Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T10:44:39.040Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gender Equality from Beneath: Electoral Gender Quotas in Poland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 June 2013

Anna Śledzińska-Simon  and
Adam Bodnar
Anna Śledzińska-Simon
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor Chair of Constitutional Law Department of Law Administration and Economics University of Wrocław
Adam Bodnar
Affiliation:
Vice-President of the Helsinki Foundation of Human Rights in Warsaw and Assistant Professor Institute of Human Rights Warsaw University of Law and Administration
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article explores the introduction of electoral gender quotas and the unprecedented social mobilization in pursuit of gender equality in Poland. The quota law was adopted as a citizens’ initiative organized by the Congress of Women, a new women’s movement. The article analyzes the factors that account for the success of this initiative, which permanently changed the public debate on gender rights in Poland. In contrast to other countries with legislative gender quotas, the Polish law was the result of bottom-up processes, and it has a strong democratic legitimacy. The law has not significantly influenced the representation of women in the Parliament, yet it significantly mainstreamed the gender perspective in the public debate. Nonetheless, the way in which the quota law has been applied by political parties shows that Polish women in politics are a “minority” devoid of power, and that the prospects for a parity democracy are still remote.

Résumé

Le présent article examine l’adoption de quotas électoraux visant l’égalité des sexes et la mobilisation sociale sans précédent afin d’obtenir l’égalité entre les sexes en Pologne. La loi des quotas a été adoptée à la suite d’une initiative de citoyens organisée par le Congrès des femmes, un nouveau mouvement des femmes. Le présent article analyse les facteurs qui entrent en jeu dans le succès de cette initiative, qui a changé de façon permanente le débat public sur les droits des hommes et des femmes en Pologne. Contrairement à d’autres pays ayant des quotas législatifs liés à l’égalité des sexes, la loi polonaise a été le résultat de processus ascendants et elle possède une forte légitimité démocratique. Cette loi n’a pas eu de véritable influence sur la représentation des femmes au Parlement, mais elle a cependant intégré de façon significative une perspective égalitaire dans le débat public. Néanmoins, la manière selon laquelle la loi des quotas a été appliquée par les partis politiques montre que les Polonaises en politique ne sont qu’une « minorité » dépourvue de pouvoir et que les perspectives d’une démocratie paritaire sont encore bien loin.

Keywords

gender equalitygender electoral quotassocial movementsPolandégalité entre les sexesquotas électoraux visant l’égalité des sexesmouvements sociauxPologne
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société , Volume 28 , Special Issue 2: Gender Equality, Legal Mobilization, and Feminism in a Multilevel European System , August 2013 , pp. 151 - 168
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Law and Society Association / Association Canadienne Droit et Société 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Act of 5 January 2011, Electoral Code, Journal of Laws 2011 No. 21, Item 112.

2 Drude Dahlerup and Lenita Freidenvall (eds.), Electoral Gender Quota Systems and Their Implementation in Europe, Study for the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (2008); European Commission’s Network to Promote Women in Decision-making in Politics and the Economy, “The Quota-instrument: Different Approaches across Europe” (Working Paper, 2011); Rohini Pande and Deanna Ford, “Gender Quotas and Female Leadership: A Review” (Background Paper for the World Development Report on Gender, 2012).

3 Rosenblum, Darren, “Parity/Disparity:Electoral Gender Inequality on the Tightrope of Liberal Constitutional Traditions,” UC Davis Law Review 39 (2005–2006): 1119, 1123.Google Scholar

4 There are thirty-seven countries in the world with legislative candidate quotas. See www.quotaproject.org.

5 Rubio-Marin, Ruth, “A New European Parity-Democracy Sex Equality Model and Why It Won’t Fly in the United States,” American Journal of Comparative Law 99 (2012): 60 Google Scholar; Norris, Pippa, “The Impact of Electoral Reform on Women’s Representation,” Acta Politica 41 (2006): 197–213, doi:10.1057/palgrave.ap.5500151.Google Scholar

6 See the leaked proposal of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on improving the gender balance among non-executive directors of companies listed on stock exchanges, http://blogs.r.ftdata.co.uk/brusselsblog/files/2012/09/ISC-draft-Directive-2.pdf.

7 Galligan, Denis and Sandler, Debroah, “Implementing Human Rights,” in Human Rights Brought Home: Socio-Legal Perspectives on Human Rights in the National Context, eds. Halliday, Simon and Schmidt, Patrick (Hart Publishing, 2004), 23–57.Google Scholar

8 See Galligan, Dennis, Law in Modern Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 See www.kongreskobiet.pl.

10 Article 32 (1) of the Polish Constitution enshrines the principle of formal equality (“All persons shall be equal before the law. All persons shall have the right to equal treatment by public authorities”), while Article 33 lays down the principle of substantive equality (“Men and women shall have equal rights in family, political, social and economic life in the Republic of Poland. . .”).

11 Rodrigez Ruiz, Blanca and Rubio-Marin, Ruth, “Constitutional Justification of Parity Democracy,” Alabama Law Review 60 (2009): 1171 Google Scholar; Rodrigez Ruiz, Blanca and Rubio-Marin, Ruth, “The Gender of Representation: on Democracy, Equality and Parity,” International Journal of Constitutional Law 6 (2008): 287.Google Scholar

12 Mateo Diaz, Mercedes and Millns, Susan, “Parity, Power and Representative Politics: The Elusive Pursuit of Gender Equality in Europe,” Feminist Legal Studies 12, no. 3 (2004): 279–302.Google Scholar

13 The Polish United Workers’ Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza).

14 Małgorzata Fuszara, “Kobiety w polityce dwudziestolecia (1989–2009),” in Kobiety dla Polski, Polska dla Kobiet, 20 lat transformacji, Raport, Kongres Kobiet Polskich (2009), 187.

15 Leven, Bożena, “The Status of Women and Poland’s Transition to a Market Economy,” in Women in the Age of Economic Transformation, eds. Aslanbeigui, Nahid, Pressmanand, Steven, and Summerfield, Gale (London and New York: Routledge, 1994), 27–42.Google Scholar

16 See Lawless, Jennifer L. and Fox, Richard L., Men Rule. The Continued Under-Representation of Women in US Politics (Washington, DC: Women and Politics Institute, January 2012)Google Scholar, http://www.american.edu/spa/wpi/upload/2012-Men-Rule-Report-web.pdf (finding that the persisting gender gap in political ambition indicates different aspirations of men and women with regard to political careers).

17 Fuszara, Małgorzata, Kobiety w polityce (Warszawa: Trio, 2006).Google Scholar

18 In 2009, 70 percent of women and 52 percent of men were in favor of gender parity. See http://wyborcza.pl/1,86871,6807954,Bring_Them_In__Poles_Firmly_for_Gender_Parity.html.

19 Fuszara, “Kobiety w polityce dwudziestolecia (1989 – 2009),” 198; Małgorzata Fuszara, “Poland: One Step Forward, One Step Back. A Polish Dance Around the Quota System,” in Electoral Gender Quota Systems and Their Implementation in Europe, eds. Drude Dahlerup and Lenita Freidenvall, 72–82.

20 www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm.

21 See data available at: http://sejm.gov.pl/Sejm7.nsf/page/poslowie_poczatek_kad.

22 Dahlerup, Drude, “The Story of the Theory of Critical Mass,” Politics and Gender 2 (2006).Google Scholar

23 Małgorzata Fuszara, Kobiety, mężczyźni i parytety (Warszawa: Instytut Spraw Publicznych 2009), www.isp.org.pl/files/7447486630671093001252488781.pdf.

24 See Phillips, Anne, The Politics of Presence: Political Representation of Gender, Race and Ethnicity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 57–85 Google Scholar; Pitkin, Hanna F., The Concept of Representation (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1967), 221–25.Google Scholar

25 Walczewska, Sławomira, Damy, rycerze i feministki. Kobiecy dyskurs emancypacyjny w Polsce (Kraków, 2000), 62.Google Scholar

26 Fuszara, Małgorzata, “Between Feminism and the Catholic State: The Women’s Movement in Poland,” Czech Sociological Review 41, no. 6 (2005): 1057, 1064.Google Scholar

27 Robinson, Jean, “Women, the State, and the Need for Civil Society: The Liga Kobiet in Poland,” in Comparative State Feminism, eds. McBride Statson, Dorothy and Mazur, Amy G. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1995), 203–220.Google Scholar

28 Czerwinski, Alicia, “Sex, Politics and Religion: The Clash Between Poland and the European Union over Abortion,” Denver Journal of International Law and Policy 35 (2004): 653, 655.Google Scholar

29 In 1997, the Constitutional Court derived the right to life of a foetus from the principle of democratic state governed by rule of law. Judgment of May 28, 1997, K 26/96; Zielinska, Eleonora, “Between Ideology, Politics, and Common Sense: The Discourse of Reproductive Rights in Poland,” in Reproducing Gender: Politics, Publics, and Everyday Life after Socialism, eds. Galand, Susan and Kligman, Gail (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), 23–57.Google Scholar

30 On “private maternalism” or “re-familiazation” in welfare reforms in Poland see Christy Glass and Eva Fodor, “From Public to Private Maternalism? Gender and Welfare in Poland and Hungary after 1989,” Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society 14 (2007): 323; Steven Saxonberg and Dorota Szelewa, “The Continuing Legacy of the Communist Legacy? The Development of Family Policies in Poland and the Czech Republic,” Social Politics 14, no. 3 (2007): 351; Esping-Anderson, Gosta, Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31 Mayhall, Stacey, “Gendered Nationalism and ‘New’ Nation-States: ‘Democratic Progress’ in Eastern Europe,” Fletcher Forum of World Affairs 17 (1993): 91, 97–99.Google Scholar

32 Whereas the issue of abortion falls outside the scope of the EU law, the status quo is challenged by the European Court of Human Rights prohibiting conscientious objection with regard to the women’s right to information and access to prenatal testing, and providing for access to legal abortion. See R. R. v. Poland, judgment of 26.05.2011, Appl. No. 27617/04 and Tysiąc v. Poland, judgment of 20.03.2007, Appl. No. 5410/03.

33 Grabowska, Magda and Regulska, Joanna, “Kobiety w ponadpaństwowych przestrzeniach politycznych,” in Współpraca czy konflikt? Państwo, Unia i kobiety, eds. Fuszara, Małgorzata, Grabowska, Magda, Mizielińska, Joanna, and Regulska, Joanna (Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Akademickie i Profesjonalne, 2008), 11–59.Google Scholar

34 Adopted on December 18, 2000 in Nice, Official Journal of the European Communities C 364.

35 After 1989, the office existed as the Plenipotentiary for Family and Women (1991–1992), the Plenipotentiary for Women and Family Affairs (1995–1997), the Plenipotentiary for Family Affairs (1997–2001), the Plenipotentiary for Equal Status of Women and Men (2001–2005) and the Plenipotentiary for Equal Treatment (2008–now).

36 Magdalena Środa, “Kobiety, Kościół, Katolicyzm,” in Czarna Księga Kobiet (Polish edition of Le libre noir de la condition des femmes) ed. Christine Ockrent (Warszawa, 2007), 654–63.

37 Avdeyeva, Olga, “Enlarging the Club: When Do Candidate States Enforce Gender Equality Laws,” Comparative European Politics 7 (2009): 158,166.Google Scholar

38 In 2007 it did not reach the 5 percent electoral threshold (it received only 0.28 percent of the valid votes in the country), while in 2009 it did not even register its own electoral lists in the European Parliament elections.

39 Elżbieta Karolczuk and Steven Saxonberg, “‘The Happy Slave’ Takes to the Streets: The Strategies for Women’s Mobilizations in Poland and Czech Republic after 1989” (paper presented at the 2nd European Conference on Politics and Gender, Budapest, January, 13–15, 2011): 8.

40 Pakulski, Jan, Social Movements: The Politics of Moral Protest (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1991), xiv.Google Scholar

41 The Congress of Women gathered feminist activists (like Magdalena Środa and Agnieszka Graff), historical leaders (like Henryka Krzywonos), businesswomen (like Henryka Bochniarz), and public figures (like Jolanta Kwaśniewska, the wife of the former President of Poland).

42 Bozena Choluj and Claudia Neususs, “EU Enlargement in 2004: East-West Priorities and Perspectives from Women Inside and Outside the EU” (Discussion Paper 7, 2004), www.frauenakademie.de/dokument/img/gender_equality_enlargedEU.pdf.

43 Fuszara, Małgorzata, “Relacje między kobiecymi organizacjami pozarządowymi a politykami w okresie akcesji do Unii Europejskiej,” in Współpraca czy konflikt Państwo, Unia i kobiety, eds. Fuszara, Małgorzata, Grabowska, Magda, Mizielińska, Joanna, and Regulska, Joanna (Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Akademickie i Profesjonalne, Warszawa, 2009), 145–200.Google Scholar

44 Act of 3 December 2010 on implementation of some of the provisions of the European Union with regard to equal treatment (further as the Equal Treatment Act), Journal of Laws 2010 No. 257, Item 1700.

45 By the end of 2010, the Commission had initiated two actions against Poland (Case C-341/10 Commission v. Poland, action brought on 7 July 2010 and Case C-326/09 Commission v. Poland, action brought on 12 August 2009) due to the lack of adequate implementation of the Racial Equality Directive and the Goods and Services Directive (Directive 2004/113/EC) and also issued two reasoned opinions regarding defect transposition of the Framework Equality Directive and non-communication of national legislation transposing the Recast Equal Treatment Directive (a reasoned opinion of 28 January 2010 and of 18 May 2010). Nevertheless, in 2011, the CJEU ruled only on the failure to implement the Goods and Services Directive within the prescribed period (Case C-326/09 Commission v. Poland, judgment of 17 March 2011).

46 Mariette Sineau, “Genderware—The Council of Europe and the Participation of Women in Political Life” (Integrated Project, “Making Democratic Institutions Work,” Council of Europe, 2003).

47 Rosenblum, Derren, “Internalizing Gender: Why International Law Theory Should Adopt Comparative Methods,” Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 45 (2007): 772–73.Google Scholar

48 Krook, Mona Lena, Lovenduski, Joni, and Squires, Judith, “Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand: Gender Quotas in the Context of Citizenship Models,” in Women, Quotas, and Politics, ed. Dahlerup, Drude (New York: Routledge, 2006), 194–221.Google Scholar

49 Krook, Mona Lena, “National Solution or Model from Abroad? Analyzing International Influences on the Parity Movement in France,” French Politics 5 (2007): 15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

50 In Poland a group of at least 100,000 Polish citizens who are also eligible to vote in national elections have the right to introduce legislation. Article 118 (2) of the Polish Constitution and Act of 24 June 1999 on performance of the legislative initiative by citizens, Journal of Laws 1999 No. 62, Item 688.

51 Magdalena Środa, “Zamrażarka Pana Marszałka,” Gazeta Wyborcza (March 17, 2010), http://wyborcza.pl/1,81189,7670806,Zamrazarka_pana_marszalka.html.

52 The previous citizens’ initiative concerned the reintroduction of the state-sponsored Alimony Fund. Despite a massive campaign by women, the bill was ignored by politicians.

53 According to the polls conducted on 3–5 July 2009 by PBS DGA, 62 percent of citizens supported the idea of introducing gender parity in electoral lists: www.bankier.pl/wiadomosc/61-procent-Polakow-popiera-parytet-dla-kobiet-na-listach-wyborczych-1984497.html.

54 Parliamentary Print No. 2713 of January 22, 2010.

55 Ruth Rubio-Marin, “A New European Parity-Democracy Sex Equality Model,” 108.

56 Judgment of the Spanish Constitutional Court of January 28, 2008, 12/2008, upholding the law on the effective equality between men and women.

57 The amendments concerned Article 3 of the French Constitution stating that “the law shall favor equality among women and men to have access to electoral mandates and hold elective office,” and Article 4 stating that political parties “shall contribute to the application of the principle set forth in the last section of Article 3 in accordance with the provisions of the law.”

58 Article 3 (2) of the Italian Constitution.

59 Judgment of the Constitutional Court of July 14, 2011, K 9/11.

60 Article 235 of the Polish Constitution.

61 Article 122 (2) and (3) of the Polish Constitution.

62 241 deputies voted in favor, 154 were against and 9 abstained from voting.

63 Act of 5 January 2011 amending the law—the Electoral Ordinance for local, provincial and regional councils; the law—the Electoral Ordinance for Sejm and Senate and the law—the Electoral Ordinance for the European Parliament, Journal of Laws No. 34, Item 172.

64 Data presented by the Institute of Public Affairs, www.isp.org.pl/programy,program-prawa-i-instytucji,projekty,kobiety-na-listach-wyborczych,639.html.

65 Małgorzata Druciarek and Aleksandra Niżyńska, “Równowaga płci,” Rzeczpospolita (September 19, 2011), http://www.rp.pl/artykul/9157,719646-Parytety-w-wyborach-parlamentarnych-2011.html.

66 For example Ewa Kierzkowska of the Polish Peasant’s Party (PSL), number one on the list, who was not elected, despite significant popularity as the Vice Speaker of the Sejm.

67 Rodrigez Ruiz and Rubio-Marin, “The Gender of Representation,” 314.

68 Ruth Rubio-Marin, “A New European Parity-Democracy Sex Equality Model,” 99.

69 Mansbridge, Jane, “The Descriptive Political Representation of Gender: An Anti-Essentialist Argument,” in Has Liberalism Failed Women? Assuring Equal Representation in Europe and the United States, eds. Klausen, Jyte S. and Maier, Charles S. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001), 30.Google Scholar

70 Jocelyne Praud and Karl A. Henriques, “Constitutionalizing and Legislating Parity Democracy: The Cases of France and Belgium” (Public Policy Paper No. 56, Saskatchewan Institute of Public Policy, May 2008).

71 Agnieszka Graff, “Polish Feminism is No Longer Ridiculed,” Guardian, April 4, 2011, www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/09/polish-feminism-gender-equality.