Gender quotas a positive step

IT HAS been interesting to follow this week’s discussion on gender quotas in the letters column and to see the charge made that they are undemocratic or discriminatory.

In fact these quotas have been introduced in almost half of all countries precisely because it is recognised that a democracy cannot be considered complete without the full participation of women, as well as men, in political life. Indeed countries such as France, Spain and the Netherlands have also embraced gender quotas in the corporate boardroom. As long ago as 1997, the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s (IPU) Universal Declaration on Democracy explicitly related democracy to “a genuine partnership between men and women”.

Our government — as well as those who fear that quotas could be discriminatory — could learn from the IPU’s use of gender neutral quotas. This would mean that, instead of requiring that 30% or 40% of the general election candidates selected by political parties should be women, our legislation would require that a minimum of 30% or 40% of either sex be put forward. The current proposal suggests 30% should be women when the quota is first applied, and 40% thereafter.