The Limits of Electoral Gender Quotas

• In Event: Elections, Parties, and Representation in Non-Western Democracies

Abstract

What are the long-term consequences of gender quotas on women's political representation? Using a novel dataset of over 20,000 rural local government bodies spanning 20 years, we find that randomly implemented reservations for women do not significantly increase the probability of women winning elections to the same seat once the seat is unreserved. Two potential channels drive this result. First, an original survey indicates that male ``gatekeeping'' in quota seats allows men to act as de facto representatives despite the official quota for women. Second, the lack of substantial representational gains after decades of exposure to quotas hints that deeply entrenched discriminatory attitudes and norms may necessitate extended quota exposure. Our findings highlight the tension between achieving numeric and substantive representation. Without quotas, gains in descriptive representation may be at risk, while with quotas, women may still be substantively underrepresented.

Authors

• Varun Karekurve-Ramachandra, Stanford Univeristy

• Gaurav Sood