Gender Quotas
Gender quotas – a mechanism for ensuring the representation of women in political and decision-making institutions whereby a specified proportion of positions, candidacies, or, in some systems, parliamentary seats is allocated or required for women. Gender quotas may in principle be established for people of different genders. In practice, they have most often been used to address the historical and continuing underrepresentation of women in political institutions.
Gender quotas are intended to increase women’s representation in elected office. Their principal objectives include overcoming the historical exclusion of women from political participation, increasing women’s involvement in political decision-making, and ensuring their representation in elected bodies of government.
Gender quotas should not be equated with the women’s representation quotas practised during the Soviet period. In a democratic society, gender balance in political representation is a matter of concern for voters, political parties, public authorities, and civil society.
Gender quotas are often understood as temporary special measures designed to promote substantive equality of opportunity and to correct persistent gender imbalances in political representation. Their purpose is not to confer permanent privilege on one group, but to reduce structural barriers that prevent equal participation.
As gender equality becomes more firmly institutionalized and women and men gain genuinely equal rights and opportunities in different spheres of life, the need for such measures may diminish. In this sense, gender quotas may be regarded as a form of affirmative action or temporary special measures (Melnyk, 2004, pp. 244–245).
See also: Gender Equality, Gender Parity, Political Representation, Affirmative Action, Substantive Equality.
Reference:
Melnyk, T. M. (2004). Gender u politytsi [Gender in politics]. In Osnovy teorii genderu: Navchalnyi posibnyk [Foundations of gender theory: A textbook] (pp. 219–265). Kyiv: K.I.S. [in Ukrainian].
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