Formal Institutions and Women's Electoral Representation in Four European Countries: Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands 1

• Published in: Journal of international women's studies 2016-01, Vol.17 (1), p.19
• Main Author: Lu, Sophia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Decision making; Democracy; Equality; Feminism; Gender equity; Gender relations; Institutionalism; Parliaments; Political behavior; Political parties; Politics; Public good; Quotas; Society; Women
• ISSN: 1539-8706

This article attempted to produce evidence that formal institutions, such as electoral and internal party quotas, can advance women's active roles in the public sphere using the cases of four European countries: Belgium, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. The quantitative dataset was provided by the University of Chicago and the Inter-University Consortium of Political and Social Research based on a two-year study of political parties. Belgium engages in constitutionally mandated electoral quotas. Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, on the other hand, have internal party quotas, which are voluntarily adopted by political parties. In analyzing each country's chi-square and Pearson's r correlation, Belgium, having electoral quota, is the only country that was analyzed for electoral quotas. Germany, Italy and the Netherlands' internal voluntary party quotas were correlated with women's descriptive representations. Using chi-square analysis, this study showed that the presence of electoral quotas is correlated with an increase in the percentage of women in decision-making bodies as well as with an increase in the percentage of women in decision-making bodies.