The Quota System – The Quota for Women in Legislation

Member parties that have introduced a quota system for women

The Quota for Women in Legislation

• In Argentina an amendment to the electoral law was passed in November 1991. It stipulates that candidates’ lists must include a minimum of 30 per cent women candidates for the posts up for election in proportions which offer the possibility of being elected. Lists which do not comply with these requirements will not be made official.

• In Belgium legislation was passed in May 1994, stipulating a quota of one in four places on parliamentary candidates’ lists from 1 January 1996 to 1 January 1999, to be increased thereafter to one in three. Sanctions consist of limiting the number of candidates: for example, where the one in four rule applies, of 25 candidates, 6 must be women. If there are only 4 women on the list, 2 places remain empty.

• In France the laws have been enriched by measures favorable to the participation of women in political life. Urged on by public opinion convinced by the progress achieved by the Socialist Party since 1997, Deputies first modified the Constitution, then adopted measures for future elections. On 28 June 1999, the Congress (Deputies and Senators) approved modification of article 3 of the Constitution which now reads thus: “The law favours the equal access of women and men to electoral mandates and elected offices”. This modification has opened the door to the implementation of laws for different elections. It was thus that in December 1999, a draft law was submitted regarding on the one hand, elections based on a list system and on the other, elections for a single member. Regarding the former, lists of candidates must henceforth be composed of equal numbers of women and men. The verification of such parity occurs every 6 candidates and continues until the end of the list. Lists which do not conform to this criterion are not registered and cannot participate in the elections. The law has come into effect at the municipal elections of 2001 except for those communes with fewer than 3,500 inhabitants, which have a special electoral system. Single member elections do not allow gender parity of candidates to be imposed: the law has created a special measure which penalises financially those parties or political groupings which do not respect a balance between women and men. Thus public funds given by the State will be reduced from the moment the gap between the candidates of each sex goes beyond 2% of the total number of candidates. For example, a party which presents 49% women and 51% men will not be penalised. Despite the fierce opposition of the right, these measures in their entirity were voted in at their last reading in May 2000; they represent a fundamental step forward in the modernisation of French democracy.

• In Mexico federal electoral law stipulates that political parties must promote a greater participation of women in the political life of the country. With this in mind, federal laws require political parties to include this principle in its constitutive documents. Federal electoral law has also introduced the rule that all nominations for members of the Lower or Upper Chamber that are registered with the Federal Electoral Institute cannot exceed 70 per cent of either gender.

Declarations, resolutions and other information on the quota system:

• SIW Paper on Quota Systems and Parity Democracy for Women
• Women and power-sharing: leadership and strategies
• Implementing a gender perspective in public policies
• Women in National Parliaments