Despite the controversy caused by the move to reserve 33% of parliament seats for women, such a policy would have one indisputable outcome: it would propel India from 128th place worldwide in female parliamentary representation (out of 186, based on lower house representation) to 18th position according to current figures. While the debate may rage as to whether this represents true advancement for women, India will go from the bottom half of the class to having one of the world?s most gender-balanced (though still far from parity) parliaments.
Globally, most nations are far from achieving the ambitions outlined at the UN?s Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995. At the time, the Platform for Action expressed regret that so few countries had met the Economic and Social Council?s goal of 30% women in positions at decision-making levels by that year. Today, only 26 countries have crossed that threshold?and this is 15 years past the original deadline. Only a handful of countries can claim something close to parity (see chart). While developed countries tend to have more female representation than developing ones, the latter still have a respectable presence amongst the most representative countries, and Rwanda leads the world with 56.3% women in its lower house.
Shockingly, this generally poor representation worldwide exists despite measures to increase women?s presence in legislative bodies. According to the Quota Project, 87 countries have some measure, including legislated candidate quotas (30 countries), reserved seats (17) and voluntary political party quotas (40).
So why are women still generally so poorly represented? Mostly because in many of these countries, the measures don?t have much teeth or simply serve the symbolic purpose of placating constituents. Some countries with legislated candidate quotas (that is, a certain percentage of candidates must be female) lack enforcement mechanisms to punish quota violators. Also, female candidates are often run in districts the party is likely to lose.
The same problems plague voluntary political party quotas. In countries with proportional list representation, where the parties produce ranked lists of candidates and the top candidates are seated based on how many votes their party earns, women tend to be placed towards the bottom of the list. In such cases, parties can claim to be presenting a high percentage of female candidates, but ultimately few women are elected. To prevent such abuse, some parties, like the Social Democratic Party in Sweden, have adopted the ?zipper system? where one sex alternates the other on party lists.
In some ways, reserved seats are the best guarantors of significant female representation. In many parliaments with reserved seat systems, up to one-third of MPs are women. However, some African countries have less generous reserved seat policies, like Niger, which obliges political parties to reserve just 10% of elected positions for women.
Ultimately, instead of looking at systems to determine how to increase female representation, the best way may be to consider success stories. Rwanda, the only country with a female majority in its lower house, reserves 30% of seats for women-only elections (female candidates and female voters) and both genders are eligible for the other seats. Also, the political structure?especially the constitution and ruling party?promotes gender equality.
Sweden, the second-ranked country, may be a model for other nations. In 1971, just 14% of Swedish MPs were women, compared to 46% today. The change came when the leading political parties decided to boost their share of votes by turning female political representation into a campaign advantage. Today?s success is the result of voluntary quotas requiring 50% women on party lists. Competition amongst parties to produce the greatest gender equality has resulted in near parity in not only the parliament but also in cabinet positions.
By contrast, relying on a laissez-faire approach is a surefire way to keep women from gaining much ground. Take as an example the US, where only 73 of the 435 representatives are women, placing the country in 91st place. Americans are allergic to any consideration of reserved seats or quotas.
As controversial as reserved seats may be, at least India may soon join the nations with slightly less disgraceful female representation. But this is just a first step. The country must continue expanding female presence in all areas of government and make sure that this represents real progress?that is, substantial positions for candidates beyond just the wives and daughters of the already powerful.