• Politicize and popularize the significance of increased women’s political representation and its role on further democratization: In order to build a national discourse on women’s political participation, quota advocates must know the history and situation of women’s political representation in their country. A first step is to document the extent of women’s underrepresentation in parliament and other arenas of power, in order to then craft appropriate arguments for the importance of a critical mass of both genders to effectively represent both male and female constituencies, the two halves of the population. For instance, demonstrating how in a male-dominated parliament the reform of family law is often not taken up, or how various policies have consistently disadvantaged women.

Often the importance of building and popularizing the discourse for a successful campaign is neglected.

• Learn about the constitution, existing political structure, and electoral system of the country: It is vital to learn about the existing political structures, including political party ideology and organization, and how these institutions overtly or covertly disadvantage women. Furthermore, a meticulous knowledge of the existing electoral system is of particular importance as the quota experiences of other contexts indicate that there should be a good fit between electoral system and the type of gender quota adopted.

• Learn about international treaties, conventions, and charters that the state has signed and ratified: Since in today’s global world all nations strive to be members of the international community, and as members of the United Nations many states have signed a variety of UN moral and legal guidelines such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), or the Beijing Platform for Action, it is important to learn about them and the various ways they can be used as tools to pressure for quota reforms. Many governments sign and ratify these documents without actually incorporating them into domestic laws. However, these documents can provide quota advocates with leverage to pressure political elites.

• Learn from the history of other gender quota cases: Advocacy for gender quota adoption requires much research and analysis on the part of quota advocates. It is absolutely essential to study both successful and unsuccessful gender quota cases from other countries and the reasons behind their success or failure, to avoid repeating their mistakes. A practical way to go about this is to organize workshops that bring together specialists in the field of women’s political participation, and quota advocates from other contexts to share their knowledge and experiences, and to provide information for media campaigns to raise public awareness on the positive significance of quotas.

• Build alliance between women’s organizations, other civil rights movements, activists and supportive public intellectuals: Demanding the introduction of gender quotas requires broad support from a range of women’s and other organizations that may differ ideologically on other issues. Unity among different women’s groups is essential, particularly since gender quota adversaries often use a “divide and conquer” strategy. Build alliances and coalitions with diverse women’s groups and other civil society organizations concerned with social justice and human rights, and integrate them into the quota campaign. This can require a great deal of effort and engagement with key individuals affiliated with various organizations; focus on those whose concerns overlap with the campaign’s objectives of enhancing women’s political status (i.e. social justice and gender justice). The situation may require the re-politicization of other civil society actors or elites concerning the value of gender quotas and of their role in supporting quota adoption and implementation. For instance, it is vital to build linkages with women’s committees or caucuses of existing political parties or institutions, as well as securing the support of popular intellectuals and key political elites, since their active involvement frequently plays a role in the success of the quota campaign.

• Build alliances with transnational organizations: Transnational women’s and social justice organizations can provide important support for a quota campaign, including guidance on relevant international and bilateral organizations, assistance in establishing communication networks with actors from countries that have successfully adopted gender quotas, and help counteracting possible repressive moves that aim to silence women’s rights activists. Transnational advocacy networks play an important role in educating and training local activists on how to effectively use United Nations and regional documents, and can provide a platform for campaigners to publicize their efforts internationally and demonstrate their legitimacy and level of support.

• Consider all the possibilities and then identify the quota system that best fits the existing electoral rules: Before launching a quota campaign, advocates should consider the various possibilities and outcomes, identify possible obstacles, and anticipate how they may be resolved. Among the central issues to be considered prior to quota introduction are: a) whether gender quotas should be applied at the candidacy level or to the final make-up of the parliament, b) how and if the electorate should choose the female candidates/members, c) whether the quota is to be legally mandated (either through a constitutional amendment or reforming the nation’s election laws) or voluntarily adopted by the party leadership. All possible scenarios need to be carefully analyzed to anticipate how to avoid missteps which might allow adversaries to undercut the campaign. This will also help advocates to create a quota measure that fits with the existing political and electoral structures.

• Train supporters who can organize and work for the campaign: A successful quota campaign requires active involvement by many committed individuals who are well versed in the central arguments supporting quotas and who can persuasively transmit these arguments to the public at large. The process of campaigning for gender quotas is also by definition a process for training women to enter politics, and a public education campaign on the crucial role of public opinion in pushing the state and political elites towards a more inclusive democracy. To ensure public recognition and support of quota measures, advocates must develop mechanisms that enable exchange of feedback with the public. This helps ensure that what campaign spokespersons present reflect the views and desires of civil society.

• Be prepared for the long haul: Be prepared for great resistance from the majority of male political elites, who in most cases will be the actors who ultimately adopt or reject proposed quota measures. A coalition of women’s movements has to carefully strategize and network with various key actors; this often takes a long time – even decades. For instance, in Turkey, KA-DER (The Association for Support and Training of Women Candidates) has been active since 1999 to address women’s underrepresentation in national parliaments, through extensive media and lobbying campaigns on gender quotas. However its major victory came only 11 years later in a September 2010 referendum allowing affirmative action measures for women (without violating the principle of equality in the national constitution).2 Patience, persistence and constant strategizing are important aspects of successful quota adoption.

• Launching the campaign: Once the ground-work is prepared:

1. Launch the campaign with the active involvement of a coalition of women’s movement(s), women activists, and other groups who are committed to the cause.

2. Attract media coverage (including new social media) on the issues: low levels of women in politics; impacts of this on the society at large. Work to bring to media and public attention to other countries’ successful quota adoption experiences and how these benefited women and society at large.

3. Provide a platform, for example organize a public, multi-media and speaking event that brings together various supporters, particularly women, from different political parties, and grants them a public forum.

4. Lobby party leaders and male politicians. Remind them that women make up 50% of the electorate and it will benefit party leaders if they gain women’s votes by supporting women’s demand for gender quotas. (At this point advocates should be able to present evidence that women voters are in fact supportive of the campaign).

5. Clearly express to political elites and the public the goals of the campaign, an outline of how they are to be realized and the best scenario.

6. Keep the campaign alive through constant media coverage, workshops and conferences, and advocacy across the country in different constituencies to spread the message. The public at large needs continual lobbying as well on the benefits of gender quotas in order to build public pressure.

7. Recruit the support and involvement of celebrities, popular artists, or other public figures to popularize the campaign’s demands.

8. Quota advocates need to continue working throughout the quota adoption process and provide political elites with educated feedback, including modifications to ensure the best fit and insights from other countries’ experiences in gender quota adoption.

9. Even though the campaign is addressing women’s underrepresentation, it should be clear that campaigners are demanding gender neutral quotas – that is, advocating for a quota to ensure that neither men nor women are underrepresented (ideally 50:50 representation, or minimum of one-third of either gender).

Steps to Successful Gender Quota Implementation

• Quotas must fit well with the state’s electoral and political structures:

A good fit between the proposed quota type and the state’s electoral system is considered among the most vital factors in successful quota implementation, and as discussed above requires advocates to thoroughly examine the existing political and institutional structures, and take heed from others’ experiences. For example, as our case studies demonstrated, the list proportional representation electoral system best fits a quota system that applies to political party lists (whether legislative or political party quota), while a majoritarian/plurality electoral system best fits a quota system that establishes women’s-only-districts, in which only women candidates are allowed to stand for election, or even a reserved seats quota which can be filled through direct popular elections (rather than through appointments). Political culture, ideology and party behavior are also important to understand for a successful implementation process, as is educating the public about the value of the particular quota type and its complementarity with the electoral system and existing structures.

• Quotas must be clearly worded with unequivocal language concerning implementation: The wording of all aspects of quota measures must be carefully constructed to avoid serious pitfalls that imprecise wording can create. Although it is very difficult to pinpoint why some quotas are more successful than others, as success is highly dependent on the given broader social and political context, almost all scholars agree that gender quotas must be clear and unequivocal concerning implementation.

The more specific and detailed the wording of quota legislation or party quota mandates is, the more likely it is that implementation will be successful. The wording of the quota measure appears to be less significant regarding reserved seats as they apply to the final make-up of the national assembly rather than to the candidate recruitment or election stage. Nonetheless, reserved seats, similar to other quota types that have the objective of increasing women’s representation, must lead to women’s empowerment for political decision-making at large, and not act as a glass ceiling for women’s political representation as they have in a number of states. This condition was successfully met in Rwanda’s reserved seats quota as its constitution created the Gender Monitoring Office, with the objective to oversee and ensure quota implementation at every level of government, beginning with the local level bodies. Such training and preparation will provide the necessary infrastructure for women to gain the necessary political experience and eventually lead to their participation at all levels of decision-making. Rwanda’s success in truly empowering women with their reserved seats provision is evident by the fact that 21 additional women were elected to parliament in general election, with 24 elected through the reserved seats provision, resulting in a total of 45 female representatives (from a total of 80 parliamentarians) in the 2008 parliamentary elections.

It is also important to ensure that once women are in the parliament, they are incorporated into prominent committees such as budget and planning, and not only to ones that are considered “feminine” such as welfare. Indeed, quota scholars are advocating adoption of quota provisions that also take into account women’s appointment to powerful positions.

• Clear and serious consequences for non-compliance with legislative quotas: Strong sanctions for non-compliance are critical to the successful implementation of the newest and fastest growing type of gender quota: legislative quotas. This is clearly illustrated by France, which has a legislative quota of 50 percent, but to this day lacks the leverage to actually ensure parties comply.

Conversely, in Argentina quotas are detailed to the extent that non-compliant parties have forty-eight hours to revise their lists, after which a judge will move women candidates to higher positions on the lists (as discussed in chapter five). Thus we see successful quota implementation in Argentina but not in France.

• Quota rules and legislation must be advocated and designed by those truly committed to addressing women’s underrepresentation: Through their networking and lobbying, quota advocates must carefully identify the motivations and levels of commitment of political elites who are ultimately empowered to adopt and implement the quota measure. The effectiveness of quotas to politically empower women can be undermined by party leaders who implement them as a symbolic gesture and nominate the minimum quota requirement of women, which in effect makes the quota act as a threshold on women’s representation.

Conversely, actors such as women’s groups or committee members active inside political parties can play instrumental roles in effective quota implementation. Courts and state institutions that monitor proper implementation are also significant in either overlooking or penalizing non-compliance. For instance, as evident in the case of Bangladesh, political elites have illustrated little commitment to politically empower women, and hence reserved seats quotas are implemented in a matter that benefits ruling elites. Similarly French party leaders that have been mandated to do so, remain hesitant in nominating female candidates, while many Swedish party leaders have voluntarily adopted quota provisions, and in turn increased their electoral appeal among the electorate.

• Continuously monitor the implementation process once the measure has been adopted: Monitoring the implementation process and ensuring it does lead to increased numbers of women in parliament is as important as the adoption campaign. As illustrated throughout the book, quota implementation like adoption requires the active involvement of civil society, particularly since quota implementation often involves trial and error. As we witnessed for Argentina and to some extent Indonesia, the respective national women’s movements quickly realized that the adopted quota could be strengthened to increase the number of women elected to office. Recognizing shortcomings in their quota’s construction, the Argentinean women’s movement managed to modify the quota so that parties had to nominate at least one women candidate for every two men (Semi-Zipper style) on party lists, and defined the legal provision concerning “seats parties expected to win” as “seats a party has up for re-election”. Similarly, Indonesian women realized the significance of rank order rules and demanded the Semi-Zipper style across all party lists; to date however the Constitutional Court has ruled that this would be unconstitutional. The Indonesian women’s movement continues to strategize concerning ways to strengthen their quota measure. One tactic, championed by Constitutional Court Judge Maria Farida Indrati, is to pressure the Court, as discussed in chapter five.

In sum, successful quota adoption and subsequent implementation involves a great deal of research, networking, and strategizing to run an effective campaign, and careful monitoring of the implementation process after a quota measure has been adopted. This is true whether a quota is voluntary, as with political party quotas, or adopted through legal reform as with legislative quotas or reserved seats. It is often argued that the adoption of gender quotas is meaningless without effective implementation.

Final Words

We hope that this book can serve as a tool for activists interested in addressing women’s political underrepresentation. This overview of gender quota debates and the various case studies is intended as a guide for action. We hope that we have managed to shed light on some theoretical and practical issues concerning gender quotas, and to provide interested activists with the necessary tools and arguments to further their demands for the enhancement of women’s political rights and women’s access to political decision-making positions.