Second International Conference on Interdiscipilnary Legal Studies 2015, 09-10 , June, 2015, Toronto , Canada

1. The Imposition of International
Political Gender Quotas: Addressing
the “Q-word.”
By Maria Lungu

2. Maria Lungu
I am a third year law student at the
University of Tennessee College of
Law.
I am from Zambia.
This paper was completed as part
of my thesis in a “Sex, Gender, and
Justice” course.

3. So what is the issue?
 Women are severely underrepresented in
political schemes, and different countries
around the world adopt initiatives to
address this problem.
 My theory is that the countries that use
gender quotas, although in good faith,
adopt a flawed system.

4. FACTS
 Women constitute only 22% of the members of
parliaments around the world
 In fact, half of the countries in the world today
use some type of electoral quota for their
parliament
 Women in parliaments has doubled in the last
20 years.

5. A Brief
History

6.  By 1994 women had obtained the right to vote
in 96% of the countries in the world.
 These developments have been followed by
an increase in the female share of registered
voters across the globe.
 Yet, improvements in education attainment,
professional development, and political
participation have not translated into
significant increases in female leadership in
politics and business.
 In 2013, the European Parliament issued a
public report supporting gender quotas
legislation requiring companies to have at least
40 percent women on their boards of directors
by 2020.

7. While some women have risen to the
pinnacle of political power like
German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
and Judge Silvia Fernandez de
Gurmendi of Argentina as the first
woman president of the International
Criminal Court, less than 19% of
legislators in the world today are
women.

9. What are Gender Quotas and
what is their justification?
 Gender quotas are a means to recruit women into
political positions and to ensure that women are
not only a few tokens in political life.
 TYPES OF METHODS USED:
 Reserved seats (constitutional and/or legislative),
legal candidate quotas (constitutional and/or
legislative), and political party quotas (voluntary).
 While reserved seats regulate the number of
women elected, the other two forms set a
minimum for the share of women on the
candidate lists, either as a legal requirement (no.
2) or a measure written into the statutes of
individual political parties (no. 3)

10. Justifications
 Quotas for women do not discriminate, but compensate for actual barriers
that prevent women from their fair share of the political seats.
 Several internationally recognized conventions on gender equality have
set targets for women’s political representation, including the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
which 179 countries are now party to.
 Quotas imply that there are several women together in a committee or
assembly, thus minimizing the stress often experienced by the only
woman.
 Women have the right as citizens to equal representation.
 Women are just as qualified as men, but women’s qualifications are
downgraded and minimized in a male-dominated political system.
 Quotas do not discriminate against individual men. Rather quota rules limit
the tendency of political parties to nominate only men. For the voters, the
opportunities are expanded, since it now becomes possible to vote for
women candidates.
 How can it be justified that men occupy more than 80 percent of the
parliamentary seats in the world?

11. Criticisms on Gender Quotas
 • Political representation should be a choice between
ideas and party platforms, not between social
categories.
 • Quotas are undemocratic, because voters should be
able to decide who is elected.
 • Quotas imply that politicians are elected because of
their gender, not because of their qualifications, and
that better-qualified candidates are pushed aside.
 • Many women do not want to get elected just
because they are women.
 • Introducing quotas creates significant conflicts within
the party organization.
 • Quotas for women will be followed by demands for
quotas for other groups, which will result in a politics of
sheer group-interest representation.

12. The Tide Turns
 Afghanistan adopts quotas
 The USA would find quotas
unconstitutional.

13. Afghanistan
 Afghanistan presents a few methods for combatting gender
inequality using political gender quotas.
 In Afghanistan there is a legal mandate to offer women
political seats; this was a key country to analyze considering
its notoriety for machismo.
 In Afghanistan, the constitution specifies that the Wolesi Jirga
shall include 64 women members.
 Despite the advances in female representation in political
parties, violence against women is still a problem, with beatings,
forced marriage and lack of economic support being listed as the
top three offences reported by police.
 In theory women have the same rights as men, however,
there are cases of women who are still fearful of stepping out
of their perceived roles as home makers into political
spheres.

14. Unconstitutionality of Gender
Quotas in the United States of
America
 It is an established rule of U.S. constitutional law that the
state cannot impose or pursue race or gender quotas
 In the private sector, an employer’s pursuit of numerically
fixed race or gender balance is suspect under Title VII.
Under both bodies of antidiscrimination law, quotas are
regarded as discrimination. If a civil rights initiative can be
portrayed as encouraging employers to adopt quotas, its
political demise is nearly certain in the United States.
 Quotas are widely regarded as legally, politically, and
morally repugnant that they are taboo, often referred to as
the “q-word,” yet the “q-word” is rarely the subject of any
serious debate in the USA, even by those who favor
stronger civil rights protections for women and minorities.

15. Propositions to Gender Quotas?- What can we use
instead?
 Parity democracy- equal representation of women and
men in decision-making positions.
 Parity democracy –50-50 male-female representation in
all organizations exercising power in a democratic
society – is not primarily aimed at enhancing women’s
opportunities as individuals or even as a group.
 Its primary purpose is to legitimize the exercise of
political, economic, and social power between both
sexes.
 Parity democracy embraces gender balance as a
collective democratic goal rather than equal
opportunity for a minority group. This system is more
favorable. Parity democracy is a permanent goal,
therefore gender balance would be required forever,
and not just temporarily until women’s opportunities
were sufficiently fulfilled. The constitutional
amendments that pave the way for parity quotas are
framed as “equal access.

16. Conclusions
 Quotas for women do not discriminate, but compensate for
actual barriers that prevent women from their fair share of the
political seats.
 Quotas need to be specific about mandating merit along
with gender as reasons for voting a person into a position. The
application of quotas can be seen as part of a necessary strategy
directed towards attaining substantive equality between women
and men in the public and political spheres.
 The purpose of quotas is to ensure the continuing diverse
representation of the two sexes in these areas. On their face,
gender quotas are beneficial especially considering the history
behind gender inequalities; however their implementation also
presents some issues. Essentially, they are a flawed system.

17. THANK YOU AND ENJOY
THE CONFERENCE.
Please direct any inquiries to Maria Lungu at:
mclungu13@gmail.com