Closing the Gender Gap in Legislative Debates: The Role of Gender Quotas

Democratic societies increasingly look into gender quotas as a means to increase women’s representation in politics. Yet even as women occupy more seats, meaningful barriers may remain to their incorporation in the legislature. Our paper draws on quantitative and interview data from Portugal to explore patterns in women’s legislative participation before and after the adoption of a gender quota. While the gender gap in floor time decreases post-quota, important gender imbalances remain. After the quota, women remain underrepresented in the most politically salient legislative debates and are subject to stigmatization in floor access. Our findings suggest that gender quotas chip away at, but do not shatter, glass ceilings for women in politics.