Murcia leads on inequality

REGIONAL PARLIAMENTS in Spain have gradually increased their share of women in the last decades. After the last election held in May 2015, only in Murcia’s assembly are there less than 40%. Nine out of fifteen “comunidades” (regions) going to the polls have seen their ratio of female MP’s in their parliaments increasing in comparison with the previous term.

HOWEVER, the introduction of gender equality laws has meant a higher rise in women’s proportion in those areas where the legislation imposes at least 50% of female candidates in electoral lists, namely Andalusia, Balearic Islands, Castilla La Mancha and Basque Country. Euskadi (Basque Country in the local language) took the first step: even before José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s government passed its Gender Equality Law in 2007, forcing parties’ lists to include at least 40% “of either sex”, the regional authorities approved legislation on this issue. In February 2005, nationalist regional president Juan José Ibarretxe enforced an equality law establishing that “the lists of political parties (…) will be at least formed of 50% women. This proportion will be maintained in the whole list and in every section of six names”. In April that year, a regional election was held, with this law already in force. Female presence in Basque Country’s parliament rocketed to 52% from 35% in the previous vote. Now it is 49%.

SOMETHING SIMILAR happened in the Balearic Islands. Socialist Francesc Antich’s government adopted an electoral law imposing “zip lists” – those consisting of candidates of both sexes placed alternately - as early as 2002. However, the central government under José María Aznar appealed against this legislation to the Constitutional Court, which immediately suspended it. Finally when the Socialists reached La Moncloa in 2006, they withdrew the appeal and the law applied for the next regional election in 2007. Women’s share went up to 49% from 37,5%.

"After Basque equality law was in force, women's share in the regional parliament went up to 52% from 35%"

CASTILLA LA MANCHA suffered much the same fate as the Balearic Islands. Also ruled by a Socialist cabinet, the region approved a very similar law, including “zip lists” and the Aznar’s government appeal. Again, when José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero regained power in 2006, he dropped the appeal and the legislation came into force in 2007, when an election was held. Nonetheless, there were no turning tables here: women were 53,19% of MP’s both before and after the 2007 vote. According to Eduardo Espín and Francisco Javier Díaz, both Constitutional Law professors, “ (…) the Socialists submitted ‘zip lists’ anyway while PP, even if not applying a strict alternate system, submitted lists in which women even outnumbered men in those positions with more chances to get a seat”. So the new electoral law had real effects even before being in force.

ANDALUCIA WAS the last region to join the electoral equality ranks, only a few months later than the Basque Country. In April 2005, the regional parliament where Socialists enjoyed an absolute majority passed a law also imposing that men and women should alternate in electoral lists. The new legislation applied in the 2008 vote. After the election, female MP’s proportion increased from 39,5% to 46%.