“In the past, it was widely held that women were less political than men, if not apolitical. It was assumed that women had lower levels of interest in politics and lower levels of participation in political activities” (Childs and Campbell 3). However, recently feminist political scientists have found that there is “evidence of a closure of the traditional gender gap in voter turnout” (Childs and Campbell 3). Despite the fact that more women are voting, lack of political representation is still an issue that plagues women throughout the world. According to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, only 22.8% of parliamentarians worldwide are women, despite the fact that women make up 49.6% of the world population (Population, Female).
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Soft quotas have the same goal of increasing women’s representation in politics as any other kind of quota measure and are adopted voluntarily by parties. They may take the form of informal targets and recommendations, which aim to directly increase the number of female candidates, or they may take the form of quotas for within parties, which can be expected to indirectly increase the number of female candidates. However, unlike party quotas, soft quota measures do not necessitate that a certain percentage of women must run for a certain office or be candidates for a certain party, instead they simply “encourage” possible female candidates to run and for parties to consider them (Lovenduski, Squires and Krook …show more content…
Studies have shown a “powerful relationship” between education and voter turnout, with some studies showing that a higher education level increases voter turnout. (Milstein and Green). This could be a result of several things, for example, women with a higher education level would be more likely to be able to take time off of work to go out to vote. While general education may be important for voter turnout, in order to get more women in political office, they must be educated on politics specifically. According to studies carried out by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, one of the best ways to increase female political engagement, and therefore representation, is to enhance existing training programs for women in politics. They also stress the importance of, “teaching women that politics is power and not to fear the consequences of political conflict and providing targeted training to specific types of candidates – existing officeholders, congressional staff members, women over 50, CEOs, attorneys, young women elected officials, etc.” (Baer and Hartmann 11). In tailoring programs specifically for different kinds of women, not only would more women be running for office, but they would also be a more diverse group of women that could represent a greater part of the population, moving closer to equal representation across the board, not just in terms of gender. It is
Soft quotas have the same goal of increasing women’s representation in politics as any other kind of quota measure and are adopted voluntarily by parties. They may take the form of informal targets and recommendations, which aim to directly increase the number of female candidates, or they may take the form of quotas for within parties, which can be expected to indirectly increase the number of female candidates. However, unlike party quotas, soft quota measures do not necessitate that a certain percentage of women must run for a certain office or be candidates for a certain party, instead they simply “encourage” possible female candidates to run and for parties to consider them (Lovenduski, Squires and Krook …show more content…
Studies have shown a “powerful relationship” between education and voter turnout, with some studies showing that a higher education level increases voter turnout. (Milstein and Green). This could be a result of several things, for example, women with a higher education level would be more likely to be able to take time off of work to go out to vote. While general education may be important for voter turnout, in order to get more women in political office, they must be educated on politics specifically. According to studies carried out by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, one of the best ways to increase female political engagement, and therefore representation, is to enhance existing training programs for women in politics. They also stress the importance of, “teaching women that politics is power and not to fear the consequences of political conflict and providing targeted training to specific types of candidates – existing officeholders, congressional staff members, women over 50, CEOs, attorneys, young women elected officials, etc.” (Baer and Hartmann 11). In tailoring programs specifically for different kinds of women, not only would more women be running for office, but they would also be a more diverse group of women that could represent a greater part of the population, moving closer to equal representation across the board, not just in terms of gender. It is