INSIGHTS ON WOMEN’S POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT: GENDER QUOTAS

Quotas are both an important tool for ensuring women’s representation in politics and a significant factor for encouraging women from various backgrounds to be part of the political process.

Of all the countries in the world, Rwanda has the highest percentage of women represented in its parliament (56.3%). This percentage exceeds the 30% quota set by the Rwandan government. Mona Lena Krook shared Rwanda’s example and examined the three main types of gender-based political quotas during her presentation, Do Gender Quotas Empower Women? Electoral Reform and Women's Representation. Krook, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Women's Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, is currently a fellow at the Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP) and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She was the first speaker in WAPPP's new Gender and Policy Seminar Series, which took place September 18, 2008. 

Krook expanded on her past research (detailed in her forthcoming book, Quotas for Women in Politics: Gender and Candidate Selection Reform Worldwide) where she examines the global phenomenon of gender quotas in electoral politics. Currently more than 100 countries have gender quota policies for female candidates, and Krook emphasized the variety of ways countries choose to enact three specific policies - reserving seats for women (a process which first appeared in India in the 1930’s), exercising quotas along party lines (this began in Europe) and by establishing legislative quotas (an action which began in developing countries in Latin American and Africa in the 1990’s).
 
Krook's research suggests that quotas do not always have the same effects on women candidates.  In Bangladesh and Uganda gender quotas encourage elite women or women connected to prominent men to run for political office, while the quotas in Germany and France yield less experienced female candidates.  Krook also highlighted intra-country variations such as in India, which tends to have women from higher castes in office on a city level, yet lower caste women are more broadly represented in political positions in rural India.
 
When asked if she supports gender quotas, Mona Lena Krook gave a resounding, “YES!” Her research shows that quotas are not only important in having women represented in politics, but they are also a significant factor in encouraging women from various backgrounds to be a part of the political process, thus bringing women’s issues from a variety of different perspectives to the table.
 

To read more on Mona Lena Krook’s work, please visit here.

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