Women in EP by political groupWomen in EP and EU national parliaments

0,0

0,1

0,2

0,3

0,4

EU

2013199719791979 1984 1989 1994 20132009200419990%

10%

20%

30%

40%European Parliament

Member States’ national parliaments

Gra

nd To

tal

EFD

NI

ECR

PPE

GU

E/N

GL

ALD

E

S&D

Vert

s/A

LE

Greens/EFA (48.3%)

S&D(42.8%)

ALDE(42.4%)

GUE/NGL(37.1%)

EPP(34.3%)

ECR (22.8%)

NI (21.9%)

EFD (6.5%)

36%

< 36%≥ 36%

Men

Women

Female representatives in the EP by Member State

Preferential votingClosed lists Single transferable vote ! Compulsory voting ≥ 36% < 36%

FI DK HR SI EE MT NL FR SE IE PT DE ES BG SK HU EP RO LT LV CY BE GR AT UK IT CZ PL LU

13 13 12 8 6 6 26 74 20 12 22 99 54 18 13 22 766 33 12 9 6 22 22 19 73 73 22 51 6

61.5

%

53.8

%

50.0

%

50.0

%

50.0

%

50.0

%

46.2

%

45.9

%

45.0

%

41.7

%

40.9

%

39.4

%

38.9

%

38.9

%

38.5

%

36.4

%

36.0

%

33.3

%

33.3

%

33.3

%

33.3

%

31.8

%

31.8

%

31.6

%

31.5

%

23.3

%

22.7

%

19.6

%

16.7

%

Non

e

Non

e

40%

40%

Non

e

Non

e

Non

e

50%

Non

e

Non

e

33%

Non

e

40%

Non

e

Non

e

Non

e

> 0

Non

e

Non

e

Non

e

50%

Non

e

Non

e

Non

e

33%

Non

e

Non

e

Non

e

!! !!

Total current seats (February II plenary session, 2014)

Percentage of women Members in the EP

Gender quotas applicable to EP elections in the current legislature

Electoral system applied at EP elections in the current legislature

Higher than EP (36%)

Lower than EP (36%)

≥ 36%

National parliaments with a higher proportion of women members than the EP

Women Members

in EP

36%

* as

of F

ebru

ary

II p

lena

ry s

essi

on, 2

014

*

Top 10 national parliaments

1. Rwanda

2. Andorra

3. Cuba

4. Sweden

5. Seychelles

6. Senegal

7. Finland

8. South Africa

9. Nicaragua

10. Iceland

Women in parliaments

Author: Evarts Anosovs, Eva-Maria Poptcheva, Giulio Sabbati. Members’ Research Service

European Parliamentary Research Service140765REV2For more information on these figures and their sources, see page 2.

At a glance27/02/2014European Parliamentary

Research Service

Women in national parliaments compared with the European Parliament

The map shows those national parliaments across the world which have a percentage of women members equal to or above the 36% share of women Members in the European Parliament. Worldwide there are 23 countries with 36% or more of women members in their national parliament.Women in national parliaments / Inter-parliamentary Union.

Women in EP and national parliaments

The graph illustrates the average representation of women in national parliaments in Member States and in the European Parliament. The line for national parliaments up to 1996 is illustrative only, as it is based on the data available for a limited number of Member States. A notable increase in the percentage of women in national parliaments can be seen in the mid-2000s, which could be the consequence of the introduction of electoral gender quotas in several Member States around this time (France - 2000, Belgium - 2002, Portugal - 2006, Spain - 2007).Women in the European Parliament: Political Posts - Administrative Posts / EP Equality and Diversity Unit, 2013.Women in national parliaments / Inter-parliamentary Union.Chronicle of parliamentary elections / Inter-parliamentary Union, Vol. XVI, XXI, XXI, XXVI, XXVII, Geneva.

Women in EP by political group The hemicycle chart illustrates the distribution of women Members among the EP political groups, showing in which politi-cal groups the proportion of women is higher than the EP average (36%) and in which it is lower. (NB the groups are ordered by proportion of women Members rather than by position on the political spectrum.)Source: based on information from the Members’ Activities Unit, for the February II plenary session, 2014.

Female representatives in the EP by Member State

Gender quotas applicable to elections in the current legisla-ture

Voluntary party quotas

Electoral systems and women representation

European Parliament

The table refers to the current legislature. There are some differences in respect of the electoral rules for the forthcoming European Parliament elections; for further details, please see the EPRS InfoGraphic 2014 European elections: national rules.

For the elections in the current legislature, seven Member States had gender quotas. Some Member States have gender clauses for national elections but not for the European elections, for instance Greece and Ireland.Member States’ gender quotas concern the make-up of electoral lists and are gender-neutral, meaning that they aim to avoid the under-representation of both women and men, so gender proportions apply to both sexes.Only two Member States require lists in parity (50%/50%) – these are Belgium and France. Slovenia and Spain require gender-balanced electoral lists, where each gender must be represented by at least 40% of the candidates on the list. Croa-tia has also introduced gender-balanced lists, but the requirement will be legally enforceable only at the third European elections, i.e. in 2019. The gender-balanced lists in Italy and Portugal must contain at least 33% (⅓) of each gender. Italy’s gender quota for the European elections was introduced provisionally for the 2004 and 2009 elections, and its application to the 2014 elections is still under discussion. Poland did not have a gender quota for the European elections in 2009, but has introduced gender-balanced lists, with at least 35% of the candidates to be of each gender, which will apply for the first time in the 2014 election. Romania’s electoral rules establish for the European elections that no all-women or all-men lists are possible. In order to ensure that candidates from both sexes, and in particular female candidates, are placed in positions on an elec-toral list with a good chance of winning a seat, some Member States require the alternate ordering of men and women on the list (‘zipping’). This is the case of France, Belgium (only the first two positions on the list) and Portugal (not more than two consecutive candidates of the same sex on the list). Slovenian electoral legislation requires at least one candidate of each gender to be placed in the upper half of the list. In Spain, the 40%/60% ratio has to be kept within each five-candidate cluster on the list.Whilst in some Member States electoral lists which do not meet the requirements of the gender clause are invalid (e.g. Spain, Slovenia and Romania), in others such lists are admitted to the elections but the party or coalition submitting them is punished with a fine and/or a cut in electoral campaign subsidies (e.g. Portugal). In those Member States without a legally binding electoral gender quota, political parties sometimes voluntarily introduce quotas for the nomination of candidates. This so called ‘incremental track’ seeking to increase women’s representation pro-gressively is sometimes regarded as more successful than the ‘fast track’ of legislative gender quotas, given the examples of Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands which have large percentages of women in their national parliaments.Electoral gender quota systems and their implementation in Europe update 2013: note / L Freidenvall, D Dahlerup, Euro-pean Parliament Policy Department C Citizens’ rights and constitutional affairs, PE 493.011, Brussels 2013.Electoral Quotas for Women, 2013 / CESifo/ ifo Institute, Centre for Economic Studies Munich, November 2013.Quota Project: Global database of Quotas for Women / International IDEA, Inter-Parliamentary Union and Stockholm Uni-versity.Analysts have sought to establish a relationship between electoral systems and the percentage of women elected. Whilst there is agreement that proportional representation systems are more favourable for female candidates than majoritarian systems, the link between open electoral lists (preferential voting, cross-list preferential voting) and women elected has recently been challenged.Actions for gender balance in the European Parliament EP elections 2014: compilation of briefing not: Thursday, 20 June 2013: workshop / European Parliament Policy Department C Citizens’ rights and constitutional affairs, PE 493.009, Brussels, 2013.Do electoral laws affect women´s representation? / A Roberts, J Seawright, J Cyr, Comparative Political Studies, 2012.In its resolution of July 2013, the European Parliament called upon Member States and political parties to press for a higher proportion of women on the lists of candidates.

Further information

Country codes:Austria (AT) Cyprus (CY) Finland (FI) Hungary (HU) Lithuania (LT) Poland (PL) Slovenia (SI)Belgium (BE) Czech Republic (CZ) France (FR) Ireland (IE) Luxembourg (LU) Portugal (PT) Spain (ES)Bulgaria (BG) Denmark (DK) Germany (DE) Italy (IT) Malta (MT) Romania (RO) Sweden (SE)Croatia (HR) Estonia (EE) Greece (GR) Latvia (LV) Netherlands (NL) Slovakia (SK) United Kingdom (UK)

Disclaimer and Copyright. This InfoGraphic does not necessarily represent the views of the author or the European Parliament. The document is exclusively addressed to the Members and staff of the European Parliament for their parliamentary work. Links to information sources within this document may be inaccessible from locations outside the European Parliament network. Copyright © European Parliament, 2014. All rights reserved.

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Women in parliaments