(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Quotation of women in politics is currently in use in about half of all the world's countries. The Nordic countries and the Netherlands have long been leaders in women's political representation, but this is no longer the case. Today, countries such as Costa Rica, Cuba, Spain and Argentina have a higher proportion of women in their national assemblies than Norway.
Following the preliminary results of the election in Rwanda 15. September this year the country will be the first in the world where there are more women than men in parliament. The reason is quotation. The new constitution after the 1994 genocide assures 30 percent of female representatives to parliament. They also have three seats in parliament reserved for disabled and young representatives. Introduction of gender quotas is now spreading rapidly around the world. We are talking about an international trend that is delivering results.
Efficient quotation
Never before have there been more women in politics than in the last decade, according to a new report by the UN women's organization UNIFEM that launched 18. September this year.
18,4 percent of the members of parliament in the world today are women, an increase of 8 percentage points in the last ten years. Various forms of women's quotas are an important reason for the increase. In comparison, the proportion of women increased by only one percentage point between 1975 and 1998, according to the report Progress of the World's Women 2008/2009. Despite the increase, the report emphasizes that women are still severely discriminated against in politics as well as in other areas.
Quotation schemes do not surprisingly increase the proportion of women in parliaments. In elections in 2007 in countries with quotas, an average of 20 percent of parliamentary seats went to women, while the proportion of women was below 15 percent where there is no quota, the UN report shows. Of the 22 countries where there are more than 30 percent women in the national assembly, such as in Norway, almost all have some form of quota.
Gender researcher Mari Teigen at the Department of Social Research at the University of Oslo believes that gender quotas are important because women must have an equal right to participate in political decision-making bodies.
- Quota schemes are a very effective measure to increase women's participation and representation. How effective the schemes are varies, among other things, with different types of electoral systems, the type of schemes that apply, and whether there are sanctions to ensure that the quotas are met, says Teigen. According to the UN, quotas for women take place in 95 countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan. Norway does not have a statutory gender quota in politics, but in the major parties, apart from the Conservatives and the Progress Parties, voluntary gender quotas are practiced. SV introduced gender quotas as early as 1975 and was followed by the Labor Party in 1983.
- The voluntary gender quota we have today in a number of parties is a very important reason why we have almost equal representation of men and women in politics, says Teigen who wants a statutory quota.
- It is strange that we have such legislation for the boards of the public limited companies and for publicly appointed boards, councils and committees, but not in politics, she says.
Women's boom
Despite the fact that gender quotas have had a major positive effect on the proportion of women in many countries, the picture is still not entirely clear. A new report from the European Parliament from September this year shows that gender quotas are not necessarily the solution to everything. In Finland, where there are no women's quotas, 42 per cent of parliamentarians are women, only a few per cent behind Sweden where the parties use quotas. However, while the Nordic countries have spent more than fifty years approaching a fair gender balance in politics, countries that have introduced radical quota schemes have managed to increase the proportion of women in just a few years. In Belgium, the proportion of women in the air shot from 9,4 percent to 36,7 percent in just a few elections, the European Parliament report states.
Teigen points to several reasons why we see a trend of more countries introducing quotas for women.
# A recognition that male-dominated parliaments are problematic in relation to the breadth of views.
Strong women's political demands for equal representation
Quotas have been put on the agenda in connection with new democracies having to establish a political system from scratch.
While quotas are coming in more and more countries, there are also critics of gender quotas. Among the most common arguments that the European Parliament's report points out are that the best candidates should win regardless of gender, that quotas go against equal opportunities for all, that it is undemocratic because voters are not allowed to make the final decision and that women do not want to be elected just because they are women.
Teigen, on the other hand, sees no negative consequences of women's quotas in politics.
– But there are of course other problems related to representativeness and elitism that are not solved by gender quotas, but these problems are not solved by not introducing quotas, Teigen says. She sees no contradiction between quoting women and getting better representation of ethnic minorities and politicians from different walks of life.
