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The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe believes that quotas are the monolith which will help achieve equal representation between women and men in elected bodies. The Assembly is very well aware that quotas are considered as a controversial measure. However, in its opinion, these are a necessary measure to make substantive progress in a short lapse of time. If we do not use quotas, we might achieve gender equality anyway, but how long would it take?

6. Different kinds of quotas There are two kinds of quotas: legislated electoral quotas (imposed by the law and applying to all electoral lists) and voluntary quotas (those that political parties impose on themselves on a voluntary basis, and can apply to internal bodies and/or electoral lists).
As far as countries with a proportional representation system are concerned, the Assembly has recommended:2
the introduction of legislation imposing gender quotas, ideally of at least 40 percent of female candidates; recourse to a rank-order rule (for example alternating male and female candidates); the introduction and implementation of effective sanctions for non-compliance.

With regard to countries with majority or plurality systems, the Assembly has recommended:
introducing the principle of each party choosing a candidate amongst at least one female and one male nominee in each party district; finding other ways of ensuring increased representation of women in politics, such as, for example, applying innovative mandatory gender quotas within political parties, or “all-women shortlists” or “twinned” constituencies; the introduction and implementation of effective sanctions for non-compliance.

7. The monolith does not work well on its own

Although legislated electoral quotas have been introduced by a number of Council of Europe member states (such as Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, France, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain), they have not managed to break the glass ceiling which would enable women to cross the threshold of 40 percent representation. Part of the explanation lies in a weak sanction system, with political parties preferring to pay a fine rather than complying with the required gender quota. In my opinion, however, the main reason why women’s representation falls short of expectations also in countries with legislated quotas is that, by themselves, legislated quotas are necessary but not sufficient: first of all, they must by accompanied by other measures to strengthen women’s capacity and chances to take up positions of responsibility; secondly – and most importantly – they must rest on political parties’ genuine commitment to gender equality.

In a nutshell, for quotas to succeed, it is necessary for parliaments to implement a policy of gender mainstreaming and that political parties introduce measures to enhance women’s participation and status in their own internal functioning.
2 Resolution 1706 (2010) and Recommendation 1899 (2010) on “Increasing women’s representation in politics through the electoral system” Consultar Diário Original