Abstract. The article reveals the experience of using gender quotas and the issues of their effectiveness in the political sphere of the European Union and Ukraine. The relevance of the article is due to the fact that gender quotas are a common and at the same time institutionalized mechanism for ensuring gender equality. The article uses historical, comparative and structural-functional research methods. The authors determined the legal basis of gender quotas, mechanisms for their implementation, types of quotas and criteria for their effectiveness. Legislative candidate quotas and voluntary party quotas have been found to apply in European countries. The experience of applying gender quotas in the EU and Ukraine was studied. Gender quotas have been shown to increase women's representation, but not immediately after application. The effectiveness of quotas is determined by a good legal basis and the use of quotas in combination with other means. It is determined that even a single application of gender quotas has a lasting effect on increasing the number of women in representative bodies. The adoption of voluntary party quotas by leading political parties also contributes to the equal representation of women and men. In addition to directly affecting the number of women in the legislature, gender quotas indirectly affect other aspects of life. Key words: gender, gender equality, gender quotas, affirmative action, European Union.
Gender mainstreaming is an integral part of the process of building a democratic society, including in thepolitical sphere. In order to draw conclusions about gender equality in the political sphere, it is necessaryto constantly investigate the current situation. An indicator of gender equality in the political sphere is therepresentation of women and men in the governmental institutions. Therefore, there is a need to analyse thegender structure of central and local authorities in the European Union.The aim of the paper is to analyse the representation of women and men in elected authorities andgovernments of the European Union and Ukraine. The author explored the participation of men and womenin the European Parliament, national parliaments of European countries, national governmental authorities,regional and local parliaments of the EU and Ukraine.The gender structures of different authorities were compared. The countries with gender equality in thepolitical sphere and the countries with the largest imbalances were identified.The author analysed the factors that contributed to the establishment of equality in countries with indicatorsas close as possible to gender balance (Scandinavian countries). Among such factors the most interesting are:emancipation of women; high level of social development; institutional factors and legislation as incentives.A comparison of the gender structures of the central executive and legislative bodies and local councils ofUkraine and Poland was made.
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