Original
Gender Quota Laws and Women in Cabinets
Abstract
Do legislative gender quotas increase women’s presence in cabinets? Women remain underrepresented in political leadership worldwide. As a remedy, over 80 countries have adopted gender quotas, requiring parties to nominate or elect a minimum share of women. But can quotas have effects beyond the positions they directly target? We argue that quotas increase the presence of women in executive cabinets by expanding the pool of experienced female legislators. Using a global dataset (168 countries) from 1990 to 2021, we find gender quotas increase the share of women ministers by 15 percent relative to the average baseline–including increases in both high- and lowprestige portfolios. Consistent with a supply-side mechanism, effects are largest in parliamentary democracies—where ministers are often selected from parliament—and in countries that experienced the greatest increases in women’s legislative representation post-quota. The findings suggest quotas can generate meaningful spillover effects at the highest levels of government.
中文
性别配额法与内阁中的女性
摘要
立法性别配额是否会增加女性在内阁中的任职？全球范围内，女性在政治领导层中仍然代表性不足。作为补救措施，80多个国家采用了性别配额，要求政党提名或选举一定最低比例的女性。但配额能否在其直接针对的职位之外产生影响？我们认为，配额通过扩大有经验的女性立法者人才库，增加了女性在行政内阁中的任职。使用1990年至2021年间168个国家的全球数据集，我们发现性别配额使女性部长比例相对于平均基线提高了15%——包括高威望和低威望职位的增加。与供给侧机制一致，这种效应在议会制民主国家——部长通常从议会中选任——以及那些在配额后女性立法代表增幅最大的国家中最为显著。研究结果表明，配额可以在政府最高层级产生有意义的溢出效应。
关键词
性别配额、女性代表、内阁、女性部长、立法代表、议会民主制、溢出效应、比较政治