Gender Quotas, Legislative Resistance and Non-Legislative Reform

Abstract

In this chapter I contribute to this debate by analysing the strength of gender quota designs vis-à-vis their origins. I judge the strength of gender quota policies not by their effective results but by the provisions included in their design. In assessing the origin of policies, I differentiate between processes enacted by legislative actors (e.g. electoral changes, encompassing con- stitutional reforms) and those carried out by non-legislative actors (e.g. executive decrees, judicial decisions). I hypothesise that because gender quotas go against the interests of legislative actors, strong gender quota designs are more likely to result from non-legislative processes. I show that non-legislative actors are responsible for strengthening crucial components of gender quota designs and that their intervention also considerably speeds up the process of design strengthening.