The Mutual Contagion Effect of Legal and Party Quotas

Abstract

This article examines the use of legal and party gender quotas in the Belgian electoral process during the second half of the 1990s. It is argued that the parallel use of both types of quotas entails a particular contagion effect. The development of legal and party measures in Belgium indicates that the issue of gender-balanced participation in political decision-making is a political struggle in which legal measures serve as a benchmark for parties attempting to outperform each other in meeting the standard set. At the same time, this competitiveness paved the way for a new law on gender quotas. This mutual contagion effect creates a dynamic that has opened up the political forum to women more than would have been the case if only party or legal quotas had been applied, because their parallel use makes political players apply more far-reaching measures than they otherwise would.

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