Gender Quotas In The United States

In analysing the institutional barriers which close the opportunity for pursuing gender quotas in the US, I will discuss the shortfalls of the US electoral system, namely its decentralised candidate selection process, and identify how this feeds into the psyche of women considering running for office. One will also consider how women’s movements in the US tend not to be pursued within parties, but operate externally. This has detrimental effects the chances to pursue party gender quotas.

It is undeniable that under the right conditions, gender quotas can effectively break up the male domination on elective office. Yet the US does not currently foster such conditions. The US operates via a single-member-district system (SMD) with a first-past-the-post

For the United States, operating under single member districts (SMDs), gender quotas are vehemently argued to be ineffective. This is because, firstly, during primary elections, voters select candidates, not the party. In parliamentary democracies, parties play a robust role in nominations whereas in the US, it is usually the voters in primary elections who select the parties’ nominees. This shows that parties have limited control over candidate nomination at this stage. As parties in the US do not take a proactive role in nominating their candidates at this stage of the process, individual representatives are more important than the institution of the party. Comparatively, in parliamentary democracies, the institution of political parties is much stronger and has the ability to promote women’s entry into elected office (Nanivadekar, 2006). Single-member districts require seats to be designated specifically for women, to the exclusion of men and this sits uneasily with those in the US. Measures taken by parties are hence seen to be limited in their effectiveness due to the limited role they play in the process of recruitment to state legislatures and Congress. Thus, due to the decentralised nature of candidate selection, one finds it difficult to imagine how gender quotas would be implemented. This feeds into the

This further frustrates attempts to introduce gender quotas. Those largely responsible for increasing women’s representation in the US are political action committees and the organisation of various types of campaign schools for prospective female candidates (Krook, 2006). In fact, it is much more likely that a woman, compared to a man, is involved in activity with women’s organisations and is affiliated with a women’s organisation. What is more, women often cite a women’s group as an organisation that was important to encouraging their choice to run. Indeed, the existence of women’s groups and women’s movements has been seen to bring about quota adoption in other states. For example, in Western Europe, political parties faced pressure from women’s movements within political parties and voluntary party quotas were adopted. This is also the case for the use of all-women shortlists in the UK Labour Party. However, it is key to recognise that these women’s movements came from within political parties, not outside of them as is the case in the US. If there is to be increased representation of women in the US political arena, it needs to come from parties themselves in employing gender