By Adaora Onyechere
An increasing number of countries are currently introducing various types of gender quotas for public elections. in fact, half of the countries of the world today use some type of electoral quota for their parliament.
Given the slow speed by which the number of women in politics is growing, there are increased calls for more efficient methods to reach a gender balance in political institutions. Quotas present one of such mechanism. The introduction of quota systems for women represents a qualitative jump into a policy of exact goals and means. Because of its relative efficiency, the hope for a dramatic increase in women’s representation by using this system is strong.
In some countries quotas apply to minorities based on regional, ethnic, linguistic or religious cleavages, this database focuses on gender quotas, that is quotas that apply to women and men for elective office.
Quota systems aim at ensuring that women constitute at least a “critical minority” of 30 or 40%.
Quotas for women entail that women must constitute a certain number or percentage of the members of a body, whether it is a candidate list, a parliamentary assembly, a committee, or a government. The quota system places the burden of recruitment not on the individual woman, but on those who control the recruitment process. The core idea behind this system is to recruit women into political positions and to ensure that women are not only a token few in political life.
Today, quota systems aim at ensuring that women constitute a large minority of 20, 30 or 40%, or even to ensure true gender balance of 50-50. In some countries quotas are applied as a temporary measure, that is to say, until the barriers for women’s entry into politics are removed, but most countries with quotas have not limited their use of quotas in time.
Most quotas aim at increasing women’s representation, because the problem to be addressed usually is the under-representation of women, this is particularly relevant since women usually constitute 50% of the population in any given country. An electoral gender quota regulation may, for example, require that at least 40% of the candidates on the electoral lists are women. A minimum requirement for women implies a maximum set for the representation of men. Since women are the underrepresented group in political institutions everywhere, most regulations aim at securing women a minimum of seats.
Some quota systems are, however, constructed as gender-neutral, which means that they aim to correct the under-representation of both women and men or at any rate set up a maximum for both sexes. In this case, the requirement may be that neither gender should occupy more than 60% and no less that 40% of the seats.
A fifty-fifty quota is in its nature gender neutral, and it also sets a maximum for women’s representation, which a minimum requirement for women in fact does not.
The concept of “double quota” is sometimes used about a quota system that not only requires a certain percentage of women on the electoral list, but also prevents that the women candidates are just placed on the bottom of the list with little chance to be elected. Argentina and Belgium are examples of countries with legal requirement of double quotas. “Placement mandates” or rules about the rank order of candidates, especially at the top of the list, are other terms for the same phenomena.
in what way can quotas contribute to the political empowerment of women? Are electoral gender quotas a violation of the principles of liberal democracy? Or are gender quotas in fact a contribution to processes of democratization, since quotas ensure the inclusion of women into political assemblies, and furthermore, because electoral gender quotas at best open up “the secret garden of nominations” by making the recruitment process more transparent and formalized. It is important to also note that there are many different types of quota systems, and that a quota system that does not match the electoral system in the country may be merely symbolic.
This is where the reserved or extra seats come in. While extra seats regulate the number of women elected, the other two forms set a minimum for the share of women on the candidate lists, either as a legal requirement or a measure written into the statutes of individual political parties.
An Example of a country that successfully increased women’s participation through this method is United Republic of Tanzania where it’s Constitution through Article 21 emphasizes equal participation of citizens in the governance of the country either directly or indirectly through representative democracy. However, the inequality between men and women in decision making machineries continued despite this constitutional provision and to address the gender imbalance, extra seats for women was adopted. The system was initially introduced in 1985 and it is now used both at the local and national levels.
it was found that special seats systems have successfully increased the number of women in the decision making bodies both at the national and local levels. Up to December 2012, there was increase of special seat from 48 special seats members of parliament in 2000 to 102 in 2010. At the local levels, there was an increase from 926 special seats councilors in the council to 1,112 in 2010 election as well.
it may also surprise a few that other countries are taking emergent and deliberate steps to increase women’s participation, some have even broken the political glass ceiling and are seeing more women as speakers of their parliament. The number of female speakers in both upper and lower houses of parliament on the African continent totaled an encouraging 16 women out of 75 legislative bodies according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, The Gambia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Togo, Uganda, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland), Ethiopia, Gabon, Lesotho, Liberia and Zimbabwe .
Increasing women in parliament moves beyond just ‘ticking the box’ for gender parity for these countries, and into substantive female leadership to advocate for gender-equal policies and even increase cooperation across party and ethnic lines. Such gender policies help challenge discriminatory laws, increase responsiveness to social issues, and remove legal barriers to women’s access to services and economic opportunities. Laws do not change cultural norms, but they are a starting point for empowering women.
The bold and laudable visit by the Nigerian First Lady, Her Excellency Aisha Buhari to the Senate and the House of representatives on the 22nd of February 2022 in solidarity for the extra seat bill sponsored by Rt. Hon Nkiru Onyejeocha , co-sponsored by the speaker Rt.Hon Femi Gbajabiamila and 85 others was a significant step and is the first in history in the wake of women’s advocacy for gender mainstreaming of women in politics in Nigeria.
The senate president Ahmed Lawan in his glowing address on her surprise visit almost referred to it as a worthy gender-coup of the parliament and reassured Nigerian women that the rights of Nigerian women will be keenly considered and made to matter as they deliberate on the recommendations within constitutional review report.
For the first time in a long time we see the rise of Nigerian women beyond the rhetorics of institutions of government from “will do” promissory statements to “about time” a reassuring intentional statement that signifies action beyond words.
we are too significant as a model nation to be the pea in the puddle in the narrative of women’s right to participation in nation building by the exclusion of the most important half of the population.
if we must, let there be room for extra seats and if need be extra tables too!
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