THEY HAVE staunch supporters and declared enemies. Some people consider them an unacceptable discrimination element - even if it is positive – and others believe they are the main tool to guarantee a balanced distribution of power. Gender quotas, used to establish a minimum threshold of women in areas like politics or business, are controversial.
IN SPAIN, the Gender Equality Law imposes a quota of at least 40% candidates of “either sex” on electoral lists, which applies also to every section of five names. This double requirement attempts to avoid that women are pushed to the last positions, where they are less likely to be elected. Conservative Popular Party appealed against the law to the Constitutional Court. It dismissed the appeal. The Gender Equality Law, however, offers only some recommendations on areas like business or justice.
"Quotas are 'pivotal' to guarantee women’s participation in politics, according to the European Parliament"
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, on the other hand, is clearly in favour of this tool. “We urge national Governments and national Parliaments to (…) adopt structural measures, like gender quotas, as they have proven more effective to achieve gender balance in political decision-making in the short and medium term”, says one recommendation included in the institution’s report on Electoral lists ahead of the elections to the European Parliament from a gender perspective. The paper was published last May and it analysed both the quota systems in the 28 EU Member States and each country’s lists for the 2014 vote. The document’s conclusions consider quotas as “pivotal” to guarantee women’s participation in political decision-making areas. For this reason, the authors also ask national Governments and Parliaments to promote a gender-balanced representation within political parties. According to the text, the political parties “that have adopted party quotas have implemented them successfully in most cases”, but it also warns that the existence or non-existence of rank ordering rules is key to really guarantee gender-balanced lists. Another report by the Inter-Parliamentarian Union (IPU) enhances the importance of quotas with figures: “More than 80 per cent of countries whose parliaments boast more than 30 per cent women members benefit from the implementation of some sort of special measure - whether legislated or voluntary”.
More than just a figure
"Sarkozy's party preferred a smaller subvention instead of including more women on their lists"
QUOTA LAWS must be well designed to ensure effectiveness. If they do not clearly establish which places women should hold within the lists, they may be included in the last positions, therefore reducing their chances to be elected. This is only one element to take into account, though. A system of sanctions must also be provided to discourage parties to break the law. “The Spanish sanctions mechanism is quite good and it gives parties the opportunity to amend their lists, which is very healthy”, describes Zena Hilal, from IPU. Hilal refers to the fact that the Spanish law sets a 48-hour deadline to modify any non-complying list after which, if the party fails to satisfy the 40% threshold, the ballot is not approved and the party cannot take part in the election in that constituency. Other countries, like France, have opted for financial sanctions. “When the only risk is to lose all or part of the public funding, sanctions are not so effective”, explains Hilal. “For instance, UMP –Nicolas Sarkozy’s party – preferred not to receive all the money it was entitled to instead of including more women on their lists”. In fact, France is one of the European countries with fewer female parliamentarians in its National Assembly, even if the law imposes that lists include a 50% representation of each sex.
"THE ADOPTION [of quotas] must come from a political will that turns them into a national goal”, claims Hilal. “They are a good solution, but they need to be ambitious and be based on a strong political will to not only include them in the law, but also to implement them”. Still, this is no guarantee of success, as the example of Tunisia shows. After the Arab Spring, the country passed an electoral law that established zip lists (50% candidates of each sex in alternative positions). “However, nobody foresaw that there would be so many parties after the revolution”, Hilal points out. “Most of them had a man at the top of the list. With so many parties going to the polls, in many cases only the first person on the lists was elected – mainly men. So even with a great political will and an ambitious, strong quota system, the expected results were not achieved”. Hilal therefore considers that the alternation system based on the candidates’ sex must be not only vertical but also horizontal, meaning that a percentage of men and women should be imposed for each list, together with a minimum proportion of women at the top of each party’s lists.
Source: Quota Project
NONETHELESS, quotas must still overcome resistance. In vain did the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, urge Member States to nominate more women to hold positions as Commissioners for the 2014-2019 term. This institution remains a men’s territory, where they occupy 19 out of 28 seats, exactly the same figure as in the previous tenure (2009-2014). The only Spanish representative there is Miguel Arias Cañete, who said that when debating with a woman, a man should control himself: “If you show your intellectual superiority, you will be considered sexist for cornering a woman”.
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT does not seem very interested in promoting quotas in politics either. The chamber takes a soft stance on this issue, according to its report on the reform of the EU electoral law: “Given the diversity of Member State’s approaches and the continuous political sensitivity of the issue, putting forward a softer, non-binding approach might be the wiser option at this stage”, wrote authors Danuta Hübner and Jo Leinen, a statement far away from the strong political will that Zeina Hilal mentioned.
“A gentleman’s club”
"Here you know when you enter, but not when you leave', says a Spanish female parliamentarian about schedules"
QUOTAS ARE therefore key to achieve a higher female representation in decision-making areas, although other factors must change to facilitate women’s access to politics. IPU’s report Gender-sensitive Parliaments includes female MP’s testimonies depicting an environment and working culture that are usually perceived as hostile towards women. Some of these parliamentarians – both in developing and developed countries – describe their workplace as a “gentleman’s club”, defined by codes of conduct built by and for men only. Work-life balance, for instance, is not considered a need. A male parliamentarian from Spain admits it clearly in the report: “What woman with a partner and children would agree (to be an MP)? She would need support. Maybe when we men have the opportunity, we do not question whether we have this support or not, we take it for granted. And women must take into consideration whether they have this support or not”, he says. In another IPU report, Women in Parliament: 20 years in review, female parliamentarians mention domestic responsibilities and lack of support from family, as well as cultural attitudes regarding the roles of women in society, as the main deterrents in their political careers. Men do not cite any of these. Schedules do not promote balance between work and private life either. “We are forced to follow an agenda designed for men’s timetable, not for that of shared co-responsibility”, a female MP claims in the report. “Here you know when you enter, but not when you leave”, concludes another woman colleague. IPU therefore values that, on the initiative of the Speaker of the Congress in Spain, a fixed sitting time for plenary meetings was established for the 2008-2012 sitting period, so that sessions ended at 9:00 p.m. and morning meetings were given preference.
A crosscutting problem
THE TRADITIONAL FEMALE roles and the domestic burden appear at the top of the list when women are asked about the deterrents to their professional careers in business, according to a survey by the International Labour Organization (ILO). “Overcoming the mindset that women cannot be managers or business leaders because their main role is seen as a reproductive one, is one of the principal challenges”, ILO’s report Women in business 2015 sums up.
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION estimates that, “at this rate of change, it would take another 70 years to achieve gender equality” and it therefore demands “active policy initiatives to accelerate progress”. Even IMF’s Managing Director Christine Lagarde and Facebook’s CEO Sheryl Sandberg have admitted in the capitalist World Economic Forum in Davos that quotas are “unfortunate, but necessary”. However, something more is needed than just adding a figure in a law: corporate culture and leadership roles also deserve a second thought. Grant Thornton consulting firm believes that top senior roles are not attractive to women. “Research shows that upward of half of women at the peak of their careers in the US, UK and Germany believe that the drawbacks of leadership positions outweigh the benefits”, the company says in a report. Men, especially younger ones, also share this opinion. Sacha Romanovitch, Grant Thornton’s CEO, thinks it is a fallacy that there is “a long queue of people knocking on the door to get into senior leadership". Both men and women are “choosing to do different things, as the sacrifices you have to make to become a business leader aren’t that attractive", she says.
IN SHORT, quotas are essential to change the current situation, but a deep cultural change is also needed to modify the stereotypes affecting women’s roles both at work and in family life.