Impact of electoral systems on women’s representation in politics

Abstract

Equal participation of women and men in political life is one of the foundations of democracy and one of the goals of the Council of Europe, reaffirmed by the organisation’s Committee of Ministers as recently as last May1. Unfortunately, gender equality in politics has stayed an ideal rather than becoming reality. Even though the whole international community – not just the Council of Europe – has paid great attention to women’s representation in, and impact on, political decision-making structures (in particular since the first United Nations World Conference on Women held in Mexico City in 1975), progress has been slow and disappointing. As the Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Anders B. Johnsson, put it in 2008: “In 1975, women held 10.9 percent of all parliamentary seats worldwide. After more than 30 years of pledges, prescriptions and persuasion, women occupy less than 18 percent of all parliamentary seats in 2008.