Third Place is a Charm. Women in the 2010, 2014 and 2018 Regional Assembly Elections in Poland

Abstract

The analysis of women’s participation in elections has long been an important theme within political studies. Scholars have looked at factors that affect women’s participation in politics in general, as well as their decisions to run in parliamentary or regional elections. In 2011, as the second Central and Eastern Europe country (the first being Slovenia), Poland introduced gender quotas into the proportional electoral system. Researchers looking into the consequences of such systemic solutions in various countries have established that the intended goal of increasing the proportion of women in legislative bodies has not always been achieved. In fact, the outcomes have varied widely. Such discrepancies invite further examination. The presented study focuses on regional assembly elections in Poland between 2010 and 2018. The article elaborates on and complements the results of the authors’ prior work on the 2010 and 2014 elections. The research looks at how effective women were in winning the available mandates, what were their placements and which parties managed to get most women into the assemblies.

Keywords

• gender equality
• poland
• women’s rights
• regional elections