Abstract
This chapter delineates the history of electoral gender quotas globally as well as with a. focus on Germany and Austria. We introduce and explain different quota designs (e.g., legislated quotas, reserved seats, voluntary party quotas) and take stock of central quota reforms in neighboring European countries that we consider instructive for our cases, in particular, Denmark, France, Belgium, and the UK. In the second part of the chapter, we assess why, when, how, and by whom quotas were introduced in Germany and Austria. We illustrate the lack of adequate parliamentary representation with data from national and Land levels and present central gender equality debates within the major ‘quota’ parties (Social Democrats, Greens, and Conservatives) that shaped introduction and enforcement of gender quotas since the 1980s.
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Notes
- 1.
Some studies, however, question this causal connection (Tremblay 2007), arguing that, for an example, Denmark and Finland reached a high share of women in their parliaments without quotas (Dahlerup and Freidenvall 2010). We will address this debate further below.
- 2.
See https://www.idea.int/data-tools/data/gender-quotas for an overview. Accessed June 21, 2018.
- 3.
Franceschet et al. (2012, p. 5) highlight that reserved seats emerged already in the 1930s and were also often used in the 1970s.
- 4.
Some countries adopted ethnic minority quotas alongside gender quotas for elections to the national parliament. Contrary to expectations, such quotas did not result in gains at the intersections, but show rather independent effects (Bird 2016). None of the parties in Germany or Austria designed ‘ethnic’ quotas, for instance for (women) migrants, even though women migrants and also Muslim women are considerably underrepresented (see for Germany Jenichen 2018).
- 5.
Similar to German electoral law for the list part of the MMP system; see Chap. 5.
- 6.
Similar to Austrian electoral law; see Chap. 5.
- 7.
See for details http://www.pdg.be/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-4051/7265_read-42084/. Accessed November 8, 2018.
- 8.
Before 1994, several parties had voluntary gender quotas. In the aftermath of the 1994 and 2002 quota laws, voluntary quotas disappeared from party statutes (Meier 2012a, b).
- 9.
The idea of tailored lists or All-Women-Shortlists has also been discussed in the German Land Baden-Württemberg (see Chap. 6).
- 10.
A contagion effect (see also Bauer 2016; Clayton 2016; Dahlerup and Freidenvall 2005; Lépinard 2016; Matland and Studlar 1996) may appear between parties, neighboring countries, whole regions, or to other societal areas or between social spheres.
- 11.
‘What really helped us (on participation) was the Greens getting into the Bundestag with lots of women. The SPD also had a quota early and they had more women’ (Renate Diemers, leader in the Women’s Union, op. cit Wiliarty 2010, p. 124).
- 12.
The PDS changed its name to ‘Die Linkspartei.PDS’ (The Left Party.PDS) in 2005 when it entered an electoral alliance with the party ‘Arbeit und soziale Gerechtigkeit—Die Wahlalternative’ (WASG; Labor and Social Justice—The Electoral Alternative), which was founded in 2004 as a reaction to the Red-Green political program, the so-called Agenda 2010. In 2007, the two parties merged and formed ‘Die Linke’ (The Left).
- 13.
Similar to the Bundesländer, the share of women in political offices of municipalities remains below an average of 30%. There has been slow progression over time and large variation from one election to another in both directions—upwards and downwards (Arregui Coka et al. 2017; Geißel 2013; Kroeber et al. 2018). The reasons for variation and limited average gains in municipalities are tied to specific spatial settings. Fortin-Rittberger et al. (2017) cite the success of independent (male) candidates and minor and regional parties plus lower electoral success of left-wing parties as core factors for low representation of women in municipalities. On a more individual level, Kletzing (2018a) finds that women mayoral candidates often find themselves in a different and more difficult setting than male candidates from their party: Women’s deviation from informal candidate selection criteria tends to lower their own sense of aptitude; they get to be candidates in ‘unwinnable’ districts and often lack support from the local party section. As we show below (see Chap. 6), these factors re-emerge also on Land levels.
- 14.
Frauenkomitee, now: Bundesfrauenorganisation.
- 15.
In 1938, Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany and remained part of it until the end of the WWII; hence, the representation of women in parliament was below 4% (Geißel 2013; Gehmacher 2019).
- 16.
https://www.parlament.gv.at/SERV/STAT/PERSSTAT/FRAUENANTEIL/entwicklung_frauenanteil_NR.shtml. Accessed November 28, 2018.
- 17.
https://www.gbw.at/oesterreich/artikelansicht/beitrag/gruene-grundwerte. Accessed March 29, 2019.
- 18.
In the meantime, the party changed its name to JETZT—Liste Pilz (NOW—Pilz List).
- 19.
Bündnis Zukunft Österreich (BZÖ), founded by Jörg Haider in 2005, is a splinter party of the FPÖ.
- 20.
The right-wing party Team Frank Stronach held Nationalrat seats only in the 2013 electoral cycle and had 46.2% women. The liberal 2013 newcomer party NEOS started with 28.6%, but reached parity (five men, five women) in the 2017 Nationalrat elections.
- 21.
https://www.parlament.gv.at/SERV/STAT/PERSSTAT/FRAUENANTEIL/frauenanteil_NR.shtml. Accessed July 4, 2018.
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Ahrens, P., Chmilewski, K., Lang, S., Sauer, B. (2020). The History of Electoral Gender Quotas. In: Gender Equality in Politics. SpringerBriefs in Political Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34895-3_3
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