In 2013, 118 countries were implementing a form of gender quotas for an elected office. Women's empowerment and their full participation on the basis of equality in all spheres of society, including participation in the decision making process and access to power ,are fund a mental for the achievement to fequality , development and peace. One way to implement gender quotas is by reserving a certain number of leadership positions for women. A review of eleven randomized evaluations in India, Lesotho, and across 28 states in India found that reservation quotas influenced women’s political participation and policy outcomes and increased the provision of public goods aligned with female voters’ preferences. Further, quotas improved men’s perceptions of women as leaders, increased the aspirations of girls, and helped women get elected even after quotas were removed. Most of the rigorous research drawn on in this insight comes from India comparative conclusions should be drawn cautiously. This evidence largely suggests that governments seeking to improve women’s representation in politics should consider reservation quotas for local leadership positions. overview of the three main types of quota policies reserved seats, party quotas, and legislative quotas. These are found in all major world regions in countries with a broad range of institutional, social, economic, and cultural characteristics. At the same time, the mere advent of gender quotas has not resulted in uniform increases in the percentage of women in parliament worldwide some countries have witnessed dramatic increases, while others have seen more modest changes or even setbacks in the number of women elected to national assemblies. Despite the rapid international diffusion of these measures, most research has focused on single countries or, at most, the presence of quotas within one world region. Consequently, explanations for the adoption and impact of gender quotas derived from one study often contradict .