Gender quotas in national and European parliamentary elections

Abstract

Within many states, woman suffrage came much later than male suffrage. Ever since women received the right to vote and to run for elections, movements have been formed to empower women even in the political arena. Politics has for long been portrayed as a man’s world. Looking at statistics, female political participation has always been lacking, and the percentage of elected female representatives has always been very small. As women felt more empowered, questions started to arise. Is a parliament dominated by males a true representation of society? Time has passed and people have started realising that something needs to be done to further reach gender equality, even in parliament. Gender Quotas, despite their controversy, started to be discussed, and a number of states adopted them through legislation. Throughout this dissertation an in-depth analysis of Belgium and Malta will be given. While the former adopted gender quotas, the latter, without any form of quotas, has in the last European Parliamentary election managed to elect a much higher percentage of female representatives. The electoral system will also be discussed, alongside the history of both states leading up to woman suffrage and the current day. Through the data gathered, two research questions will be answered; ‘Why is it that a majority of member states elect a higher number of females to the European Parliament, rather than to their National Parliaments?’ and ‘Should gender quotas be included in the European Parliament elections?’ Viewpoints on this issue are divided. This is why, the answers of these two research questions will be further analysed in order to come up with a final conclusion that would be the better option for the mentioned states.