More women serve in governments today than ever before. In September 2008, Rwanda became the first country in the world to have a women majority in parliament. Yet women still lag far behind men, constituting just 18.4 percent of national assemblies worldwide. Of 189 countries, only eleven women serve at the head of government.

The UNIFEM report on the progress of women (which I previously wrote about here), recommends three affirmative actions to increase women’s political representation:

• Political party and media codes of conduct
• Campaign finance controls
• Quota systems

Codes of conduct
Media notoriously focuses on the gender of female candidates, reinforces gender stereotypes, fails to balance the presence of women and men as news sources, experts, authorities and commentators, and gives unequal prominence to the achievements of men over those of women. A code of conduct would help to ensure that a candidate’s gender did not receive undue attention, and that women received more balanced coverage by the media.

Campaign finance controls
Compared to men, women candidates have more difficulty raising funds for their campaigns. Campaign finance controls would allow for a more level playing field between male and female candidates, making women more competitive in political races.

Quota systems
Almost half the world’s countries have either voluntary or compulsory gender quota systems for political representation. Forty-six countries have laws that mandate gender quotas. Sixty-nine countries (including 14 of those that have legally mandated quotas) employ voluntary quota systems by political parties.

Belgium, Macedonia, Rwanda, Burundi require a minimum of 30% women. Austria and Germany voluntarily impose a 50% minimum. Increasing numbers of countries (Spain among them) aim for “gender parity,” where neither men nor women can comprise more than 60% or less than 40% of the national legislature.

The United States offers an interesting example because it is an established democracy with historic under representation of women in national elected office. Women received equal opportunity to participate in the national political process when they gained suffrage under the 19th Amendment on August 26, 1920. Yet, 88 years later, the statistics suggest that the American women still lack competitive equality in running and holding national office. In its history, only 246 women have served in Congress, 90 of which currently are in office. In the 110th U.S. Congress, which took office in January 2007, women comprise 74 of 435 in the House of Representatives (17%) and 16 of 100 in the Senate (16%).

In the 2008 election cycle, of the 33 Senate races, women are running for 7 seats, with 3 women incumbents. In races for the House of Representatives, 133 women candidates are running on major party tickets. See the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University for updates. For the U.S. to achieve the goal of 30% recognized at the Fourth World Conference on Women. Action for Equality, Development and Peace in 1995 in Beijing, nearly every female candidate currently running would need to be elected in November 2008. Further, according to the 2008-2009 Report, the U.S. government should be “held to account” if the government does not take steps to enable more women to attain representative office and if women’s representation continues to fall below target levels.

Arguments for quotas
Quotas systems that brought more women into government in Norway and India resulted in better attention to issues like childcare and public health. The quota system may be the only way for most countries to reach gender parity by 2040. Quotas help to counteract the historic gender barriers facing women seeking pubic office.

Arguments against quotas
Because they takes some choices away from voters, quotas may be undemocratic. By giving preference to women, quotas defy the principle of equal opportunity for all. Quotas and remediation when quotas are not followed are difficult to enforce. By protecting women and not men, quotas may open the door to reverse discrimination. There is concern that women taking “reserved” seats will be limited to addressing women’s issues, and will lack the full power of conventionally-won seats.

Quotas in practice
The African National Congress enacted a 30% quota for female candidates, and between 1994 and 2004, South Africa had moved from 141st place to 13th place, with women elected to 32.8% of its lower parliamentary seats.

There are presently almost one million elected women leaders in village-level government in India, due to the Panchayat Raj Act, which requires that 33% of the panchayats (village council, council of cluster villages and the district council) be reserved for women. The increased participation of women has led to a drop in corruption, and a greater degree of transparency in government at this level.

Finland’s law requires that a minimum of 40% of each gender should be represented at various levels of power. This has led to an increase in women’s presence from 25% in 1980 to 48% in 1996.

Argentina established a 30% quota for women on electoral lists. Between 2001 and 2003, the number of women remained 34.1% in the lower house. Argentinians elected Senator and Former First Lady Cristina Fernández de Kirchner President in 2007.

France changed its Constitution to favor gender equality, and in 2000, a French law was changed to requires political parties to put forward equal numbers of men and women candidates.

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Returning to the list of countries we looked at before with relation to their Gender Gap Index scores, we can look at them again in light of the percentage of women in their national legislatures, and whether or not they employ gender quotas:

Gender Gap Index rank, Country -  % of women in nat. legislatures, “q“=quota system in use

1.  Norway – 36.1% q
2.  Finland -  41.5%
3.  Sweden – 47% q
4.  Iceland – 33.3% q
5.  New Zealand - 33.1%
6.  Philippines - 20.5% q
7.  Denmark – 38%
8.  Ireland - 17%
9.  Netherlands – 39.3% q
10. Latvia - 21%
11. Germany – 31.6% q
12. Sri Lanka -  6%
13. United Kingdom - 21.5%
14. Switzerland - 36%
15. France - 32.5%
16. Lesotho - 28.5%
17. Spain - 36.3% q
18. Mozambique – 34.8% q
19. Trinidad & Tobago - 31.5%
20. Moldova - 16.5%
21. Australia – 25.5%
22. South Africa – 33% q
23. Lithuania – 23%
24. Argentina - 40% q
25. Cuba -  43.2%
26. Barbados – 19%
27. United States – 20.5%
28. Belgium – 35.3% q
29. Austria – 32.8% q
31. Canada -  18.5%
32. Costa Rica - 36.8% q
42. Russia - 12%
56. Israel - 13%
57. China – 21.3% q
67. Italy - 22.5%
98. Japan - 10.5%

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Codes of conduct, campaign finance controls, quota systems—should the U.S. consider adopting any of these recommendations in order to achieve gender parity for women in goverment? Where would it begin to put these recommendations in place if it did?