Electoral gender quotas remain contentious among many publics. One hurdle is the “principle-policy puzzle”: those who espouse gender egalitarianism may nevertheless oppose affirmative action measures because of disagreements about their necessity and worries about government overreach. Based on an original survey in Japan, where women’s underrepresentation is particularly pronounced, we identify two dimensions that drive attitudes toward quotas. First, modern sexism matters: those who attribute underrepresentation to women’s disinterest or who think that quotas will increase the number of unqualified women candidates are less likely to support quotas. Second, appropriateness matters: those who oppose government intervention in gender affairs are less likely to support quotas. Crucially, these differences hold even among those who desire more women in parliament. Our results suggest that public acceptance of quotas depends more on correcting misperceptions about structural gender barriers and the benign consequences of quotas (“policy”), rather than encouraging people to prefer more women in parliament (“principle”).

Female representation in political decision-making positions is now a salient issue in public discussions throughout Europe. Understanding public attitudes towards a more balanced gender distribution in politics remains limited, however. Using a 2017 Eurobarometer, we focus on cross-national differences in public support for increased female participation in politics to address this limitation. Building on the policy feedbacks literature, we stress the role of gender quotas. We argue that quotas – as legislative devices usually adopted through elite-driven initiatives – stimulate support for stronger female representation. Ensuing debates on quotas raise individual awareness about the underrepresentation of women – informational effect – and, once adopted, give a clear signal that persistent gender imbalance is a social problem to be redressed – normative effect. Our empirical analysis supports this argument. Citizens in countries with gender quotas display stronger support for increased female participation in politics.

Extensive research has affirmed the potential of gender quotas to advance women's political inclusion. When Kenya's gender quota took effect after a new constitution was promulgated in 2010, women were elected to the highest number of seats in the country's history. In this article, we investigate how the process of implementing the quota has shaped Kenyan women's power more broadly. Drawing on more than 80 interviews and 24 focus groups with 140 participants, we affirm and refine the literature on quotas by making two conceptual contributions: (1) quota design can inadvertently create new inequalities among women in government, and (2) women's entry into previously male-dominated spaces can be met with patriarchal backlash, amplifying gender oppression. Using the ongoing process of quota implementation in Kenya as a case to theoretically question inclusionary efforts to empower women more generally, our analysis highlights the challenges for implementing women's rights laws and policies and the need for women's rights activists to prioritize a parallel bottom-up process of transforming gendered power relations alongside top-down institutional efforts.

This article responds to earlier research on the role of Islam as a barrier to women's political nominations by assessing and comparing parties’ efforts to meet institutionally required gender quotas in Indonesia. With the provision of 30% candidate gender quotas implemented since the 2004 elections, how have parties responded? Do Islamist and pluralist parties differ systematically in this regard? More specifically, does religious ideology influence how parties go about meeting quotas, recruiting female candidates, and getting them elected? Or do all parties face the same challenges when it comes to getting women into parliament? Drawing on a unique dataset collected from 2004 to 2019 legislative elections and in-depth interviews with central party officers, faction leaders, and members of parliament, this article investigates these questions. The results indicate that Islamic ideology plays no obvious role in limiting female participation in legislative elections; Islamist and pluralist parties are equally good at achieving the percentage quotas of female nominees. Both groups are also similarly poor at putting female candidates first on the party lists. Indonesia's open-list proportional representation (PR) system is prohibitively expensive, and this hurts women candidates more than it does male candidates because women generally have less access to the capital necessary to purchase the top position on party lists.

Quotas for women and ethnic minorities are implemented to increase diversity in political institutions, but, as they usually target only one group at a time, they may end up increasing the inclusion of one under-represented group at the cost of another. Recent work has emphasized the institutional underpinnings of the variation in such outcomes. In this article I show how the intersectional effects of quotas may also vary within the same institutional context, as changes in the pressure to include excluded groups interact with the informal opportunity structures within political parties. Looking at the nomination of female candidates across India over time, I show that, as the efforts to include more women in politics intensified, much of the increase in female candidates occurred in constituencies reserved for ethnic minorities. This pattern may in part be the result of parties resisting changes to existing power hierarchies by nominating women at the cost of the least powerful male politicians, but can also be seen as evidence that minority quotas have created a political space that is more accessible to women.

In a proceeding brought against the People’s Republic of China by the United States (in which Japan and the European Union joined), the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled that China violated its obligations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (GATT)1 by imposing export restrictions on “rare earths,” minerals used in mobile phones, hybrid cars, and other high-tech products. In upholding the earlier decision of a WTO dispute settlement panel, the Appellate Body rejected China’s argument that export duties, quotas, and other restrictions could be justified by health and environmental concerns.

The workforce in the EU is decreasing significantly compared to the US and Japan. This problem can to some extent be solved by having more women at the workplace. The European Commission is currently contemplating the introduction of obligatory quotas for women in the boardroom of private companies. In order to have a better understanding of the controversial and currently highly debated issue of obligatory gender diversity programmes in corporate governance, the Commission released a Green Paper on the EU Corporate Governance Framework in April 2011. By means of this Green Paper, the Commission invites all interested parties to submit their views on some important questions such as: should recruitment policies be more specific about the profile of directors to ensure that the board is suitably diverse? If so, how could that be best achieved and at what level of governance, i.e., national, EU or international? The present paper seeks to give an answer to these questions of the Commission. It examines at what level of governance gender diversity in the boardroom can be best achieved and also studies the effectiveness of obligatory and voluntary gender quotas in corporate governance as a tool to increase gender diversity in the boardroom.

Dans le cadre d'un modèle à générations imbriquées, nous supposons que la gestion d'une ressource renouvelable correspond à l'émission de quotas d'exploitation transferables. Chaque agent a la possibilité d'utiliser les quotas dans la production ou de les vendre à la génération suivante. Nous montrons qu'une telle politique de gestion d'une ressource naturelle renouvelable est possible seulement pour certain niveaux de ressource au moment de l'introduction des quotas. Nous montrons alors que les quotas conduisent à l'existence d'un unique équilibre stable de long terme fonction du niveau d'exploitation défini par le planificateur.

Despite steady injection of public funds by successive administrations, the Canadian fishery industry is characterized by resource depletion, vessel tie-ups, and overcapacity, which have led to plant closures and rising unemployment. This paper assesses the progress Canadian marine policies have been making towards rational use and conservation of fisheries and promotion of employment and economic development in fishing communities since 1977.

The analysis begins with the creation of the 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and its rationale in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), namely conservation. State subsidies for fleet upgrading, industry modernization, marketing, and the introduction of quota systems, such as the individual transferable quotas (ITQs) and enterprise quotas (EQs), are identified as the key policy initiatives which might realize an economically-viable fishing industry in the post-1977 period. These policies produced corporate expansion and prosperity in the mid-1980s, but there followed corporate losses because of Canadian over-dependence on American markets and sharp quota cuts.

With regard to conservation, shortcomings are identified in the virtual population analysis model (VPA), and the inability of the Department of Fisheries to monitor fishing effort by domestic and foreign vessels. The need for radical change in the future direction of marine policies is emphasized and arguments made which support the following objectives: elimination of ecologically-harmful fishing technologies; use of community quotas (with a modified individual quota system); strengthening of community management systems and development of co-management approaches to fisheries management, involving government and fishing communities.