Women’s Representation in the Post-Soviet Space: Latvia and Lithuania

Avery Beam

doi:10.31273/reinvention.v13i1.559

Abstract

Using a most-similar case design to compare Latvia and Lithuania, this study examines the role electoral systems play in affecting greater representation of women in post-Soviet democracies. After Latvia’s most recent election, Latvia demonstrated a much higher percentage of women in its parliament (31%) than Lithuania (21%). Interestingly, in spite of having higher descriptive representation, Latvia has no quotas or women's organizations/caucuses while Lithuania implements voluntary quotas and has a prevalent women's caucus. This study advances an institutional argument, hypothesizing that the Latvian parliament's higher percentage of women can be attributed to its proportional representation electoral system. Lithuania has a mixed system that has favored a majoritarian pole, which in turn, has adversely affected women’s electoral success. In many ways, women’s substantive representation in Latvia and Lithuania is only marginally different. However, in regard to the sheer number of women in parliament, the difference between Lithuania and Latvia proves relatively marked. The Latvian and Lithuanian cases demonstrate that proportional representation electoral systems are more favorable to women candidates than mixed systems, even in the absence of quotas and a women’s movement and particularly in the context of post-Soviet democracies

Highlights

As post-communist countries with relatively new democratic systems of government, Latvia and Lithuania have struggled to overcome the legacy of Soviet ideological and political structures that have inhibited the success of minority candidates, women candidates
Despite having higher descriptive representation, Latvia has no quotas or women's organisations while Lithuania implements voluntary quotas and has a prevalent women's caucus. This gender disparity between Latvia and Lithuania's respective parliaments begs the question: why does Latvia have higher descriptive representation for women than Lithuania? I argue that the Latvian parliament's higher percentage of women can be attributed to its proportional representation electoral system
The Latvian and Lithuanian cases demonstrate that proportional representation electoral systems are more favourable to women candidates than mixed systems, even in the absence of quotas and a women's movements, and in the context of post-Soviet democracies

Summary

Introduction

As post-communist countries with relatively new democratic systems of government, Latvia and Lithuania have struggled to overcome the legacy of Soviet ideological and political structures that have inhibited the success of minority candidates, women candidates. The Latvian and Lithuanian cases prove especially significant because they confirm a strand of the women and politics literature that posits that electoral systems play a crucial role in advancing gender equality, in post-Soviet, EU enlargement countries that have recently transitioned to democratic, parliamentary systems. While Latvia currently retains a relatively high level of women's representation in parliament, more pro-active gender equality policies will prove necessary to promote any meaningful forms of substantive representation (Rastringa, 2015) Both Latvia and Lithuania have relatively weak, decentralised women's movements with limited points of access to influence state policy. Because of the similarities outlined above, Latvia and Lithuania's shared communist history, as well as their political systems, overall gender equality, economic women's representation, women's movements can be discounted as significant explanations for the number of women in their respective parliaments

Literature review

Findings

Conclusion