Explicating Politicians' Arguments for Sex Quotas in Sweden: Increasing Power and Influence Rather Than Increasing Quality and Productivity

Abstract

Quotas are employed or proposed in several European countries as a means to decrease differences in outcomes across groups. Quotas belong to a family of biased selection and treatment measures based on group membership, rather than individual ability. The effects of such measures depend on the underlying model of the relevant variables and their relationships, but this model is not explicit in the political discourse. Here, thematic analysis is applied to statements that argue for legislated sex quotas in Sweden, issued by leading politicians and government officials. The most common, recurrent themes are that: (a) Women are at least as able as men; (b) less able men are currently selected over more able women; (c) the proportion of women should be increased to at least 40%, which (d) will increase organizations' quality and productivity; (e) this should be achieved by means of quotas but (f) not through improved meritocratic assessment. It is shown that these claims are inconsistent, as (1) improved meritocratic assessment was not proposed, although that would more effectively select the more able than would quotas, and (2) quotas will lead to lower rather than higher quality and productivity, as it demands that the less able be appointed if they are female. This suggests that the purpose of quotas is to increase the influence of the favored group even if it is currently less able.

Sex differences in the number of scientific publications and citations when attaining the rank of professor in Sweden

“…The principle of meritocracy is the best method we know to achieve this, and it has served science very well. To not select and promote the most able individuals (regardless of sex, race, and political views) is, therefore, not only unfair to individual academics but potentially damaging to academia and even to society as a whole (Madison 2019;Utbildningsdepartementet 2013, 2).…”

Women Quotas vs. Men Quotas in Academia: Students Perceive Favoring Women as Less Fair Than Favoring Men

“…Women quotas are widely debated and stir up controversy (He and Kaplan, 2017;Debating Europe, 2018). Their usefulness in increasing fairness and meritocracy has also been discussed within the scientific community (Seierstad, 2016;Terjesen and Sealy, 2016;Madison, 2019). In contrast, men quotas are discussed considerably less.…”

“…2 Commonly, policy makers, researchers, and journalists use the term "gender quotas" (Debating Europe, 2018; International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assitance, 2018; Morgenroth and Ryan, 2018; European Institute for Gender Equality, 2019). Some have argued though that the term "sex quotas" would be more accurate (Madison, 2019). Indeed, it is unclear whether quotas are applied based on gender or sex assigned at birth.…”

What Price Equality? The Academic Cost of Government Supervised Gender Mainstreaming at Swedish Universities

“…The motivation for studying in Sweden is that it is widely regarded one of the most successful countries when it comes gender equality, ranking as the fourth most gender egalitarian amongst 145 countries (World Economic Forum, 2015) [4]. Given that Sweden is seen as a role model in this particular regard, any development in Sweden is likely to affect the future of many countries [5]. It is therefore important to investigate the outcome of Swedish gender mainstreaming in academia.…”

“…No clear connection is made between gender mainstreaming and academic competence, e.g., to the effect that the former would promote the latter. 5 During the period in which the Secretariat acted as a national support function for all universities in Sweden, it organized network meetings for the leadership groups from these institutions. The universities were to write plans based on material from the Secretariat whose employees return them with comments to the university leadership.…”