Gender quotas have been one of the most popular legislative reforms of the 21st Century. How do they change parliamentary behavior? We examine this question with the case of the Namibian Parliament. In Namibia, the ruling party abruptly adopted a gender parity quota, increasing women’s representation by 16 percentage points in one electoral cycle and dramatically changing the chamber’s composition. Using the complete parliamentary transcripts from 2004 to 2023, we examine how this leap in women’s presence changed both the tone and substance of legislative debates. Preliminary results indicate that the quota did little to change gender differences in parliamentary power: men continued to dominate legislative debates in the post-quota period. In substance, the quota was followed by a relative decline in women’s propensity to mention women’s rights topics. Our results highlight how institutional reforms can transform the composition of the legislature while still leaving preexisting power structures intact.
