Gender Quotas and Descriptive Women’s Representation: Global and Continental Context

Krook (2006) confirms that gender quotas have gained popularity in response to women’s underrepresentation in politics. This is the result of increased advocacy by international women’s movements, feminist organisations that pushed for the global adoption of gender quotas as a tool to increase women’s political representation. The adoption of quotas while welcomed by most has also created discussions around their usefulness and implementation. Debates about gender quotas have surfaced in national politics across the globe (Baldez 2006). As of 2024, more than 100 countries have changed their constitutions or enacted new electoral laws mandating that women make up specific percentages of candidates, aspirants, or legislative seats, while political parties have imposed quotas on their own in many other countries (IIDEA 2024). The global adoption of quotas presents a number of normative and empirical issues, such as the appropriateness of gender quotas and the reasons for their adoption and effectiveness (Schwindt-Bayer 2007). Increasing bodies of literature on quotas have sought to explain the mechanisms and motivations behind the adoption of quotas as well as, more recently, the reasons why some quota regimes are more successful than others at granting women access to political office.