Women’s Representation in Politics in South Eastern Europe : Quotas and the Importance of Party Differences

Quotas are determined to be the main and most effective tool in promoting gender equality. We examine six Southeast European countries where quotas have been either reintroduced (following the abolition of communist-era quota systems) or introduced for the first time. Presenting original data on the descriptive representation of women in parliament, we find significant within region variety. Unlike in Western countries, where women’s representation tends to be higher among center and left parties, center-right parties have in some cases staged the most women. We look into quotas, as well as cultural and historical contexts, in order to examine this region-specific phenomenon and account for the within-region variation

Women’s Representation in Politics in South Eastern Europe : Quotas and the Importance of Party Differences

Quotas are determined to be the main and most effective tool in promoting gender equality. We examine six Southeast European countries where quotas have been either reintroduced (following the abolition of communist-era quota systems) or introduced for the first time. Presenting original data on the descriptive representation of women in parliament, we find significant within region variety. Unlike in Western countries, where women’s representation tends to be higher among center and left parties, center-right parties have in some cases staged the most women. We look into quotas, as well as cultural and historical contexts, in order to examine this region-specific phenomenon and account for the within-region variation

Ministerial Politics in Southeastern Europe: Appointment and Portfolio Allocation to Female Ministers

In light of the growing scholarship on women's representation in the executive, we examine whether extant theories on the determinants of female ministerial appointments apply to and explain the role of women in the executive in new democracies. We are further interested in better understanding the dynamics of portfolio allocation to female ministers. Given the different meanings that the political left and right carry in new compared with established democracies, we argue that ministerial appointments and portfolio allocations reflect this difference and therefore show diverse results. Presenting data on women ministers in five southeastern European states between 1990 and 2018, we analyze the descriptive representation of women at the highest echelons of political power. We establish that while the standard claim found in the literature—that left political parties stage more women and with more progressive views, as shown primarily in scholarship on Western democracies, southeastern European women ministers who are given portfolios traditionally reserved for men are appointed primarily by parties of the right. Moreover, we find little support for the link between legislative and executive representation; rather, we see that the appointment of women ministers is related to the institutionalization level of the parties in power