To Quota or Not to Quota: Women’s political representation needs better support
While approaches to ensure better legislative decisions for women include such activities as gender responsive budgeting, the most fundamental action would ensure that women are truly representative in Australia’s legislative bodies. In the lead-up to the Federal Election, we are running a series of specific asks for policy change. Today’s piece by Sandy Venn-Brown, Menaka Cooke and Terrie Roberts, all of the Women’s Electoral Lobby (@WELAus) makes the argument for instituting a quota system.
The age-old question is this - why do women in Australia still remain under-represented in politics, the media, senior executive positions, company board membership and many, many more leadership roles? It’s certainly true that Australian women are active participants in all areas of public life. However, what has blighted our parliaments for decades is the disproportionate number of female members. And even more damning is the lack of women of colour. Women are consistently under-represented in positions of authority and power. This matters, not only from a basic need for our governance systems to reflect the population, but also because representation influences legislation.
The Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL), a national, independent, non-partisan, feminist lobby group, has worked tirelessly to improve the position of women in society and has been actively calling for better systems and policies to strengthen women’s representation. The WEL is dedicated to creating a society where women’s participation and their ability to fulfil their potential are unrestricted, acknowledged and respected, and where women and men share equally in society’s responsibilities and rewards.
Political parity remains poor in Australia
Despite being an early leader in promoting women’s political representation, today Australia is struggling. SBS News recently reported that 71% of Australians want a more diverse parliament. Yet Australia’s Federal Parliament still does not fairly and equally represent the greater Australian population. Alarmingly, as at 1 January 2021, Australia ranked equal 50th in the world for women’s representation in parliament, with women comprising only 31.1 per cent of members of the lower house federally. Women from CALD backgrounds, First Nations Women and women with a disability are particularly absent from these numbers. It is inconceivable that this lack of women reflects too few women of “merit” to fill vacant candidatures. Other forces are in play.
While women have proven that they can raise money, work campaigns and win elections at similar, if not higher rates than males, too few women run for office at all. There are many reasons for these low rates of engagement. A poor opinion of politicians seems to be one universal barrier. Another is a lack of strong mentors and role models for young women. Women are also put off by negative press coverage; research from the US explains this unequal coverage as stemming at least in part from women being held to a higher standard than men. Even if women seek pre-selection, across all parties they are more likely to be placed in marginal seats than men. And, finally, a general disinterest on the part of the political parties themselves to encourage female candidates, or seek to diversify those they endorse.
Practical solutions to overcoming bias
To increase women’s representation WEL is calling on all political parties to give serus consideration to improving access for all women in all facets of politics – from engaging with women to join political parties through to mentoring programs and actively pre-selecting women for winnable seats.
And, of course, one word which is certain to cause consternation across the political spectrum is quotas. There are three main types of gender quotas used in international politics –
1. Reserved seats whereby mandated quotas (either in the country’s constitution or legislation) set aside certain number or proportion of seats for women. Rwanda is one country which has adopted this position to great success resulting in a 63% representation of women in parliament.
2. Legal candidate quotas, or legislative quotas, which require political parties to preselect a designated proportion of women as candidates. This type of quota is often supported by incentives for compliance or sanctions for non-compliance. Countries which have adopted this system consistently demonstrate around 50% female representation (eg. Nicaragua and Bolivia)
3. Party-based quotas adopted as a voluntary measure by the party which are not legally binding. It is this system which was adopted by the Australian Labor Party in 1994. In 2015 the party adopted a new target of 45% female representation by 2022 and 50% by 2025. As a consequence of these affirmative action policies, the percentage of female ALP parliamentarians in the Commonwealth Parliament has increased from 12.5 per cent in September 1994 to its current 47.9 per cent, and women outnumber their male counterparts in the Senate.
But quotas are not the end of the story. Whilst WEL supports the adoption of quota schemes by all political parties, it is also essential that these schemes are backed up by serious analysis of underlying discrimination and unconscious bias in the selection of candidates for winnable seats. WEL also emphasises the importance of removing other barriers to women’s full participation. ‘Gender-sensitive parliaments’ which adopt structures, operations, methods and policies which respond to the needs and interests of both men and women of all races, creeds and colour are critical to the advancement of all women’s representation.
The disparity between men and women in leadership roles perpetuates existing stereotypes about the role of women, both at work and in wider society, and exacerbates disadvantages for women. We need to ensure women’s voices are heard in all our parliaments and included in policy development.
So, to Quota or Not to Quota – until gender bias is expunged from Australian society, WEL says yes we must!
Read more election analysis from WEL here:
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This post is part of the Women's Policy Action Tank initiative to analyse government policy using a gendered lens. View our other policy analysis pieces here.
The ballot box in our Federal Election series logo is courtesy of Flaticon.
Posted by @SusanMaury