Authenticating Representation: Women's Quotas and Islamist Parties

Abstract

The spread of women's quotas in legislative bodies across the world since the mid-1990s has become one of the most significant factors impacting levels of women's political representation (Dahlerup 2013; Krook 2009; Tripp and Kang 2008). In the Middle East, a region that has long held a place at the very bottom of global rankings of women's representation, the adoption of such quotas is transforming levels of representation (Kang 2009). But there is still much debate over the utility of quotas for women's meaningful participation in political life. There is now a well-established literature that examines the effects of quotas on women's descriptive or numerical representation. We have a fairly robust idea about the types of quotas that are appropriate for particular sets of electoral system contexts when the goal is to generate a target percentage of women elected to legislative bodies (Jones 2005; Larserud and Taphorn 2007). However, questions about whether and how quotas benefit women beyond the simple addition of several women parliamentarians to the political game remain contested. The various arguments for the utility of quotas rest mainly on two underlying propositions. The first is that quotas, by bringing more women to the political sphere, promote the substantive representation of women's interests. The second is that quotas have a symbolic effect. They help demonstrate that women are fit and able to govern and so contribute to countering women's historical exclusion from politics.

Gender quotas in the Arab world ‐ 20 years on

“… Source : Abdo (1999); Ben Shitrit (2016); * IDEA (2022); Inter‐Parliamentary Union Open Data (2022). …”

“…But it could also be because that is not what women MPs see as their mandate. As Ben Shitrit (2016, p. 784) underscores, “In the Middle East, as elsewhere, elected women might not pursue a feminist agenda not only because they themselves are not feminist, but also because the women and men who had voted for them are not feminist.” Similarly, Aissa (2022) finds that many women MPs in Algeria did not feel obligated to work solely on women's rights issues; they were, however, interested in changing negative stereotypes about women and politics.…”

“…Ben Shitrit (2016) reveals quotas have resulted in more Islamists elected to power in Palestine and Egypt—a pattern repeated in Morocco, Tunisia, and partially in Jordan alongside more recent Israeli politics. Ben Shitrit (2016) shows that legislative candidate quotas and reserved seats in elections in Palestine (2006) and Egypt (2009/2010), impacted Islamist parties’ discourse and campaign strategies.…”

Islam, gender segregation, and political engagement: evidence from an experiment in Tunisia

“…Ennahda has acknowledged the presence of conservative Islamist supporters within its ranks by using gender-segregated outreach strategies to reach potential voters and service constituents (Benstead, 2017; Abdel-Samad and Benstead, 2018). This approach mirrors strategies of gender segregation used by other Islamist parties, such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (Blaydes and Tarouty, 2009) and the Islamic Movement in Israel (Ben Shitrit, 2016: 20).…”

“…This study demonstrates the value of studying women's symbolic representation in the Arab world. Whereas previous research has examined the gender dynamics of service provision in this region (Benstead, 2016; Buehler, 2016), the broader ways that women officeholders shape citizens’ perceptions and opinions have been largely unexplored, with the exception of important research by Ben Shitrit (2016) on Islamic movements in Egypt, Israel, and Palestine. Our findings build on those from other world regions about the limited positive effects of women's increased presence in elected bodies on women's mass engagement (Zetterberg, 2009; Kittilson and Schwindt-Bayer, 2012; Clayton, 2015).…”