Könskvotering och kvinnors karriärer. En jämförelse av svenska politiska partier

Abstract

A common argument in the debate on gender quotas is that quotas hurt women. When a quota is imposed, the argument goes, women’s competence is questioned and their careers suffer as a consequence. In this paper, I compare Swedish politi- cal parties that have and have not imposed voluntary party quotas, with respect to women’s access to influential political positions. Data for all municipal party groups in 1988-2010 shows two things. First, women account for higher shares of chairper- sons, full-time politicians, and top names on the party ballot among parties with quotas (the Left Party, the Social Democrats, and the Green Party), than in parties without quotas (the Conservative Party, the Center Party, the Christian Democrats, and the Liberal Party). A simple regression analysis shows that while the average woman faces a sizeable disadvantage in her likelihood of reaching the top posi- tion on the party ballot, the disadvantage is one third smaller in parties that have adopted quotas. In sum, the comparative analysis across political parties yields no evidence that quotas hurt women’s political careers.