From Party Quotas to Parity? Legislative Gender Representation in Germany at a Crossroads

Abstract

A century after the introduction of women’s suffrage in Germany, representation in the Bundestag still exhibits a substantial gender gap with about a third of parliamentarians being women. Given that Germany was an early adopter of party quotas, their overall effectiveness is being called into question. We examine to what degree the implementation of party quotas succeeded and where and why it failed. Amending existing literatures on quotas in German politics that focus primarily on party adoption, recruitment practices, and actor-level engagement with quotas, we highlight the relevance of institutional and political factors that inhibit the implementation of party quotas. We submit that the centrist German parties practice a culture of minimalist compliance and only the left and green parties implement their quotas rigorously. As party quotas might have run their course in Germany, there is a growing movement demanding legislative quotas within a parity law. The chapter draws on gendered candidate and election data, on party statutes of federal and state party organizations, and on interviews with party officials and party women’s organizations.