Introduction Of Gender Quotas Research Articles

Do gender quotas increase political knowledge?

AbstractDo gender quotas increase political knowledge? While some studies suggest that quotas can positively impact women's political engagement and participation, others find null or negative effects. This paper focuses on Western Europe and argues that the implementation of quotas serves as an attention and consciousness‐raising event, potentially enhancing awareness of the political sphere. To investigate this, I propose a novel research design that capitalizes on the (quasi) exogenous shock resulting from the introduction of gender quotas. By influencing symbolic representation, quotas may enhance women's sense of empowerment, equality and willingness to engage in politics. Furthermore, the impact is expected to be more pronounced among younger women due to the heightened political socialization experienced during adolescence. Thus, the institutional change brought about by quotas is anticipated to particularly boost political knowledge among (younger) women and subsequently narrow the gender gap. To examine this hypothesis, I analyse data from 1992 to 2018 from 12 countries, of which six implemented gender quotas. Using a hierarchical Bayesian model, I assess respondents' answers to knowledge questions. The findings indicate that the introduction of gender quotas in parliamentary systems has a positive effect on reducing the gender gap in political knowledge among younger individuals, while the effects are statistically insignificant for older citizens.

Lifting Women Up: Gender Quotas and the Advancement of Women on Corporate Boards

ABSTRACTResearch Question/IssueThe introduction of gender quotas on corporate boards can disrupt the status quo, resulting in externalities that affect women's advancement within the company. This study investigates whether boardroom quotas contribute to promoting women further up the corporate ladder and facilitate access to a broader spectrum of positions.Research Findings/InsightsUsing legislative changes in Germany as a natural experiment, we find that quotas increase female representation on affected boards. However, quotas may also have adverse effects on women's executive careers; they fall short of eliminating the glass ceiling and fail to level the playing field for women, both inside and outside the firm.Theoretical/Academic ImplicationsThe incentives provided by the quota to hire female candidates for a mandated board may hinder their prospects for advancement to executive roles. Drawing from institutional theory, we interpret this as evidence of decoupling—firms comply with the law but do not necessarily change their stance on gender diversity at the top. Additionally, when women accessing the board have backgrounds more closely aligned with executive positions (proxied by their affiliation with the capital side of the board), the negative effect on the non‐affected executive board is larger. This suggests a substitution effect, whereby women enter nonexecutive positions instead of pursuing executive careers.Practitioner/Policy ImplicationsPolicy design needs to consider the desired outcomes and unintended effects, carefully weighing the trade‐offs among them. Relying solely on quotas is insufficient to achieve gender equality in corporations.

Working Mothers and Political Daughters: Intergenerational Dynamics of Women's Political Officeholding

Abstract We study a new driving factor of women's inclusion in politics: the economic empowerment of their mothers. We evaluate Swedish microdata on politicians and their parents over fifty years. The results demonstrate a strong intergenerational dynamic from mothers to daughters. Female politicians come from households where their mother is more likely to be employed, earns more in the labour market, and earns a larger share of household earnings. This pattern was strong among parliamentarians in the 1970s and 1980s when female numerical representation increased rapidly in Sweden but is not present in national politics after the introduction of gender quotas in the early 1990s or in local politics.

Does Gender Based Representation Matters in Fostering Political Inclusion of Women in Local Governments? A Case of India

How does the legally established gender quota in local self-government bodies affect the level of representation of women in power? How does the representation of women in power increase effective political participation? Previous studies were devoted to studying the consequences of gender quotas in the authorities and management, but the issue of the model of gender political participation remained neglected. The introduction of gender quotas as a mechanism for ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women in politics and the decision-making process increases women’s political participation and political leadership. The success or failure of planning and decision-making largely depends on the level of political participation. The issues of this work correspond to Goal 5 of Sustainable Development, which provides equal opportunities for women’s leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life. The paper analyzes the representation of women in the authorities and management in different regions of the world. The study’s main goal is to determine the relationship between the representation of women in rural local self-government bodies and the consequences of this representation. The data sources were the results of local elections, reports of government ministries and agencies, United Nations reports on gender equality and the empowerment of women, as well as surveys of women representatives of political power in three Indian states (Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra ) — state election data analyzed over the past three decades. The results of this study show that the level of female representation increases annually, although this is not entirely related to political participation. Women’s electoral participation indicates that despite growing women’s participation in local elections, the expression remains unchanged within the established gender quota of 33 to 50 percent. Addressing the gender imbalance in the political environment of three states in India is a result of the introduction and enforcement of gender quotas in politics. The results of this study have practical value for local self-government bodies when developing state gender policy.

Realising Women’s Political Rights in Ukraine

Aim. The article attempts to study legal fundamentals of realising women’s political rights in Ukraine. Equal rights for women and men in all spheres of social and political life is the important condition and guarantee for strengthening democracy in Ukraine. Methods. The research was conducted by applying general scientific methods of learning (analysis, synthesis, modelling) and private-scientific methods of learning (historical, retrospective, comparative and legal, formally logical). The general methodological basis of the article is made by dialectics, ensuring comprehensive studying the problems of realising women’s political rights in Ukraine. Results. Having analysed particularities of realising women’s political rights in Ukraine, it is worth noting that since 2010 gender quotas have not been set in the Ukraine’s election legislation until 2015. However, 2015 was the year of the first introduction of gender quotas, but they were not of imperative character. According to the new Election Code of Ukraine of 19 December 2019, gender quotas have become a mandatory regulation at the nomination stage. Conclusions. It is reasonable to make transformation of the stereotypes of the women’s role in politics and to draw more attention to mass media, contributing to extension of women’s political rights and destruction of the bias about women’s position in politics. Gender quotas in the election legislation of Ukraine are of great significance for all members of society in the political sphere, whilst it needs improvement of the administrative and legal mechanisms to ensure gender quotas.

The ambivalent trajectory of the German gender regime: Are female breadwinner families an indicator of a shift towards a public gender regime?

There seems to be some evidence that Germany is turning from being a ‘domestic’ to a ‘public’ gender regime. The extension of public childcare, increasing female labour market participation rates and the introduction of gender quotas, among other changes, point to this development. However, a detailed analysis reveals an ambivalent and even contradictory trajectory. This development can only be understood by applying an intersectional perspective and looking at families with different socioeconomic backgrounds, class, and gender. By focusing on family households in which women are the main earners, this paper illustrates changes and stability in different domains and contributes to the understanding of the German gender regime's trajectory. On the basis of a qualitative study conducted in West and East Germany, the article shows that many women who are the main breadwinners in their families are in this position not because of modernised gender relations and by their own choice, but ‘involuntarily’, because of their partners' weak labour market position and increasing pressure within the German welfare state to earn their own living and contribute to covering the needs of the household through gainful employment. Many female-breadwinner families do not live reversed, modernised gender roles, but face an above-average risk for poverty and have little room for manoeuvre. Political and economic factors, as well as norms (in the domains of polity, economy and civil society), help to explain these findings. We see mainly neoliberal, activation policies directed at households with low resources, whereas the institutional framework for households with higher incomes has remained relatively stable. The results of the study show that dual-earner households are not necessarily progressive and dual earning is a poor indicator of a gender regime change.

Leadership development programmes: part of the solution or part of the problem of women’s under-representation in leadership?

PurposeThis paper aims to critically reflect on current leadership development programmes (LDPs) and their potential in addressing the issue of women’s under-representation in leadership positions. To this end, this paper queries the current processes through which employees are selected to participate in LDPs as well as how these programmes are designed.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach, this conceptual paper draws attention to the pitfalls of current organisational practices aimed at women’s leadership development.FindingsThe introduction of gender quotas and the implementation of women-only LDPs are unlikely to address the persistent gender leadership gap. Instead, these practices are likely to intensify the negative effects of second-generation gender bias and perpetuate the issue of gender inequality and inequity in the workplace.Originality/valueThis paper critiques contemporary organisational practices aimed at women’s leadership development and suggests alternative practices which are more likely to respond to the issue of women’s under-representation in leadership positions.

WOMEN's REPRESENTATION IN THE POLISH PARLIAMENT: HISTORY AND MODERNITY

The article attempts to trace the history of women's representation in the Polish parliament, its evolution and role in contemporary Polish politics. The author draws attention to the socio-demographic characteristics of women parliamentarians at the beginning of the 20th century and in modern times, to the role of gender quotas in achieving gender equality in the political sphere of the country. The author uses a database of women politicians created as part of a scientific project to analyze Polish women parliamentarians, and also compiles a summary table of the representation of women parliamentarians in the Sejm and the Senate of the country from the moment Poland gained independence to the present day. The author comes to the conclusion that for more than a hundred years of the presence of Polish women in parliament, their composition has become much more consistent with the real social structure of Polish society; the introduction of gender quotas has contributed to the expansion of women's representation, but has not destroyed all existing barriers to Polish women in politics.

Political parties and campaign resource allocation: Gender gaps in Brazilian elections

Political parties shape electoral outcomes by determining who stands for election and what campaign resources they have at their disposal. The introduction of gender quotas have led party leaders to nominate more women candidates, however, those women disproportionately lose. We contend that one of the reasons that women routinely lose is because party elites withhold the campaign resources necessary to mount an effective campaign. In this paper, we test this resource gatekeeping argument using data on the provision of campaign resources in Brazil. We analyze the distribution of three different types of party resources: candidate identification numbers, financial support, and television airtime. Our findings show that party elites provide female candidates less advantageous candidate identification numbers, less financial support, and less media access than they provide male candidates. Importantly, we do not find that gender gaps in campaign contributions are attributable to differences in candidate quality. This finding suggests that even when women are recruited to run for office, party elites may still undermine their electoral prospects.

Busy female directors: an exploratory analysis of the impact of quotas and interest groups

PurposeThis paper aims to provide an exploratory analysis of male and female directors, comparing the case of UK FTSE 350 boards of directors for 2010–2018, with Norwegian boards from 2002 to 2018, to examine patterns of busy female directors. This paper considers the differences between the effects of interest groups’ actions and those of quotas on the emergence of busy female directors.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a longitudinal approach, providing an examination of both non-busy directors and busy directors sitting on the boards of UK and Norwegian firms, with a focus on female directors. Drawing on methods from social network analysis, several trends and patterns are mapped for the two corporate systems. The paper tests whether the proportion of busy male directors is significantly different from the proportion of busy female directors in the two institutional settings.FindingsThe results show there has been an increase in the proportion of busy female directors, whereas the level of busy male directors is slightly decreasing in the UK from 2010 to 2018. In Norway, following the introduction of gender quotas on corporate boards, there has been an increase in overboarded directors, especially female directors, along with the rise of so-called “golden skirt” directors. However, when compared to the UK case, the proportion of busy male and female directors is higher, suggesting that the emergence of the golden skirts in Norway is not a result of quotas alone.Originality/valueThe topic of busy directors has received increased attention in recent years, yet the gender of these directors is often neglected. This paper provides an overview of the characteristics of busy female directors for large UK and Norwegian firms, presenting avenues for future research.

Discourses About the Eligibility of Women on the Moroccan National List: The Gender Foundations of Electoral Inequality

The introduction of gender quota in Morocco in 2002 has been the subject of much debate revolving around the nomination processes and the ranking orders within the national list. The procedures followed by political parties can uncover other aspects related to gender dynamics. In this article, I set out to understand the processes by which female candidates are selected on the national list. While analyzing the discourses taking place concerning the recruitment process, I will try to pay attention to the gap between discourses and practices. This study allows us to go beyond the approach that looks at gender quotas as a global phenomenon, exploring at the same time the personal views of women who are experiencing the process from inside. How is gender displayed and social structures recreated through this discourse? The analysis of these discourses can contribute significantly to our knowledge of women’s political representation and political elite formation. Listening to candidates’ views about criteria of selection informs us about the way in which gendered discourses are reproduced and internalized.

Public Opinion on Gender Quotas and Women in Politics in Ukraine

Gender equality in Ukrainian society in general and in the political sphere in particular is considered from the point of view of international comparative data and international obligations of Ukraine. Ukraine, with 12 % of women in the Verkhovna Rada of the 8th convocation, ranked 156th in the world (among 190 countries listed in the international Inter-Parliamentary Union database on April 1, 2019). The Ukrainian legislation has declared the idea of equal rights and opportunities for women and men in general and in the political sphere in particular. At the same time, the declarative nature of gender equality is stated. The times of Ukraine’s independence regarding the involvement of women in big politics are called “slow emancipation”. Women face the triple load problem, because in addition to basic employment in paid work, they combine the role of mothers, wives or grandmothers with active public activities in the public sphere. Despite these obstacles, women are actively trying to engage in Ukrainian politics, as evidenced in particular by the results of 2019 parliamentary elections. The article analyzes the attitude of Ukrainians to the number of women among deputies in the Verkhovna Rada, taking into account gender, age, place of residence, and the education level of respondents. The public opinion on the introduction of gender quotas in Ukraine has been clarified. The problems of state and party support of this component of gender policy are revealed. Gender quotas are described as a mechanism for increasing the number of women in politics. At the policy level of political parties, gender quotas in Ukraine are not popular measures aimed at overcoming gender inequality. After about ten unsuccessful attempts to introduce gender quotas in Ukraine, the legislative quota of 30 % was finally adopted in 2013, which did not produce the expected results in the 2014 elections. Based on sociological data of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), the dynamics of the attitude of the adult population of Ukraine towards the use of gender quotas by political parties during 2005–2018 is studied.

‘Being good isn’t good enough’: gender discrimination in Italian academia

ABSTRACT The article analyses the effect of gender in professors’ career advancement using data on the entire population of professors in the Italian university system, data on the National Scientific Qualification (NSQ) accreditation scheme, and data on scientific productivity (SciVal) for bibliometric scientific sectors. As NSQ accreditation is a prerequisite for career advancement in Italian universities, using this data makes it possible to rule out women’s reluctance to apply for promotions -candidate professors must apply for accreditation- as a mechanism for explaining the gender gap in academia. Our results show a relevant gender gap in career advancement that is not explained by gender differences in productivity (above the minimum level needed to obtain the accreditation). A structural gender bias also remains after controlling for available resources and for the percentage of female full professors in the academic scientific sector. The results contribute to the debate on the introduction of gender quotas.

When Ethnicity Beats Gender: Quotas and Political Representation in Rwanda and Burundi

ABSTRACTThis article examines the impact of electoral gender quotas in post‐war Burundi and Rwanda on women's political representation. First, it looks at the evolution in descriptive representation by studying the number of female representatives and the prestige of their positions in the legislative and executive branches of government. The results show that, in both Rwanda and Burundi, the number of female political representatives significantly increased with the introduction of gender quotas, with their presence in parliament and ministries consistently exceeding 30 per cent. While women disproportionally end up in ministries of relatively lower prestige, the gap with men has been closing over time, as more women have joined the executive branches of power. The study considers whether such an increase has been accompanied by a positive evolution in the way ordinary women perceive their political representation. Despite a general improvement in perceived political representation across the population, the article finds there is not a significant difference between women and men and the study explains this finding by analysing the intersectionality of ethnicity and gender.

Women on Boards – The Influence of Corporate Elite

Although we can observe noticeable progress in gender diversity on corporate boards, they are still far from gender balanced. Our paper builds on social identity theory to discuss the impact of corporate elite – multi-board men, who are sitting in multiple corporate boards – on board diversity. The empirical analysis, based on DAX 30 firms in the period of 2010-2015, shows that multi-board men resist women’s participation while the presence of multi-board and C-level women positively influences gender diversity on boards. We extend the main argument of social identity theory about homophily favorism by suggesting that multi-board men repel women on boards in order to protect their monopoly value generated from their majority status. Additionally, we find a significant effect of time pressure from the introduction of gender quota in Germany binding in 2016, which indicates that gender quota is an effective policy for board gender diversity.

Springing into Action: A Consideration of Policies Encouraging Female Political Participation in Tunisia and Egypt

What causes women to have higher political participation? There are several competing arguments as to why some countries experience higher female political participation than others. These include the introduction of gender quotas, a country’s cultural norms, and widespread social/political movements within a country. In a case study comparing Egypt and Tunisia leading before and after the Arab Spring, Tunisia has repeatedly reported higher levels of female political participation. Both these countries participated in the Arab Spring, have similar societal perception of females bound to their traditional roles, and report similar socioeconomic statistics regarding female literacy rates and female employment-to-population rates. Tunisia, however, was successful in increasing female political participation after the implementation of a gender quota under a new government after the Arab Spring. This differs from Egypt, where the post-Arab Spring government, the Muslim Brotherhood, revoked the country’s gender quota and experienced a decrease in female political participation.

Women, the Parliament and Political Participation in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan

This paper explores women’s participation in parliamentary elections in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. Using various methods, it offers an interdisciplinary perspective on factors that affect the likelihood of women participating successfully in parliamentary elections. This study supports the general literature on the effects of gender quotas and proportional representation, but its results on other factors are mixed. The factor of financial resources is significant, though its impact has been reduced with the introduction of gender quotas, while other factors—such as social status—may not be particularly important. The public perception of a woman in politics is not the greatest obstacle to women’s representation, and a female candidate’s professional status may often be attractive to party leaders.

Women's Movements and Constitution Making after Civil Unrest and Conflict in Africa: The Cases of Kenya and Somalia

As numerous conflicts have come to an end in Africa over the past two decades, women's movements have sought to advance a women's rights agenda through peace accords; through constitutional, legislative, and electoral reforms; as well as through the introduction of gender quotas. This article focuses the impact women's movements have had in shaping constitutions after periods of turmoil, particularly in areas of equality, customary law, antidiscrimination, violence against women, quotas, and citizenship rights. It demonstrates how countries that have come out of major civil conflict and violent upheaval in Africa after the mid-1990s—but especially after 2000—have made more constitutional changes with respect to women's rights than other African countries. The second part of the article provides two examples of how women's movements influenced constitutional changes pertaining to gender equality as well as the difficulties they encountered, particularly with respect to the international community.

The Impact of Gender Quotas on Gender Equality in Sport Governance

A common intervention to address women’s underrepresentation in governance has been the introduction of gender quotas. This study examined the impact of gender quotas on gender equality in governance among boards of National Sport Organizations (NSOs) in Australia. Central to the study was the theoretical concept of a gender regime. Part of a larger study, the research design comprised a comparative case study of five NSOs with data collected mainly through semistructured interviews with directors and CEOs. The findings suggest that a quota of a minimum of three women was a first condition to advance gender equality in governance. It needed to operate, however, in conjunction with other gender dynamics to move toward equal participation by men and women in board decision making. These included women in influential board positions, solidaristic emotional relations between men and women directors, and directors’ adoption of gender equality as an organizational value.

Achieving Gender Balance in Corporate Boards: The Italian Experience

The introduction of gender quotas or other forms of positive action to address gender imbalance on corporate boards is nowadays common to a number of European countries. In Italy, women accessing corporate board positions are still the exception. The discussed gender quota legislation aims at reducing women's under-representation in decision-making processes and at promoting more diversification on corporate boards as a means of good corporate governance.