Successes and Failures of Electoral Gender Quotas in a Global Perspective

Abstract

In Europe and around the world, electoral gender quotas are used to promote gender-balanced political representation. Since the turn of the millennium, notably legislated candidate quotas have led to remarkable results. This article focuses on two country cases where women’s political representation is particularly high: the Nordic States and Rwanda. In these countries very diverse types of quotas are applied, whether as voluntary party quotas, reserved seats quotas, legislated candidate quotas, a combination of quotas, or no quotas at all. So do quotas account for a high representation of women in these countries, and if so in which way? We argue that the success of electoral gender quotas does not depend solely on a particular type of quota, but on the political environment, the institutional framework, the quota design, as well as on regional factors.