Getting Women into Parliament Is Not the Same as Giving Them Influence

What is it about?

Gender quotas can get more women into parliament, but getting into parliament does not necessarily mean gaining equal political influence once there. In Kenya, the quota created reserved seats for women. This increased the number of women MPs and enabled women to participate across a wider range of policy issues. But women still did not exercise the same degree of legislative influence as men, especially in areas where access is more tightly controlled. There is also an important paradox. Women can enter parliament through different routes—some through reserved women’s seats and others by winning ordinary constituency seats. These different routes can create differences in status, legitimacy and political incentives among women MPs themselves. Instead of the quota automatically creating a stronger collective bloc of women legislators, the institutional design can therefore divide them and make collective action more difficult.

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