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theses

Immediately after the fall of communism women’s representation in Central and Eastern European Parliaments fell precipitously, from roughly 30% to 10%, and below that in certain countries. Currently, the percentage of women in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is 26% (among 19 countries surveyed). This increase is partly due to the adoption of gender quotas in CEE countries. Quotas are usually defined as voluntary or legal provisions adopted by countries or political parties in order to increase the percentage of women in Parliaments or other influential bodies, such as corporate boards. Gender quotas broadly fall into three types: reserved seats, legislated quotas and voluntary party quotas. Reserved seats usually refer to parliamentary seats being allocated solely for women; legislated quotas are constitutional or electoral laws that mandate a minimum percentage of women on electoral lists; and voluntary party quotas are provisions that political parties include in statutes that set a specific target for inclusion of women on party electoral lists. Among the CEE countries I research in this dissertation, 16 of 19 have a gender quota. Three countries have no gender quota. Noting this disparity in terms of gender quota adoption across the region, I ask the question: why do certain countries of CEE adopt gender quotas and why do others not adopt them? To answer this question, I explore regional trends and subsequently focus on four key countries as illustrative case studies (Serbia, Poland, Czech Republic and Latvia). I dedicate two chapters to in-depth explorations of Serbia and Poland. I dedicate the last chapter to an examination of non-adopters, which includes brief case studies on Czech Republic and Latvia. Methodologically, I approach this dissertation qualitatively. Descriptive statistics are mostly used for contextualization. I rely on fieldwork completed in Serbia and Poland, in addition to 35 interviews completed with relevant elite actors across the region. Generally, I find support for my overall argument. Namely, gender quota adoption is aided by two key factors: the mobilization and activity of women’s groups in CEE who advocate for gender quotas and the various, context-dependent political opportunities that become available to them. These political opportunities are often related to post-conflict reforms, symbolic European Union (EU) influence or favorable domestic laws. This dissertation contributes to the overall literature on gender quotas by including a less-studied region, namely CEE. My argument that active women’s groups exist in CEE and can influence policy also counters some of the previous literature on this subject that posited that women’s groups were not previously influential in the region.

ETD_10804

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-mrg8-9915

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.