Abstract
Do gender quotas reduce the quality of politicians elected to a legislature? For the first time in the literature, this article addresses this question by examining the quality of ‘quota women’ compared to their non-quota colleagues at three stages of their political career: their electoral performance, their qualifications for political office and their post-election legislative career trajectories. Drawing on the unique case of Britain following the 1997 general election, no significant difference is found between the quality of ‘quota women’ and their non-quota colleagues. Voters do not punish ‘quota women’ at the ballot box; ‘quota women’ are as equally qualified for political office as their colleagues; and the gatekeepers of executive office do not discriminate against ‘quota women’ in front-bench promotions. Considering this, the article concludes by asking whether the similarity of ‘quota women’ to their colleagues may actually impact on their capacity to affect transformative substantive representation.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 143-163 |
Journal | Political Studies |
Volume | 64 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 24 Sept 2014 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2016 |
Keywords
- gender quotas
- women in politics
- political representation
- voting behaviour
- political careers