Women make up half of the world’s population, yet gender parity is far from reality when it comes to politics. Although there is an upward trend in women’s political participation at a global level, the calculation of the UN shows that gender equality in the highest positions of power will only be achieved in 130 years. As of January 2022, women only make up 26% of national parliaments. Nevertheless, significant improvements have been made in the last few decades, especially in the EU member states. President von der Leyen expressed her commitment to a “gender-equal Europe” at all levels, including politics and decision-making. But how about candidate states? What is their current state in political representation among genders? This short read will answer these questions by providing an overview of women’s participation in national parliaments in the six Western Balkan candidate states (WB6) and Turkiye and navigating the possible reasons for low women representation in politics.
Women’s participation in decision-making is an essential component of a functioning democracy. Studies show that increased women’s representation in politics improves particular issues in society. Despite this fact, women still constitute 33% of the national parliaments in the EU member states on average. When it comes to candidate states, while four of them are above the average, three countries fall behind: Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Montenegro and Turkiye. Below, is the percentage of women in national parliaments of the seven candidate states in the year 2021:
Of all countries, one country stands out: Turkiye. Political participation of women in national parliaments in Turkiye is only 17%. Although women gained full universal suffrage in 1934, earlier than many countries at the time, politics in Turkiye has remained a male-dominant field. This, unfortunately, results in the country ranking 112 globally in political empowerment for women. On the other hand, North Macedonia is currently the pioneer among the WB6 and Turkiye with around 42% of women participating in national parliaments. North Macedonia implements a mandatory quota system by the constitution at the national parliament. The electoral law of the country ensures that “at least 40 of the candidates must belong to the less represented gender”. Likewise, in Moldova, Serbia and Albania the quota system applies albeit to different percentages. Whereas in BiH and Turkiye, no quota system is ensured through the constitution. Although the electoral law of Montenegro ensures 30% representation of the disadvantaged gender, the overall representation of women in parliaments remains around 25 % in the country.
But why do women continue to be underrepresented in the parliaments? A policy brief by
Free Network offers three plausible explanations based on the existing literature: women’s unwillingness to become politicians, voters’ bias and parties’ bias. First, women show less desire to run for a position in an executive office than men. The decrease in ambition is related to two factors: less encouragement to pursue the position and the belief that they would be less qualified for the position than men. Given that politics is already a highly competitive and male-dominated field in the majority of countries in the world, women are discouraged from pursuing a career in a political office. What is interesting is that the study shows no influence of political competitiveness on the decision-making of men in considering a political career. Moreover, another study delves into the influence of family and romantic relations as factors discouraging women from entering into politics. The results are far from surprising: women in senior political positions experience more divorce than men. The study concludes that, if the cost of a political career is higher for women, then, they may lose enthusiasm to chase their political ambitions. When it comes to the second reason hindering women from politics, voter’s bias, studies show that in places where traditional gender roles persist, women are less likely to receive votes than men. Disappointingly, many countries continue to believe that men would be better political leaders than women.
worse positions on the ballot, contributing to an unequal representation between genders. That being said, equal representation between genders is an essential value of the EU’s enlargement project. For this reason, the EU has advocated for mainstreaming gender equality in the candidate countries, resulting in countries adopting new laws or implementing progressive action plans. Gender equality is a cross-cutting issue of many different policy fields, reflecting the enlargement process. Because of this, several Chapters touch upon the issue of improving women’s representation at all levels such as Chapter 19 (social policy and employment), Chapter 23 (judiciary and fundamental rights) and Chapter 24 (justice, freedom and security). A democratic and fair society cannot be imagined without the equal participation of women in society.
There is a need for more women representation at parliaments as decision-makers not just to achieve gender parity in terms of numbers but to progress as humanity. Women bring in new and different perspectives to certain problems that may not be considered by men as studies confirm. However, conservative gender practices in several WB6 countries and Turkiye prevent a fair gender distribution in politics and thus fail to progress in significant fields. Despite the EU accession process in these countries, some states continue to lag behind in women’s representation which the EU needs to take into account when designing its policies as part of its enlargement strategy. We cannot wait 130 years for full gender parity. We must act now. Follow us to discover more about how we strive to empower women in different sectors to facilitate a fair decision-making process.