Implementing Gender Quotas in Portugal – A Success Story?

According to previous research, the implementation of the Portuguese Parity Law, adopted in 2006, has succeeded in meeting its direct goals. Not only the quota requirements are almost always met, but it has also had a clear effect on the growth trend of elected women across all levels of government. However, does this success apply to all stages of implementation – recruitment, election, one year after the election, and end of the mandate? Moreover, even when the numbers tell a success story, what practices and resistances do they conceal? And, finally, has the law contributed to gender empowerment that goes beyond the direct scope of the law? This paper aims to answer these three questions by focusing on national elections in Portugal. It draws on the figures for candidates and MPs in the last five elections as well as on seven semi-directive interviews to stakeholders in the election process of the two major Portuguese parties (Socialist Party and Social Democratic Party). The main conclusions of the paper are the following. First, the law implementation took place smoothly in all four stages of implementation, although the two analysed parties have usually gone no further than the minimum quota requirements. Second, both parties demonstrate a moderate but serious commitment to the law and the identified resistances are not intended to cause policy failure, but rather to limit policy success. Third, the direct effects of the policy (feminization of candidate lists and parliamentary groups) were more positive than its indirect effects (gender empowerment in Parliament).