Article

Czech Social Democrats and Adoption of Party Gender Quotas: Window of Opportunity and Effect of Quotas[1]

Markéta Mottlová, Department of Political Science, Charles University in Prague

Abstract: While second initiative to introduce legislative gender quotas in the Czech Republic met with resistance, Czech Social Democrats adopted their own voluntary party quotas to remedy women’s political under-representation on candidate lists. The separate streams of problems, policies and politics came together at critical time and created window of opportunity that contributed to adoption of measure aimed at gender-balanced composition of the party candidate lists. I argue that Social Democratic women’s faction played a central role in pushing for party quotas but without the party leadership that placed a high priority on the proposal, it wouldn’t stand the best chance of passage. Nevertheless, from the first election in which quotas were applied it is obvious that the particular setting of quotas is ineffective. Social Democratic Party did not experience big increases in women’s representation following the adoption of quotas. On the contrary, the share of elected women on the regional level even decreased.

Key words: women’s representation, gender imbalance, quotas, policy window, political party.

Introduction

Although nearly one hundred years have passed since women gained the right to vote, their representation in Czech politics remains low and has hardly increased. According to Global Gender Gap Index 2016, the country ranks 77^th place out of 144 and 85^th place when considering politics.^[2] Global Gender Gap Index, published since 2006 by the World Economic Forum, has rated the Czech Republic last in four categories in the field of politics – according to Global Gender Gap Index 2016 the Czech Republic scores 0.134 in politics (Global Gender Gap Index 2016)^[3]. Currently, after the general election in 2013, women hold 20% positions in the Chamber of Deputies and constitute 19,8% in the Senate. In spite of favourable conditions (macroeconomic, educational, cultural etc.) for incremental growth in women’s political representation in the Czech Republic (Rakušanová 2004: 108-109), the situation has been changing very slowly.^[4] The long-term women’s political underrepresentation constitutes a serious democratic deficit threatening the legitimacy of political institutions.

The main aim of my paper is to examine context of recent adoption of party gender quotas in the case of Czech Social Democratic Party and to evaluate their impact in the first election in which the quotas were applied. The text is divided into three parts. In the first part I will introduce general context relating to women’s representation on different levels of politics and situation regarding gender quotas in the political system of the Czech Republic. In the second part I will identify key reasons why introduction of party quotas was successful and was promoted as a legitimate means. Among other factors I will take into consideration role of Social Democratic women’s faction in advocating affirmative measure during the intraparty discussions. In order to explain the context of adoption of quotas, I will apply methodology of multiple streams analysis of John Kingdon according to which three streams must come together at the same time (problem stream, policy stream and politics stream) to create window of opportunity so that policy change could take place. In the final part of the paper I will examine whether the quotas resulted in a rapid increase in Social Democratic women’s political representation after regional election this October. I will especially focus on positions of women politicians on candidate lists in all regions of the Czech Republic. Last but not least I will compare the proportion of women nominated (plus positions of women candidates) and of women elected by Social Democrats with other Czech political parties

Women in Czech Politics

Firstly, it is crucial to introduce general context regarding women's participation in political decision-making and a brief overview of gender quotas in the Czech politics. Between 1993, when the independent Czech Republic was established, and 2013 women's representation did not increase to a significant larger extent.

Women's Political Participation

The Czech Republic according to Inter-Parliamentary Union database currently ranks 94th place in the world in terms of the percentage of women in national legislature - 20% women in Chamber of Deputies (Inter-Parliamentary Union 2017). Women hold less than one fifth of Senate seats and hold only three Ministries (17,6%). The Czech Republic is still waiting for its first woman president or prime minister. The highest women’s representation is at the local level (27,1% women in municipalities). But when it comes to the heads of the 26 largest towns in the Czech Republic, women hold a slim 4% of mayors (Šprincová 2014: 16). In Virginia Sapiro's words, the world of politics remains a male domain (Sapiro 1981: 712).

In terms of development of women's political representation, the only level of Czech politics with linear progress is local politics (see Adamusová, Šprincová 2014). On other levels optimistic linear view of progress does not apply and the expectation of gradual increasing the share of elected women politicians from election to election has proven false. In several elections we can notice regressive development. For example in 2013 election to Chamber of Deputies women’s representation decreased from 44 to 39 women deputies. Higher representation of women seems to be rather random than a result of systematic change. Czech sociologist Hana Havelková likens women's political representation in the Czech Republic after 1989 to a lottery (Havelková 2006).

The biggest institutional barrier for higher women's representation in the Czech politics resides in political parties that disproportionally place women in unwinnable positions on the candidate lists. An analysis by the Czech Statistical Office showed that female candidates standing for election to the Chamber of Deputies in 2013 usually occupied the 21st position or lower (Czech Statistical Office 2014). The discrepancy between the number of women in political parties and those in elected positions can be clearly seen in the Christian Democratic Party. Despite the fact that women constitute a higher percentage of party membership (52%), none of the 14 mandates the party won in the 2013 election went to a woman. It is obvious that political parties are the gatekeepers when it comes to nominations and elections to political posts because they dominate the recruitment and selection of candidates (Norris, Lovenduski 1995; Rakušanová 2005).

The only way in the Czech electoral system to change the order of candidates that was assembled by political parties is by giving preferential votes.^[5] Since female candidates are usually placed at unwinnable positions of candidate lists, pre-election campaigns of non-governmental organization Fórum 50 % that supports equal participation of women and men in Czech politics focuses on preferential votes for female politicians (Adamusová, Šprincová 2014). For example in 2010 election to the Chamber of Deputies 14 women deputies were elected from unfavourable positions on the basis of preferential votes. But it is crucial to add that preferential votes are not a systematic measure in order to increase women's political representation.

Gender Quotas in the Czech Republic

Electoral gender quotas represent the “fast track” to equal representation of women and men in politics in contrast to the incremental track. In the incremental track discourse there is an inherent notion of gradualism and linear view of progress. In contrast, the fast track model rejects the idea of gradual improvement in women's representation. Behind this model is growing impatience with the slow pace of change of the position of women. Gender quotas are then regarded as a response to requirements for steps to be taken that relatively quickly break through the historical dominance of men in political life. It is assumed that gender balance among parliamentarians will not come about by itself and that is why affirmative action is needed (Dahlerup 2010: 411-412).

Considering low representation of women in elected positions in the Czech Republic, legislative quotas that would be binding for all political parties were twice introduced in the past to achieve the equal representation of women an men in political decision-making positions. Both attempts met with resistance and were not successful[6] although legislative gender quotas have been introduced in a large number of countries around the world to improve women’s representation in politics (Dahlerup, 2006, Krook 2009). This type of quota was not approved in the Czech Republic, but three Czech political parties have adopted voluntary party quotas for their own electoral lists – the Green Party[7], the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (where they are termed obligatory recommendations, not quotas)[8] and most recently the Czech Social Democratic Party which is the main focus of this paper and will be discussed in detail in the following part.

The effect of voluntary party quotas is limited because they have been non-binding and not enforceable in practice. Moreover, the majority of Czech political parties do not practice quotas. As a consequence, influence of party quotas on women's political representation remains constrained. For instance, the Green Party is not currently represented in the Chamber of Deputies, therefore there is no impact of its quotas on the overall women's representation in the lower house.

Adoption of party candidate quotas

In the second part of this text I will explore factors that led to a successful adoption of voluntary party quotas in the case of Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD) while applying methodology of multiple streams analysis of John Kingdon according to which three streams must come together at the same time to create window of opportunity so that policy change could take place. But before moving on to policy window and adoption of party candidate quotas, I will briefly explore gender quotas for party structures that have been introduced many years ago before candidate quotas.

The Czech Social Democratic Party usually mentions commitment to gender equality in politics within its party documents, strategies and programs. But when it comes to promoting women in political leadership, CSSD does not reflect this commitment in practice. On the one hand, socialists have used gender quotas for party structures – 25% of conferences and congresses delegates must be women and at least one deputy chairperson must be a woman. On the other hand, these quotas have been for a long period counter-productive because they started to be perceived as maximum quotas instead of minimum women’s representation in party structures (Havelková 2006: 35).

The failure of CSSD to fulfil its commitment to balanced representation of women and men in political decision-making positions could be illustrated with nomination of ministers to the current government. Although Social Democratic Party gained seven of 17 seats in the government, the party initially didn’t nominate any women for the ministerial offices. Later when the male candidate for Ministry of and Social Affairs Petr Krcalek gave up his nomination because of health issues, socialists took the chance to respond to critique that party committed to gender equality does not have any female ministers and announced immediately five women candidates with experiences in the social policy for the office (Chlubná 2014). This particular case disproves the popular argument against affirmative action that it will not be possible to find a sufficient number of qualified women politicians. Under which circumstances the Social Democratic Party voluntarily adopted candidate quotas will be now the main focus.

Window of Opportunity

In order to identify factors that resulted in adoption of 40% candidate quotas in 2015 I will use John Kingdon's concept of policy windows and his multiple streams analysis. Major changes in public policy result from the appearances of policy windows. The policy window is on opportunity for advocates of proposals to push their solutions or to push attention to their special problems. Advocates wait for a development in the political stream they can use to their advantage. John Kingdon illustrates it as follows: “People who are trying to advocate change are like surfers waiting for the big wave. You get out there, you have to be ready to go, you have to be ready to paddle. If you are not ready to paddle when the big wave comes along, you are not going to ride it in.” (Kingdon 1995: 165)

In a similar way, policy windows, the opportunities for action on given initiatives, present themselves and stay open for only short time periods. Politicians often speak of the importance of timing by which they mean that the proposal must be worked out beforehand so that it could be advocated for when the window is open. If the participants do not take advantage of these opportunities, they must then wait until the next opportunity comes along. If the window passes without action, it may not open again for a long time. Not only policy windows do not stay open long, they also open infrequently. Therefore policy window calls for a quick action when the opportunity presents itself.

Basically, a policy window could open because of change in the political stream (e.g. a change of government, a shift in national mood) or because a new problem captures the attention of politicians and becomes pressing. In other words, these occasions create an opportunity for advocates of proposal to attach their solutions to it. The policy window could close due to major political events, or a change in personnel or because there is no available alternative and the opportunity passes. These are some objective features defining a policy window but nobody can tell with certainty when a policy window opens and closes. As John Kingdon puts it: “The window exists in the perceptions of the participants as well. They perceive its presence or absence, they estimate the likelihood of its future occurrence, and they sometimes misestimate or misperceive. Beyond misperceiving, even highly skilled and knowledgeable people may disagree on whether a window is or will be open because the nature of the beast is complex and a bit opaque.” (Kingdon 1995: 171)

The probability of an issue rising on the agenda is strongly increased if all three streams – problems, policies and politics – are joined. None of the streams are sufficient by themselves to place an issue on the agenda. If one of the three elements is missing (e.g. if a solution is not available, a problem can not be found, or support is not forthcoming from the political stream), then the issue’s place on the agenda is fleeting (Kingdon 1995: 178-179). In addition, a worked-out and viable proposal that is available in the policy stream enhances the odds that a problem will rise on a decision agenda.

To sum up, when separate streams come together – a problem is recognized, a solution is developed and available in the policy community and a political change is made – then it is the right time for policy change. Change usually comes about in response to developments in the political streams and problems that come to be coupled with solutions. If decision makers become convinced that a problem is pressing, they reach into the policy stream for and alternative that can reasonably be seen as a solution.

Gender Quotas and CSSD: Policy Window

As for the women’s faction, there is the group Social Democratic Women (SDW) who defines themselves as an interest movement within the Czech Social Democratic Party. It is a formally organized group that focuses on issues related to the position of women in the CSSD and women’s representation. Jana Volfova, former MP and SDW chairwoman, was one of the main initiators of the Women’s Shadow Cabinet (Rakušanová 2003: 19). There is also a civic association Orange club that is not included in the official structure of Socialists but cooperates with the party and provides its expertise in gender issues.^[9]

In the process of adoption of party quotas, women’s faction played a central role in coupling problem of low representation of women in politics with prepared solution in the form of gender quotas. Using the John Kingdon's comparison of surfers, women’s faction was ready to paddle and ride the wave because they had available in depth analysis of women’s disadvantaged position within the party to justify the need for adoption of party quotas. As it was pointed out in the previous section, it is essential that advocates develop their ideas, expertise and proposals well in advance of the time the window opens because without earlier consideration they can not advantage of the window when it opens. Social Democratic Women and Orange club had the needed expertise and proposals since they have been advancing for a long time particular measures including quotas that would increase number of women running for office.

As noted above in Kingdon's analysis, policy windows are opened either by the appearance of compelling problems or by happenings in the political stream. Advocates of change keep their proposal ready and wait for one of two things – a problem that might float by to which they can attach their solution, or a development in the political stream that provides a receptive climate for their proposal (Kingdon 1995: 194-195). In our case a window of opportunity opened because of change in the political stream which represents a shift in the ideological distribution within the party leadership. The moment when the quotas were approved coincides with numerical superiority of members of progressive wing of the Czech Social Democratic Party. This power distribution, when the problem captured the attention of people in decision-making positions, was seized as an opportunity. The quota measure got a sympathetic hearing with the party leadership and advocates of this proposal pushed their arguments to the fore. The decision makers became convinced that a problem of women’s political underrepresentation was pressing and they reached into the policy stream for an alternative, quotas, that can be seen as a solution.

Michaela Marksova Tominova, the former director of the feminist non-governmental organization Gender Studies and deputy chairwoman of Social Democratic Party, is recognized as the leading defender of gender equality in the party. According to her “quotas are not a form of positive discrimination but an attempt to redress inequalities.” Michaela Marksova Tominova openly says that without quotas she wouldn’t have the chance to be in the party structures and she adds: “I have no doubts about the necessity of quotas for candidate lists (Martínek 2015).” The proposal of party quotas was also taken up by male politicians. The topic of achieving gender equality in politics through quotas has been supported by men in the party leadership – most importantly by the Social Democratic Prime Minister and Leader of the party, Bohuslav Sobotka. The fact that Sobotka was strongly publicly committed to equal representation of women and men in political decision-making constituted one of the main factors why the introduction of gender quotas was successful.

The case of Christian Democratic Party nicely illustrates a different approach when it comes to leadership’s support of quotas. The position of women’s section within the Christian Party is in comparison with Socialist's women's section weak. Its stance towards introduced proposal of legislative quotas was not reflected in the party leadership. Pavel Belobradek, the Leader of Christian Democrats and Deputy Prime Minister of the current government, put up fierce resistance to quotas. In response to pro-quota women’s faction he claimed that Young Christian Democrats (youth organization) is a larger organization than Women Association and refuses adoption of gender quotas. Women’s voices were undermined in the quota debate by referring to more numerous youth organization[10]

While two Social Democratic Ministers were introducing a proposal of legislative quotas that would be binding for all political parties, the party itself approved voluntary party gender quota for the candidate lists (Statutes of CSSD 2015: article 48, paragraph 5). Bohuslav Sobotka claimed that adoption of voluntary party quotas “is an important decision. We were participants of an epoch-making party congress. Thank you all for having the courage to change the party (Machová, Stuchlíková 2015).”^[11] On the other hand there were also voices within the CSSD refusing quotas by stressing the argument that women will break through on merit and without quotas. Nevertheless, for the final result of adopting voluntary party quotas it was crucial that party leadership defended quotas.

I will briefly describe steps of the government regarding gender equality because I argue that Social Democratic Party besides other things strategically decided to adopt its own candidate quotas to strengthen its negotiation position with coalition parties. The Government has been composed of three coalition parties – Czech Social Democratic Party (winner of the general election in 2013 – 20,45%), populist ANO (18,65%; English translation – Yes, abbreviation of ‘Action of Discontented Citizens‘) and the Christian Democratic Party (6,78%). The Government led by the Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (CSSD) committed itself to “strictly enforce the principle of equality of men and women” as well as “work towards a higher representation of women in decision-making positions. This priority has been embodied in so called ‘Government Strategy for Equality of Women and Men in the Czech Republic for 2014 – 2020’ which aims to tackle the issue and meet the commitment by adopting “positive measures” including quotas. Endorsed by the ministers coming from the Czech Social Democratic Party exclusively, the quota bill was not passed and the initiative ended up at this stage of legislative process. Thus, the Government occurred in a situation when on one hand declares a common effort to equalize representation of women in decision-making positions and on the other, two out of three coalition parties for various reasons and with different arguments do not support a concrete instrument to fulfil this objective.

The problem of women’s underrepresentation in office has become pressing for Socialists because it was the Social Democratic Minister of Interior together with the Social Democratic Minister for Human Rights, Equal Opportunities and Legislation who introduced bill regarding legislative quotas in 2014. The proposal of party quotas adjusting proportion of women and men on candidate lists rose on the agenda when the political stream, in the form of Social Democrats putting forward legislative quotas within the coalition government, opens a window that makes its timing propitious. This political situation resulted in the heightened party’s preoccupation with a problem of unequal political representation of women and men. Social Democrats were aware that the adoption of their own voluntary party quotas would provide them strategic advantage when entering negotiations with two coalition parties in order to persuade them to support the bill of legislative quotas. They expected that coalition parties would argue that Social Democrats should have adopted their own party quotas before introducing legislative quotas for all political parties.[12]

The party quotas of Social Democrats were passed without specifying ranking order of women and men candidates. John Kingdon explains that when the measure has a serious chance of adoption, then advocates become more flexible, bargaining from their previously positions and compromising in order to be in the game. On the other hand, they are aware that final proposal does not have to necessarily reflect their original proposal. Kingdon likens the uncertainty of the final proposal's version to a garbage can: “The submission of a proposal becomes a garbage can into which modifications, amendments, wholly new directions, and even extraneous items can be dumped.” (Kingdon 1995: 178).

Effects of quotas in regional election

40 percent quota is applied on assembling candidate lists to two kinds of elections - election to Chamber of Deputies (lower chamber) and regional election. After the Social Democratic Party introduced its quotas for candidate lists in 2015, concerns were expressed whether the particular setting of party quotas, meaning with no ranking order, could be effective. It seemed very likely that the respective lists may boast more women candidates while again relegating them to unwinnable positions. The time to evaluate the impact of Socialists´ quota came after regional election last autumn in which the quotas were applied for the first time. Were the concerns legitimate or were they proven false? In the last part of my paper I will answer this question and explore in detail whether women were placed at the top of candidate lists with good chances of election while paying attention to candidate lists of Social Democrats in all regions of the Czech Republic. Last but not least I will compare the regional election from gender perspective with other political parties.

On the one hand, Czech Social Democratic Party managed to fulfill the forty percent quota with exception of one region (see table 1). On the other hand, when we take into account positions of women on candidate lists, we find out that the party did not nominate any woman leader in any region and that average share of women candidates on first five positions is only 22%. Although the quota sets a relatively high proportion of women to be nominated as party candidates, this is not reflected in a proportionate representation of women and men candidates on top positions of electoral lists.

Table 1: Women's representation on candidate lists of the Social Democratic Party  – regional elections 2016

Region	Share of women candidates	Women leaders	Share of women on first 5 positions	Share of women on first 10 positions
Středočeský	46%	0	20%	20%
Jihočeský	40%	0	20%	20%
Plzeňský	46%	0	20%	20%
Karlovarský	40%	0	40%	20%
Ústecký	43%	0	0%	0%
Liberecký	42%	0	40%	50%
Královéhradecký	48%	0	20%	30%
Pardubický	37%	0	20%	10%
Vysočina	42%	0	20%	30%
Jihomoravský	44%	0	20%	20%
Olomoucký	45%	0	20%	20%
Zlínský	42%	0	40%	40%
Moravskoslezský	43%	0	0%	20%
Total average	43%	0	22%	23%

Source: Šprincová, V. (2016) Analýza zastoupení žen na kandidátních listinách ve volbách do zastupitelstev krajů 2016 [Analysis of women’s representation on candidate list for regional election 2016].

When comparing Social Democratic Party with other parties it has the highest share of women candidates (43% and is followed by Green Party (36%) and Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (28%) that both apply party quotas as well (see table 2). But the situation is different if we pay attention to the number of women leaders and share of women on first five positions – Social Democrats have bad results and they are overtaken by populist party ANO, their coalition partner.

Table 2: Women's representation on candidate lists by particular political parties – regional elections 2016

Political party	Women leaders	Share of women leaders	Share of women on first 5 positions	Share of women on first 10 positions	Share of women candidates
ANO (Yes, abbreviation of ‘Action of Discontented Citizens‘)	6	46%	34%	27%	25%
Social Democratic Party	0	0%	22%	23%	43%
Christian Democratic Party	1	10%	16%	21%	23%
Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia	1	8%	28%	26%	28%
Civic Democratic Party	0	0%	15%	14%	20%
Green Party	1	13%	39%	36%	36%
Conservative Party TOP 09	1	9%	13%	20%	21%

Source: Šprincová, V. (2016) Analýza zastoupení žen na kandidátních listinách ve volbách do zastupitelstev krajů 2016 [Analysis of women’s representation on candidate list for regional election 2016].

Low representation of women candidates on winnable positions brought about only 21% elected women from Social Democratic politicians (see table 3). We even see that the proportion of women from Social Democracy elected to regional assemblies decreased in comparison with previous election in 2012 (23%). Apparently, Socialist’s quotas did not lead to expected change. In addition, the coalition partner ANO managed to have better results when it comes to gender composition of its elected officials even though this party does not apply quotas unlike Social Democrats (see table 4).

Table 3: Share of women elected from the Social Democratic Party to regional assemblies 2000–2016

	2000	2004	2008	2012	2016
Share of elected women	14%	12%	20%	23%	21%

Source:  Šprincová, V. (2016) Analýza výsledků voleb do zastupitelstev krajů v roce 2016 z hlediska zastoupení žen [Analysis of women’s representation in regional assemblies after the election in 2016].

Table 4: Women’s representation in regional assemblies – political parties that gained seats in all regions

Political party	Number of gained seats	Number of elected women	Share of elected women
ANO (Yes, abbreviation of ‘Action of Discontented Citizens‘)	176	47	27%
Social Democratic Party	125	26	21%
Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia	86	20	23%
Civic Democratic Party	76	10	13%

Source:  Šprincová, V. (2016) Analýza výsledků voleb do zastupitelstev krajů v roce 2016 z hlediska zastoupení žen [Analysis of women’s representation in regional assemblies after the election in 2016].

To conclude this part, it turned out that adoption of gender quotas within Social Democracy did not lead to increased women’s representation in regional assemblies because of the absence of rules regarding rank order. It seems necessary to add further requirement in terms of ranking order in order to ensure an increase in the proportion of women elected.

Conclusion

Czech politics is still predominantly a men’s business, with women being underrepresented at all levels of political decision-making. Despite this serious democratic deficit, two attempts to introduce legislative gender quotas to achieve gender equality in Czech politics have met with resistance. As gatekeepers of elections, political parties play a key role in promoting women in political processes because they nominate candidates to their party lists and provide funding for its candidates.

As pointed out in John Kingdon's multiple streams analysis, the probability of an issue rising on a decision agenda is considerably increased if all three elements – problem, proposal and political receptivity – are coupled in a single package. The successful adoption of Social Democratic voluntary party quotas on candidate lists was due to the joint effect of several factors coming together at a given point in time. Solution became joined to the problem and both of them were joined to favorable political forces. Women’s faction contributed to the success by keeping their proposal ready and putting the issue on agenda when policy window opened and party leadership favored adoption of gender quotas. Social Democratic Women and Orange club managed to link all three Kingdon's streams – they attached a solution (gender quotas) to a problem (women’s political underrepresentation) and enlisted political allies from party leadership. It was also no coincidence that the proposal of party quotas rose on the agenda when Social Democratic ministers were defending bill regarding legislative quotas that would be binding for all political parties.

The effort to set balance between men’s and women’s representation in politics could be driven from within the party itself as a result of a long term activity of a feminist advocacy expressed, not only by female politicians but also by men in the party. In general, women’s sections and groups inside the political parties could therefore play a vital role in transformation within the party. Nevertheless, the successful implementation of quotas depends to a large extent on the position of women’s section within the party and on the support of party leadership, as it was obvious in the case of Social Democratic Party in contrast to the Christian Party. Social Democratic Women and Orange club had the opportunity to push their position within the party and their voices were heard more comparing to Women Association of Christian Democratic Party because they had support from the party leadership.

Regional election in the autumn 2016 was critical from the point of view of my text because 40% Socialists' party quotas for candidate lists were applied for the very first time. Quotas didn't lead to a rapid and substantial increase of women’s political participation. On the contrary, share of elected women politicians even decreased in comparison to previous regional election in 2012. I pointed out that ineffective setting of Social Democrats' quotas resides in the absence of rules about rank order. The analysis of regional election results showed that Social Democratic women candidates were placed at unwinnable positions. As a consequence, it is apparent that requiring share of women on candidate lists is not a sufficient condition for increasing women’s representation in political office. The measure should also specify what positions women should hold on party lists. Obviously, the very design of the quota system has a tremendous impact on its effectiveness.

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