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Gender Quota Adoption and the Qualifications of Parliamentarians

Aldrich, Andrea S.; Daniel, William T.

Authors

Andrea S. Aldrich



Abstract

Gender quotas in legislative elections are a central component of institutional reform to foster women’s inclusion in politics. However, stigma remains that women elected under quotas may be of lower quality than the men that they replace. We investigate how quotas affect the qualifications of parliamentarians, by capitalizing on the unique variation of national electoral systems used in European Parliament elections over its entire 40-year history. We provide compelling evidence that quotas are associated with higher overall levels of educational attainment in parliamentary delegations. Quotas increase the number of educated women within delegations while simultaneously increasing the level of education held by the remaining men. Thus, we provide robust support for the impact of quotas on legislator qualities in a way that has thus far been observed in only single country contexts and fixed time periods.

Citation

Aldrich, A. S., & Daniel, W. T. (2024). Gender Quota Adoption and the Qualifications of Parliamentarians. Journal of Politics, 86(2), 798–803. https://doi.org/10.1086/727603

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Aug 20, 2023
Online Publication Date Feb 13, 2024
Publication Date 2024-04
Deposit Date Aug 22, 2023
Publicly Available Date Feb 14, 2025
Journal Journal of Politics
Print ISSN 0022-3816
Electronic ISSN 1468-2508
Publisher University of Chicago Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 86
Issue 2
Pages 798–803
DOI https://doi.org/10.1086/727603
Keywords Gender Quotas; Parliamentarians; Women; Education
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/24576023
Publisher URL https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/727603