Gender Quotas and Committee Leadership Turnover: The Portuguese Parliament

The introduction of gender quotas is often understood as a mechanism to re-balance parliamentary representation in contemporary democracies. Over the past decades, several dimensions of parliamentary functioning have experienced shifts that may be linked to these reforms. These changes are also visible within parliamentary committees. In the Portuguese case, existing research shows that quotas transformed co sponsorship networks, thereby altering the incentives associated with leadership appointments (Calca & Koehler, 2026). This leads us to ask: how did committee dynamics change following the introduction of gender quotas in the Portuguese Parliament? Using data on chair turnover and MP co sponsorship ties, we find that women, though less active overall, tend to form stable working relationships with other women, while men rely less on repeated ties and work with a more varied set of colleagues. We also show that chair replacements are more frequent in parties facing quota pressure and in committees where women’s clustered co sponsorship becomes more influential.