Can women take the floor in parliament? Evidence from the Spanish lower chamber

Abstract

Women's numeric representation has increased worldwide, still gender inequalities within parliaments hinder women's chance to effectively conduct legislative work. Despite the varied range of institutional designs aimed at enforcing gender equality in the electoral process in several liberal democracies, the path to gender equality in MP participation is still far from straightforward. The variation in the institutional mechanisms to enforce legal quotas, electoral systems, and party strategies has led to mixed conclusions regarding the relationship between women's descriptive representation and their level of parliamentary work. This article explores to what extent an institutional reform designed to enforce equal gender representation in parliament fosters equality in gender MP participation. To do so, we use individual-level data of the Spanish lower chamber (Congreso de los Diputados) during four legislative terms (2000–2016). The case is relevant because it offers a clear-cut example of the introduction of a legal gender quota for legislative elections in a political system strongly controlled by party organizations.