The use of gender quotas to increase women's political representation in legislatures has expanded in recent years. Scholars have identified three main categories of gender quotas, including constitutional, election law and political party quotas. While considerable attention has been devoted to classifying types of quotas, to explaining why they were adopted and to investigating which quota provisions are most effective, little is known about the actual implementation of political party gender quotas. This article is a first step in explaining when parties live up to their promises to promote women's representation and when they fail to do so. Focusing on Germany, I examine four parties’ experiences in implementing quotas in 16 states over a decade. I argue that while structural factors such as the electoral and party systems as well as the supply and demand of female candidates are not unimportant, cultural variables best explain whether or not parties actually comply with their own quotas.

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This article examines the candidates for the 2009 Bundestag election and asks three questions. First, did German political parties comply with their voluntarily-adopted gender quotas for their electoral lists-both in terms of the numbers of women nominated and their placement on the party list? Second, did parties without gender quotas place female candidates in promising list places? In other words, did quotas exert a "contagion effect" and spur political groups without quotas to promote women's political careers? Third, what propensity did all parties have to nominate female candidates for direct mandate seats? Did the quotas used for the second vote have a spillover effect onto the first vote, improving women's odds of being nominated for constituency seats? I find that while the German parties generally complied with the gender quotas for their electoral lists, these quotas have had only limited contagion effects on other parties and on the plurality half of the ballot. Gender quotas in their current form have reached their limits in increasing women's representation to the Bundestag. To achieve gender parity, a change in candidate selection procedures, especially for direct mandates, would be required.

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