The Classic Liberal Notion Of Quotas For Women

Quotas are a form of equal opportunity measure created to address the issue of participation of women or minority groups in the areas of society, like education, employment, and political institutions, in which they are typically underrepresented. They function by allotting a specific number or percentage of available spots to the underrepresented groups. In recent decades, quotas have been increasingly implemented around the world as a means of advancing the political participation of women. As a result, quotas are receiving a lot of international attention and are now the subject of an intense debate that calls to question both their validity and effectiveness (Franceschet, 2012). That is to say the surge in the occurrence of quotas leads

The classic liberal notion of equality was a notion of "equal opportunity". Removing the formal barriers, for example, giving women voting rights, was considered sufficient. The rest was up to the individual women. However as of late, a second concept of equality is gaining increasing relevance and support, the notion of "equality of result". The argument is that real equal opportunity does not exist just because formal barriers are removed. Direct discrimination and a complex pattern of hidden barriers prevent women from being selected as candidates and getting their share of political influence (McCann, 2013). The argument is based on the experience that equality as a goal cannot be reached by formal equal treatment as a means. If barriers exist, compensatory measures must be introduced as a means to reach equality of result. Therefore, quotas and other measures intended to increase the level of women’s political participation are regarded as a means towards an equality of results, or at least a real opportunity for an equal number of women and men candidates to meet the voters (Dahlerup,

This is only true however, provided that the specific rules of the quota system in place matches the electoral system in in which it is placed, and provided that there are means in which compliance with these quotas is enforced. They are thus a way in which systems of closed and male-dominated recruitment means can be opened up (Dahlerup and Freidenvall, 2005). By not accepting the idea that there are not enough competent women to place into the political sphere, quota systems force parties to seriously begin to search for women and allow women at all levels in the party organization. In this way, quotas target the very heart of the recruitment process.

The greatest increases in women’s parliamentary representation have occurred in those countries where quotas, whether legislated or voluntary, are in use. Nine of the 10 countries with the greatest increase in women representation had adopted an electoral quota, and of the 48 countries where elections were held, women won 24 per cent of parliamentary seats in countries with legislated quotas (McCann,