La igualdad efectiva entre mujeres y hombresun estudio de las elecciones al congreso de los diputados de 2008
ISSN: 1138-0853
Year of publication: 2011
Issue Title: Mujer y política en la España del siglo XXI
Issue: 42
Pages: 117-139
Type: Article
More publications in: Psicología Política
Abstract
This article analyses the direct and indirect impact of the gender quota, which was introduced by Law 3/2007, on women re-presentation in the 2008 election to the Spanish Lower House. It examines how this legal quota operates in conjunction with electoral rules and the party system in legis-lative elections. Our results show that the electoral system (mainly, the small mag-nitude of small districts) reduces the effec-tiveness of the legal principle in order to guarantee an adequate representation of both sexes in the Spanish Congress. Our re-sults suggest that women representation in the Lower Houses depends, as before 2007, on party voluntary compliance. In 2008, 127 women were seated in Congress (one more than in 2004), but this number may decrease in subsequent elections, if the major political composition of the chamber changes.