Reasons For The Development Of Gender Quotas In British Parliamentary Elections

Among the various policy measures to promote women’s political participation through increasing the proportion of female representation in national parliaments,gender quotas,although very controversial,are considered as the most effective policy tool to promote women’s political participation.According to the Gender Quota Database,133 countries around the world have adopted different types of gender quotas to ensure women’s equal access to political participation,and the United Kingdom,which has a voluntary gender quota system for political parties,is one of them.Since the UK Labour Party first voluntarily introduced party gender quotas in 1997 parliamentary elections,the proportion of women elected to the UK House of Commons has increased from 18.2%to 33.8%in the recent 2019 elections,making women a "critical minority".The majority of women MPs were from the Labour Party in which gender quota system was adopted.Since the introduction of quotas,the proportion of women in the UK Parliament has been breaking all-time highs in every election.Since 2016,the number of parties with gender quotas has also expanded from only the Labour Party to the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats.Thus it can be concluded that the gender quota system in UK elections has been well developed and progressed in recent years-its implementation has been expanded,and the proportion of female MPs has increased rapidly and effectively.Based on this specific context,this paper explored and summarized processes and the domestic and external reasons for the development of the gender quota system in the UK from several levels.First,this paper compared the detailed historical process of the introduction,development and spread of the gender quota system in the UK,and concluded that despite the tortuous process-the gender quota system caused a lot of controversies and doubts in the British politics,it has been able to clear the obstacles and make progress in recent years.The gender quota system has been expanded from only the Labour Party to the Liberal Democrats,and it has been adopted in the last two general elections.The gender quota system has been expanded from only the Labour Party to the Liberal Democrats,and in the last two general elections,women’s participation in politics has been on the fast track,and the representation of women has been significantly improved.The following final conclusions are drawn:1)the active promotion of the concepts and policies of gender equality and women’s political representation by the international community and international organizations has provided an important foundation for the implementation of gender quotas in the UK;2)the political norms of the Europe and the influence of European countries are the key drivers for the development of gender quotas in the UK;3)the social-democratic party characteristics of the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats determined the introduction of gender quotas in the UK;4)the practical goal of political parties to achieve short-term reversal of election results directly called for the development of gender quotas in the UK.The above factors together constituted the reasons for the development of gender quota system in the UK.With these achieved insights of gender quotas in the UK,this paper hopes to fill in the gaps of related studies and inspire more research of various dimensions in this field in the future.