Gender quota laws are a "fast track" solution designed to increase women's representation in the democratically elected parliaments. Nonetheless, Schwindt-Bayer (2009) argues that quotas will only become fully efficient after some time elapses since their introduction. During the initial elections held under quota laws parties will not be able to find sufficient numbers of politically experienced female candidates. Many politically inexperienced women will thus contest these elections and they will do poorly at the polls. In this paper, we test Schwindt-Bayer's proposition. We use a unique dataset on the electoral fortunes of candidates running in the 2011 election to the lower chamber of the parliament of Poland, the first Polish election held under quota regulations. The features of the Polish open-list proportional representation electoral system allow us to study the impact of gender and political experience on both candidate ranking on party lists and voter choice. Our results suggests that insufficient levels of political experience are indeed the main reason behind the electoral disadvantage suffered by female candidates whereas the direct effects of gender on candidates' electoral fortunes are rather weak. This strongly supports Schwindt-Bayer's proposition that quotas need time before they exert the desired influence on women's electoral success.
