Not much happened: The impact of gender quotas in Poland

Abstract

Poland maintained its open-list PR system but introduced gender quotas in the 2011 parliamentary elections in order to increase the number of women deputies. Yet this change had only a limited impact on women’s representation. The 2011 election confirms that ‘favorable’ electoral laws provide opportunities for women, but they cannot guarantee that women will be elected. In particular, the use of quotas alone is not sufficient to ensure high levels of women’s representation. The most important factors in explaining the Polish result were 1) the absence of a ‘zipper’, a list ordering that alternates men and women candidates, thus ensuring high list-places for women 2) the parties’ favoring of men in their list placement 3) the relative size of the political parties and 4) voters’ support for list leaders and incumbent deputies. Despite a disappointing outcome, quotas may be seen as beneficial in increasing women’s presence and the potential for further evolution of the electoral system.

Ineffective and Counterproductive? The Impact of Gender Quotas in Open-List Proportional Representation Systems

“…Despite a viable and large corpus of literature about gender effects in open-list PR systems, findings regarding women's political representation remain ambiguous. While some scholars have found evidence of a potential gender bias against women in voters’ decision-making process and candidates’ electoral success (e.g., Górecki and Kukołowicz 2014; Kukołowicz 2013; Millard 2014; Sanbonmatsu 2002), others have not observed such effects and argue that women are not disadvantaged at the ballot box (e.g., Jankowski and Marcinkiewicz 2016; McElroy and Marsh 2010). Some even argue that open-list systems have a positive effect on women's election chances, at least in specific contexts (e.g., Golder et al 2017; Kostadinova and Mikulska 2015; Kunovich 2012; Stegmaier, Tosun, and Vlachova 2014).…”

Women in parliament: assessing the effectiveness of gender quotas in Poland

“…The literature corroborates that positions higher up the ballot mean higher chances of being elected to parliament (e.g. Faas and Schoen, 2006;Marcinkiewicz, 2014;Millard, 2014). The third aspect of policy design is sanctions for non-compliance.…”

“…In an open-list system, voters may alter the order by preferring other candidates rather than women (Matland, 2006). A closed-list system with a zipper, which means alternating men and women candidates, is regarded as the most advantageous type of electoral system for women because candidates are automatically elected in the order determined by the party (Millard, 2014).…”

“…Gwiazda (2015) explains the adoption of gender quotas in Poland. Millard (2014) and Górecki and Kukołowicz (2014) examine the implementation of gender quotas for the 2011 election in Poland.…”

On The Same Page? Support for Gender Quotas among Indonesian Lawmakers

“…The top performers are Nordic countries (41.7%) followed by the Americas (28.3%) and Europe without Nordic nations (26.4%). Thus, the impact of quotas is not universal (Chen, 2010;Franceschet, Krook, & Piscopo, 2012;Millard, 2014;Verge & Fuente, 2014) (Rosen, 2017).…”