On December 5, 2019, the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association made a presentation of its research - "Mandatory Gender Quota in the EU Member States during the Parliamentary Elections". Examples of EU member states, where mandatory gender quotas are used at the national level during elections of the legislative body was discussed at the presentation.
Today women make up about 20% of the total number of members of the world parliament, while the rate in the Georgian Parliament is 14%. Given this low rate, states must take more effective steps to achieve gender balance. One of the mechanisms for ensuring the political representation of women is considered mandatory gender quota.
Mandatory gender quota is an effective mechanism to eliminate gender inequality quickly. In its existence, only men's decision-making practice changes, the ability to name qualified women in relevant positions and therefore women's political representation increases. It should also take into account that under different electoral systems the quota operates differently. It easily fits into the proportional system of conversion votes into mandates and in most countries where women's participation is high, such an electoral system is in place.
We studied the laws and practices of the EU member states to see how they were able to increase women's representation in the legislative body and what reforms they had implemented. We also saw in which election systems better gender balance can be achieved.
The research shows that during the parliamentary elections from the 28 EU member states mandatory gender quotas are used in 10 countries. The first 6 countries also use the unified proportional electoral system (List PR).
The research was made in the framework of the project "Free, Fair and Equal Election - Political Cycle in 2019-2022" supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).