Gender quotas are often introduced to accelerate women’s political representation; however, their effects vary widely across different contexts. This paper examines the Polish case to understand why a decade of implementing legal quotas has yielded only modest gains. Drawing on ten parliamentary elections between 1991 and 2023, the study investigates both voter behavior and party strategies in candidate selection and placement.
In 2011, a quota was introduced that required parties to include at least 35% of women on the electoral lists for the Sejm (the lower chamber of parliament).
Since the introduction of the quota, the proportion of women candidates has grown substantially, from about 13% in 1991 to over 40% in recent elections. However, women’s share of parliamentary seats has increased only marginally, reaching 29% in 2023. The analysis explores this discrepancy through two complementary questions: Do voters penalize women candidates, and how do parties position women on their lists?
Regression models show that voters do not discriminate against women. Once party, district, and list position are controlled for, male and female candidates perform equally well, and in recent elections, women even attract slightly higher vote shares. The main source of inequality emerges instead within parties. Across elections, male candidates are consistently placed higher on electoral lists than women, significantly improving their chances of being elected. This pattern has intensified since the introduction of the quota.
The findings suggest that some parties, particularly conservative ones, may exhibit quota resistance, fulfilling the formal legal requirements while undermining their substantive intent by assigning women to lower, less electable positions. In contrast, left-leaning parties demonstrate greater commitment to gender balance in candidate placement.
By linking long-term electoral data with debates on gender quotas and party gatekeeping, the paper addresses a core puzzle: if voters no longer discriminate against women, why do parties continue to do so? The Polish case illustrates how the persistence of informal practices within parties can blunt the transformative potential of formal equality measures, showing the limits of quotas in the absence of genuine institutional change.
