A new global study led by Amanda Clayton, assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley, has found most people want gender-balanced governments, rather than historically male-dominated legislative bodies.
The study authors surveyed 17,000 people from 12 democracies in the Americas, Europe, and the Pacific to determine global support for gender-balanced governments, as well as gender-based political quotas – such as efforts focused on the number of women that political parties consider for office, the number of women nominated, and specific percentages of seats for women lawmakers. Currently, 130 counties around the world use such quotas.
The study participants were asked to read different versions of a fictional newspaper article about a local city council. In one version, the council consisted of eight men. Another version featured a balanced council of four men and four women. A third article also featured a balanced council, but specifically mentioned that the four women were elected under a gender quota policy. The participants were then asked for their opinions on the council’s actions regarding two fictional measures: one related to sexual harassment training requirements and one regarding the mistreatment of animals on commercial farms.
According to the authors, the participants were significantly more likely to think the gender-balanced council was more legitimate and made better policy decisions than the all-male council. The balanced council elected under quota requirements was seen as only slightly less legitimate than the balanced council not elected by quota policies.
“Our results speak directly to anti-quota arguments that focus on quotas’ alleged delegitimizing effects on elected women and the legislatures they will enter,” the authors write. “Contrary to some arguments, the choice is not between decision-making bodies composed of women who can make it on their own versus institutions composed of women benefiting from affirmative action. Rather, the choice is between women’s inclusion via quotas or the continued persistence of male-dominated political bodies. Inclusion matters for legitimacy, and where quotas offer a fast track to inclusion they also bolster citizens’ perceptions that democratic institutions are operating fairly and justly.”
In addition to Dr. Clayton, the report was authored by Diana O’Brien of Washington University in St. Louis and Jennifer M. Piscopo of Royal Holloway University of London.