Gender quotas, gender mainstreaming and gender relations in politics

Abstract

This article seeks to reintroduce discussions on gender relations in politics back into scholarly and political debate. Many countries have adopted gender quotas, but it is unclear whether their implementation has meaningfully changed the prevalent inequalities governing gender relations in politics. This article considers whether the implementation of gender quotas could promote change, and assesses this change with reference to five criteria formerly used to assess the strategy of gender mainstreaming. These are a shift towards a more comprehensive concept of gender equality; the incorporation of a gender perspective intersected with other inequalities in mainstream politics; equal political representation; organizational changes in selection and recruitment mechanisms as well as the functioning of politics; and, finally, the displacement of hierarchies, and the empowerment of subjects. Reflection on and empirical illustrations of gender quotas with regard to these criteria reveal a mixed picture, demonstrating the need to reintroduce discussions about gender equality within politics back into gender quota debates. This discussion will not focus on the legitimacy of or need for gender quotas, but on how their implementation can contribute to the improvement of gender relations in politics beyond a quantitative sense. Approaching gender quotas through the use of criteria devised for assessing the gender mainstreaming strategy is helpful in exploring the potential of gender quotas in the transformation of gender relations.

Reporting requirements, targets, and quotas for women in leadership

“…There is much evidence for arguments both supporting demand-side approaches (e.g., Epstein, Niemi, & Powell, 2005;Meier & Lombardo, 2013;Swers & Larson, 2005;Wang & Kelan, 2013) and opposing them (e.g., Ahern & Dittmar, 2012;Gillespie & Ryan, 2012;Leslie, Mayer, & Kravitz, 2014). The current research does not address the question of whether it is fair or appropriate to implement demand-side strategies for women in leadership.…”

“…Governments and organizations have taken many actions to reduce the gap between the proportions of men and women in senior leadership roles (Klettner, Clarke, & Boersma, 2014;Meier & Lombardo, 2013). These actions include equal opportunity strategies, opportunity enhancing strategies, reporting requirements, setting gender targets, and introducing quotas.…”

Adopting a gender quota policy in Qatar: a path to gender equity

“…According to Meier and Lombardo (2013), gender quotas are a tool for addressing the underrepresentation of women in political and economic systems. However, it has been noted that the potential of women to influence gender relations in the political arena should be assessed beyond their ability to obtain substantive and symbolic representation (Krook, 2016).…”

“…However, it has been noted that the potential of women to influence gender relations in the political arena should be assessed beyond their ability to obtain substantive and symbolic representation (Krook, 2016). Beyond the debate over numerical representation, one must examine the potential for seeing gender equality policies, such as gender quotas, as contributions to the aim of promoting the transformation of social gender roles in political decision-making (Meier and Lombardo, 2013). Even when gender quotas are implemented as an antidiscrimination device, societal pressures prevent many women from seeking political positions and promoting female representation in political positions.…”