Electorally Threatening Women? Understanding Gender Quotas in the French Socialist Party

Abstract

Almost three decades ago, the French Socialist Party (PS) adopted a quota for women in the party leadership and for female candidates, and in the ensuing 25 years, the quota was increased and implemented at various times. The history of the PS's gender-based quota raises the following questions: Why do party leaders adopt gender quotas at one time, increase quotas at another, and implement them in some elections, but not in others? In other words, how can we account for the decisions of political actors? This work seeks to answer these questions by examining the demands and actions of PS feminists. It shows that party women demanded gender quotas and frequently backed up their demands with ideational and electoral arguments that often appealed to male party officials. However, the success of these proposals did not depend on the ability of Socialist women to make convincing arguments; rather it depended on the presence of male party officials who had electoral incentives to support them. This work thus underscores the importance of taking party officials' electoral incentives into consideration when analyzing women's political representation.

Ciências Sociais Hoje: Ciência Política

“…Já Allen e Dean ( 2008), em sua proposta de um modelo de sistema eleitoral que garanta um número equivalente de homens e mulheres na House of Commons britânica, também não fazem uma avaliação direta da efetividade das cotas femininas. No caso dos artigos de Davidson-Schmich (2006) e Opello (2006), o foco são as cotas de gênero nos partidos políticos. O primeiro tem como objeto os partidos da Alemanha na década de Fonte: com base em Scopus (2018).…”

Gender quotas: an interdisciplinary scoping review

“…Scholarship on the French case has suggested that gender quotas may be seen as a political opportunity for men. In turn to gender-based measures -which include quotas at all levels -, party officials' decisions would not depend upon women making a compelling case, but rather on party officials' electoral incentives to support these women (Opello 2007). Game theorists have argued that men's support for gender quotas can in fact be rational and self-interested when political opportunity arises from the rules structuring the electoral game.…”