Gender quotas, candidate background and the election of women under open-list PR

Time: 
07.04.2014 - 12:00
Location : 
A 5,6 Raum A 231
Type of Event : 
AB B-Kolloquium
Lecturer: 
Dr. Maciej Górecki
Lecturer affiliation: 
Universität Warschau
Description: 

We study the effects of mandatory (legislated) gender quotas in Poland, a country utilising an open-list proportional representation electoral system. We use a unique data set comprising multiple characteristics of all candidates running in two consecutive elections to the lower chamber of the Polish parliament (the Sejm). The first of them (held in 2007) was the last pre- quota election and the second (held in 2011) the first post-quota one. We show that quotas have an inherently paradoxical nature: they cause a substantial increase in the number of female candidates but the increase is accompanied by a sharp decline of these candidates’ success rate. This regularity holds even if we account for multiple indicators of candidate background, including previous political experience.