Limited effects of gender quota in politics in Slovenia
Milica Antić Gaber
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
[email protected]
Abstract
Attempts for introducing gender quotas in Slovenia started in the end of 1980s with
general demands for more women in politics and at least verbal support for gender
equality, continued in 1990s with several proposals in the Parliament to amend either
electoral or party laws with the quota provisions which all failed and ended in the
beginning of new millennium with the acceptance of gender quotas in the law at all
levels. But there are still no big changes on the part of elected women especially at
local and national levels where women still have not reached critical mass (30
percent). The paper explore the barriers to effects of legislative quota at macro level
(electoral system, party system, etc.) and cultural (attitudes of general public) factors
and mezzo level (lack of social networks and support of women in politics) and micro
level (lack of support in everyday life).
Un-finished paper; work in progress!
Paper presented at the ECPR General Conference, Glasgow, September 3-6, 2014
Introduction
When in 1996 Slovenia started the process of the integration to European Union (EU)
and formally applied for EU membership there was only 7.8 percent of women in the
NA, when in 2004 joined the EU there was no more than 12 percent and ten years
after that there is 35,6 women elected in the present one. This progress would not
have been possible without legal gender quotas. Slovenia adopted gender quotas in
the law for the election at all three levels (local, national and European) but differently
composed in terms of how high or low the quota is set, what is the time frame of the
implementation of the quota provisions and whether or not there are special
placement mandate provided which also lead to different effects. Analysis of the
effectiveness of gender quotas at different level, also show that other factors are also
important. Electoral law, the importance/relevance/status of the political body, other
supportive mechanisms (if existed) etc.) on the one hand, wider cultural elements
(public opinion towards gender equality and women in politics) at macro level and
civil society organisations and NGOs that support women in politics at mezzo level
and support to women that want to enter into the politics need in everyday life at
micro level are relevant when we discuss the (un)success of gender quotas. The
paper shows the strength and weaknesses of the systemic measures (quota
provision) in the given political, historical and cultural context and call for the more
structured and in-depth analyses of the effectiveness of gender quotas in the specific
context.
The paper in the first part explore the process of the introduction of gender quotas in
Slovenia in the second presents some important characteristics of electoral gender
quotas in Slovenia and in the third analyses the (un)succesfulness of legal gender
quotas on the upgrading the representative democracy in Slovenia.
1. Introduction of legal gender quotas for the elections in Slovenia
Literature on gender quotas in politics (not to enter into semantic discussion on them)
discuss mainly three different types of gender quotas: voluntary party quota,
compulsory party quota or legislative quota (mandated by constitution or the law) and
reserved seats (Tripp and Kang 2008; Darhour and Dahlerup 2013).
When back in the 1990s two political parties “voluntary” introduced party quotas for
elective positions in the party and for the national election they even did not follow
their own regulation in composing party’s electoral lists (comp. Antić Gaber and Lokar
2006). Due to this fact and to the fact that other parties did not at all thought that
anything should be done to speed up the process of balancing the presence of
women and men in politics there was very low share of women at party candidate
lists (between 7 and 15 percent with one exception of 40 percent) (comp. Antić in
Dahlerup 2011). It was obvious that there cannot be more women elected if there are
very few women among candidates. It was also obvious that something should be
done at general level and not to expect that something can be done by the ones who
want to protect their own positions in the politics and especially in the parties (comp.
Verge and Fuente 2014), as several proposals to introduce the obligatory measures
in the Parliament to speed up this process during the 1990s (comp. Antić and Gortnar
2004). In this period activities for more women in politics were limited to a narrow
circles of women activists, women politicians in some left-wing parties and few
feminist scholars and not gained a wider public support for firm political measures.
After several unsuccessful attempts to change the law and after the establishment of
a Coalition for Equal Presence of Women in the Public Life in 2001 and with the
accession process to the European Union (pressure from the outside) the demand for
more women in politics gain some more wider public support that resulted in political
conditions in which introduction of firm measures had been more.
The legal changes that enabled the introduction of gender quotas were the
introduction of the Act on Equal Opportunities for Women Men (AEOWM) in June
2002 and changes of the Constitution in June 20041.
AEOWM contained several provisions for the promotion of gender-balanced
participation in decision making the most important among them were the following:
establishment of equal opportunities is a duty of the entire society; the obligation of
the National Assembly is to respect the principle of balanced representation of
women and men in the establishment of committees and the composition of
delegations; and political parties have a duty to promote gender-balanced
representation/ participation; furthermore, political parties that are included in the
register of political parties shall adopt a plan in which they shall determine methods
and measures for the promotion of more balanced representation of women and men
within party bodies, and on candidate lists for elections to the National Assembly and
to bodies of local communities, as well as for elections for the president of the state.
(comp. Antić Gaber in Dahlerup and Freidenvall 2011)
The legal ground for the further positive measures has been made by the
amendment of the Slovene Constitution. In the process of preparation legal changes
several case studies were carefully analyzed and brought to the attention to wider
public and even more important - to legal experts. Especially powerful were the cases
of France and Belgium the two West European countries that introduced gender
quota in their legislation. French case was for the Slovene environment especially
relevant. French case - with acceptance of the constitutional provision which state
that special measures that promote gender equality are not un–constitutional –
seemed to be the one that can be adapted to the Slovene socio-political and cultural
environment most successfully and follow the rationale of the new Slovene political
elite. The group of legal, sociological and other expert was formed and proposal
formulated for the reading in the NA.2 The changes had been unanimously adopted
in June 2004 shortly followed by first election to EP in Slovenia.
1
Even before the constitutional reform, an amendment to the Law on the Elections to
the European Parliament (March 2004) introduced a 40-percent gender quota for
candidate lists.
2
https://www.dzrs.si/wps/portal/Home/deloDZ/zakonodaja/izbranZakonAkt?uid=C12565E2005ED694C1256C5B004A
B981&db=kon_akt&mandat=III&tip=doc
The constitutional clause then accepted says: “The law shall establish measures to
promote equal opportunities for women and men in standing for election to state
authorities and local communities” and in addition Constitution declares that such
positive discrimination is not against the article 14 of Constitution, which regulates
equality before the law. This was important basis for other changes among others for
the gender quotas in the laws on election. The first was the law on election to EP in
the same year, followed by the law on election to the local communities (2005) and
law for election to NA (2006).
Once the constitutional foundation for gender equality has been made with the
statement that new laws can introduce measures for equal opportunities it was
expected that laws for elections (for local and national election) should be changed
and provisions for equal presence of women and men at the electoral lists
incorporated. It was also stated that the principle of gender-balanced representation
is respected when at least 40 per cent representation of women and men is ensured.
In certain specified circumstances the decree (also accepted by the governement)
permits exemptions from this principle on objectively justified grounds. Such an
exemption is permitted in cases where membership of a particular government body
stems from a particular function (comp. Antić Gaber in Dahlerup and Freidenvall
2011).
Following these measures two electoral laws had been changed, but differently.
The first legal changes had been introduced in the Local Elections Act in 2005, a
year before the next local election. The law provided that lists of candidates for the
election to a municipal council have to be drawn up in such a way to ensure that
each sex accounts for at least 40 per cent of all candidates listed, and that the
candidates in the first half of the lists must alternate by sex (Clause 70a). The act
provides the transition period up to 2014, when 40 per cent of each sex on the
electorate lists becomes compulsory.
The second was the Law on the election to National Assembly changed in 2006
when 35 percent gender quota (with the start of 25 percent women candidates on the
voting ballot for the first next election) was set.
As one can see Slovenia now has legislative gender quotas for the election to all
three levels (European, national, local). We will now analyse the effectiveness of
gender quotas on all three levels through three components: size of quotas,
placement mandates and enforcement mechanisms and discuss how important
elements at macro level (electoral system, party system, etc.) and cultural (attitudes
of general public) factors and mezzo level (lack of social networks and support of
women in politics) and micro level (lack of support in everyday life) support or prevent
their effectiveness.
2. Characteristics of electoral gender quotas in Slovenia?
So far, electoral gender quotas have been implemented for the local elections in
2006 (20 percent quota) and for the election 2010 (30 percent representatives), for all
the elections to the EU Parliament (40 percent quota) and for the national election in
2008 (25 per cent quota), 2011 and 2014 (full 35 percent quota).
Table 1: Elected women in Slovenia at all levels
Year of
Local level/
National Election/
European
Election
percentage of
Percentage of women
Election/percentage
female councillors
deputies
of women MP's
elected
1990
11,3
1992
12,3
1994
10,6
1996
1998
7,8
11,7
2000
2002
13,3
13
2004
2006
12,2
21,5*
2008
13,3*
2009
2010
42,8*
28,6*
21,91*
2011
32,2*
2014
35,6*
37,5*
Source: Statistical Office, State Election Committee and authors’ calculation.
* Quotas introduced
From the table above we can see that legislative gender quotas produce different
effects at different election. Why this is so? What are the elements/obstacles that do
not allow gender quotas to be more effective?
Table 2: Legal gender quotas in politics in Slovenia
Level of
election
Local
National
European
Elec.
system
PR (pref.
vote),
Majority
PR
(voting
units)
PR (pref.
vote)
size
40 (20, 30)
35 (25)
40
Implementation Placement
mandate
Gradual
YES
(2006,2010,
2014)
Gradual
NO
(2008, 2011)
sanctions
2004
YESdismissal
YES
YESdismissal
YESdismissal
What is common for all the three quota laws?
-
It has to be stressed that gender quotas in Slovenia are formulated in a gender
neutral way; it is namely stated that “each gender cannot be represented at
the candidates list with less than certain percent”;
-
The laws set the minimum share for each gender;
-
All the quota provisions in Slovenia are mandated by the law on election and
are sanctioned for non-compliance with the exclusion from the election. The
law stipulates that if the electoral commission finds “that the list of candidates
is not determined in accordance with this Act, dismiss it”. 3
What are the differences?
-
Timing of the introduction
Gender quota for the election for EP is set at 40 percent and implemented
immediately for the first election in 2004. At the local level gender quota is set at
40 percent and not implemented immediately but gradually, starting with 20
percent at first election (2006), increasing it to 30 percent (2010) and with full
quota implemented in this autumn election 2014 (40). Explanation by the
parliamentarians why this was so, is that some parties could have some problems
finding enough suitable female candidates in some small communes and in rural
areas.
3
See: http://www.pisrs.si/Pis.web/pregledPredpisa?id=ZAKO185#
Unlike the above election for local and European level for the election at national
level (NA) the gender quota agreed and set in the law is lower (only 35 percent)
and even not implemented immediately but started as low as 25 percent for the
first election (2008) and for the second (2011) increased to 35.
-
Size of quotas
We can see that the goal for gender equality in politics is set for local and European
level at 40 percent and at national level only at 35 percent, which is interesting and
telling difference. It seems that difference comes from a different perception of the
weight of political body in question. EP is perceived as far away, local level as too low
and not that important and prestigious on the contrary national level it seems to
represent the strongest fortress of masculine domination in politics to be defended
from the un-invited, intruders.
Table 3. The percentages of female candidates for elections to the Slovenian
National Assembly, by party, 1992–2014
Year of election
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
2011
2014
Party
DeSUS
–
–
17.0
22.4
31.8
41.38
44.8
LDS
9.3
13.6
25.3
28
31.7
42.17
NSi
11.2
9.5
16.2
23
27.2
39.29
43.9
(SKD)
SD (ZL,
15.5
40.9
33.3
31
36.3
41.38
47.4
ZLSD)
SDS
7.9
11.9
12.8
10.5
32.5
36.36
44.7
SLS
8.7
13.6
12.8
16.9
29.7
39.76
37.2
SNS
7
8.9
20.3
15.5
40.6
46.03
42.2
Zares
/
/
/
/
30.2
41.77
PS
/
/
/
/
/
48.24
43.2
DL
/
/
/
/
/
46.25
38.2
ZL
/
/
/
/
/
/
39.8
ZAB
/
/
/
/
/
/
42.9
SMC
/
/
/
/
/
/
47.0
Total
14.8
19
23.5
25.0
35.2
43.15
43.8
Source: author’s own calculation on the basis of the parties’ candidates lists,
Statistical Office data and data of the State Electoral Commission.
Nevertheless despite the different size of quota set for different level (and the lowest
for the election to NA) as the table above shows the share of female candidates
significantly exceed the required share at each election in total and at majority of the
party candidates’ lists. For example at the last election only three minor parties put
less than 40 percent women at their lists (when the law requires 35 percent), and
three parties that were expected to get the seats in the NA (among others a winner of
the election) put even around 47 percent of women at their electoral lists.
-
Placement mandates
There is no placement regulation for the election to NA, this is due to the complicated
electoral law (to be explained later) and this also can be one of the reasons for the
less effectiveness of gender quota at this level.
On the contrary to the law on election at national level there are regulations for the
placement of candidates at local (in the part where PR system is applied) and
European level. For the EP (Slovenia elects only eight MEPs) the law says that each
candidates’ list must be drawn up in such a way that at least one candidate of each
sex is placed in the upper half of the list.4 In practice this means that a female
candidate has to be placed at first, second or third position on the list and in many
cases this results in placing them at the second or third. Which means if the party
gets only one seat (and this happen in majority of the cases) women is not elected
(with the only and rare exception – if she gets majority of preferential votes).
Similarly, the law for local election5 stipulates that when more than one candidate
nominated on the electoral list the candidates’ lists shall be determined in such a way
that candidates in the first half of the list are allocated alternately6. But this provision
is applied only for the big communes with PR electoral system which means that it
can only bring partial results.
4
Comp. http://www.pisrs.si/Pis.web/pregledPredpisa?id=ZAKO3401
5
Comp. http://www.pisrs.si/Pis.web/pregledPredpisa?id=ZAKO308
6
The law also stipulates that for the first and second election candidates in the first half of the list of
candidates are allocated alternately at least every third candidate has to be of a different gender.
3. Barriers to effective implementation of gender quotas in politics in
Slovenia
We will now put electoral gender quotas in Slovenia in the wider context and discuss
the elements that additionally influence their successfulness.
Macro level
3.1.
Electoral system
It has been stressed by several authors, that electoral system plays an important role
in analysing the women’s chances to be elected. It has also been shown in many
analyses that in PR system women have better electoral chances than in majoritarian
(Paxton 1997, Matland and Montgomery 2003). There were also several analyses
that had been done in Slovene context discussing the influence of electoral system
(and some important elements) on women’s electoral chances (Antić 2003; FinkHafner, Deželan in Topolinjak, 2005; Murko Pleš, Nahtigal in Pleš, 2011).
As it is evident from the table above there are different types of electoral systems in
use for three different elections in which electoral laws create different possibilities for
setting up candidates on the lists of candidates.
Only for the elections for EP, there is a pure PR system with party list of candidates
and preferential vote. For the local election two different types of electoral system are
used PR (with preferential vote) for the bigger cities and majority system (for small
communes). For the National Election there is PR system in which parties compose 8
party candidates’ lists with that compete for the votes in 11 voting units (this produce
some effects closer to majoritarian rule).
In the described circumstances gender quotas can directly work for the purpose they
were set for only in the case of EP in which parties compose single party candidates’
list nationwide with 8 candidates and in which additional requirements (like placement
mandates) can be adopted. This proposition can also be used partially for the
election at local level (for bigger cities) but not for the election to National Assembly.
At the election to NA existence of 11 voting units in which individual candidates
compete for the votes (first among candidates of different parties and then among
candidates of the same party) special requirement for the composition of the
candidates list cannot be taken. That means that party can put 40 percent of women
among their candidates, but if they put them on the positions with no or almost no
chances to be elected this share does not play any important role (comp. Lokar
2005).
Despite the fact that substantial rise of the share of female candidates is visible this
does not lead to the satisfactory higher presence of women in politics which lead
some activists to the requirement of further legal changes: demand for the
introduction of zipper system (for the European election) in a way that male and
female candidates would appear alternately on candidate lists. 7 Slovene Women’s
Lobby for example organized a campaign for more women in the European
Parliament with the campaign »50-50« it emphasized the importance of zipper
system and also promoted the preferential voting. Furthermore, in 2014, the appeals8
for preferential voting of women were discussed in newspapers and indeed one
female MP was elected by preferential vote and defeated her party president who
was the leader of the list.
For the National Election other questions were raised. The results of elections are
mostly interpreted in line with the studies on quota in many other countries that
showed that only percentages for the total number of candidates, and no rank order
or other rules, may have very limited effect (Schwindt-Bayer 2009). Several analyses
prove that women had not been put into the elective positions (safe seats) on the
party candidates’ lists.9 These debates had again risen question how to change the
7
Thus “numbers of initiatives has been launched to upgraded legal provisions on quotas, in particular
the way of placing method on the candidate lists to enforce the alternating classification in the first
place." (Pleš, Nahtigal in Murko Pleš 2013: 13)
8
http://www.dnevnik.si/mnenja/pisma-bralcev/oddajte-svoj-preferencni-glas-kandidatki
http://www.siol.net/novice/eu_volitve_2014/2014/05/z_vsecki_lahko_na_evrovolitvah_mesate_strene_strank
arskim_sefom.aspx
http://www.zenskilobi.si/
9
As further described below, the analysis of the results of the election to NA in 2011 Slovene
Women's Lobby showed that political parties are very well aware which electoral districts are
favourable to them or which seats are wining and this electoral districts are often reserved for male
candidates. The first five elections to the National Assembly "had shown that established political elite
lacks the political will to change their own behaviour, which prevents the increased political
electoral system, which has been one of the main topic on political agenda since
Slovenia became the independent country. The fact that in Slovene PR system there
is not a closed party list for each constituency but instead each constituency (eight all
in all) is further divided into eleven voting units represent institutional obstacle for
implementation of constitutional article on equal opportunities of men and women.10
To open more opportunities for the implementation of the gender quotas the
proposals to eliminate the voting units and introduce a closed party list on the level of
constituencies have been put on the parliamentary agenda twice. But the proposal to
change the law for NE has been in both cases declined already in first reading, once
in 2003 and for the second time in 2012.
For the local level quotas were partially effective yet they had not contributed to
political culture to become more prone to gender equality and equal opportunities. In
the last campaign it had been again stressed that preferential voting if used to
support female candidates can be beneficial for women’s electoral chances.11
3.2.
Political parties and their rationality, parties as gatekeepers!
Political parties are the main players that influence women’s electoral chances
(Norris and Lovenduski 1993, Caul 2001, Antić 1999; Fink-Hafner in Krašovec 2004)
as they select the candidates, nominate them and compose electoral lists. They can
be more supportive or more obstructive to women candidates. Several components
prove that political parties are still dominated by men and serves as gatekeepers to
women’s entrance into politics. In the short history of multiparty political system in
Slovenia leaders of all main parties (with very few exceptions) were and still are men.
Male domination is also visible when exploring the composition of other collective or
individual leading party positions. In the collective leading position in the parties one
can find one female person (among three or more) and usually not more. It seems
that parties are the main gatekeepers to women’s entrance into political field. As this
participation of women." (Pleš, Nahtigal and Murko Pleš 2013: 30) It seems reasonable to conclude
that this affect the behaviour of the established parliamentary parties, which this time not only take into
account the legal provisions on quotas, but also more often than in the past female candidates put into
the winnable seats or at least potentially winnable ones.
10
For more about electoral system in Slovenia see: Antić Gaber in Matland and Montgomery and Antić
Gaber in Duhlerup (2011).
11
http://www.siol.net/novice/slovenija/2010/06/zenski_lobi_lokalne_volitve.aspx
is historically their domain they are the one that compose the rules of the game and
still mostly men enjoy dividends from the power constellation in this field.
Slovene political parties have not put much energy to develop effective strategies for
the inclusion of women in their memberships and leaderships. They usually do not
offer special financial support to women’s units in their parties. Some of them (as it
was shown earlier) do not respect their own party rules in the selecting and
nominating processes for the election but avoid doing anything more binding with
only repeating general formulations from the laws. Most often they use rhetoric
strategies, minimally respect the formal rules, put required share of women to
electoral lists, but they put them into voting units with no or very little chances to be
elected (Antić, 2011; Murko Pleš, Nahtigal in Pleš, 2011). In this situation women in
some parties organize their own women’s party sections and forums to be more
powerful with their demands to their party’ leadership.
Established parties, parties with longer history are sometimes more resistant and the
fight for the winnable positions on the list is stronger as they have many aspirants
and new parties as they do not have a history of competing at the election women
have some more chances to get winning positions on the list.
As our research (interviews with male and female politicians)12 shows it is also a
significant difference in building a political career among female and male politicians.
Men namely more often systematically build their political party’ career than women,
who more often invest their time and energy to build their professional career and if
their work is recognized and invited to politics they consider this invitation to enter
political filed and they more often need special initiative from the strong political
player.
It is also more often happen for male politicians to stay several mandates in politics
and female more often stay one or two. These is also the reason they cannot build
strong social and political network and acquire social and political capital.
One of the reasons why in the last two election increase of women's representation in
NA occured is also in the fact that voters shoved no confidence to old established
12
Ref. Research!
parties and demanded a change of political elites in such circumstances new political
parties can be prosperous (and female candidates get more votes).
4. Cultural factors: values and attitudes
4.1.
Gender equality (male and female roles in society)
Political culture, attitudes towards politics and prevailing values (especially on
masculinities and femininities or male and female roles) significantly influence the
possibilities of potential entry of women into politics and, indirectly, their presence in
politics. Cultural context namely influence our judgment of what is right and what is
wrong, where is the right place for men and where for women, what is acceptable
and what not etc. It can be found out that some values are persistent and even the
slight shift require the change of generations as well as long-term processes of
modernization.
Among the factors that are often taken into consideration in these discussions are the
role of religion, attitudes towards feminism and gender equality, time (Rule,
1987/1996; Norris in Inglehart, 2001). Several researches confirmed that there is a
strong correlation between attitudes towards gender equality and women’s presence
in politics (Norris in Inglehart, 2001; Inglehart, Norris in Welzel, 2002; Inglehart in
Norris, 2003). Slovenia is in one of these studies placed somewhere between
Catholic and East European Countries (comp. Inglehart, Norris in Welzel, 2002, 35).
If one look at public discourse on gender equality in Slovenia from the transition
period in the 1990s on it can be seen that there are several competing
(mis)understandings: as forced emancipation of women in the socialist period; as
something un-natural, something that has inauthentic but a result of the influence of
radical feminist movement imported from the west; or as a sameness of sexes (which
is un-acceptable) and in a small proportion also as a equal opportunities for both
gender (comp. Antić Gaber, 2006).
The data with which we operate with in this paper, are taken from the Slovenian
Public Opinion (POS) and researches done in international context: World Value
Survey (WVS) and the European Social Survey (ESS).
We have been taken few telling examples out of rich data collections connected to
questions on gender equality that can be usefull to understand the cultural settings
which we analyse.
One of them is connected to the understanding who is doing what and who is more
connected to family and who to public life. It can be therefore observed that there is
less and less public consent in Slovenia from the 1990s on to the following argument:
»The task of the husband is to makes money and wives task is to take care of the
household and family”. If in 1991 there was almost 40 percent of respondents of POS
agreed and strongly agreed the percent in 2012 fall down to only 20 percent (comp.
Selišnik and Antić 2014 forthcoming).
It is quite visible, that in the last decade, the position of the population, at least at the
declarative level changed drastically and shifted away from traditional perception of
gender roles, according to which women mostly worked in private and men in the
public sphere. It can be assumed that this also has a positive impact on the judgment
of the voters as at the last two elections to NA (2011, 2014) there was each time a
record reached on the side of elected women MPs.
Slovene POS also constantly take records of the changes of the attitude towards the
value of gender equality questioning them whether they have positive or negative
attitude to it. Respondents answers show that the vast majority has positive or very
positive attitudes towards gender (form 75 - 87 percent) and that the share of these
who taken neutral position fallen to 5 percent in 2012. But very telling is the data that
a share of those who gender equality valued very positively (reaching 50.8 percent in
1994) never reached this level after it sharply fallen in 1998 (to 34 percent) and then
slightly increased but in 2011 only reached 37 percent (comp. Selišnik and Antić
2014 forthcoming).
The above mentioned data lead us to the conclusion that value of gender equality is
deeply rooted in Slovenia at least at the declarative level. Nevertheless, it is not
possible to conclude that this is taken into consideration at the election day when
considering whom to give a vote. It seems that there is still strong feeling that women
are not perceived as the ones who symbolically fit to the image of the holder of
political power.
4.2.
Are men better politicians than women?
If we agree with Hofstede’s finding that women in male culture are not understood as
those that would be able to take on certain roles, simply because symbolically are not
identified as such or because they do not correspond to the real image of the power
holder (Hofstede, Hofstede and Minkov, 2010, 45) we can test this thesis in the
Slovene circumstances through the POS’ respondents' answers to the statement
"Men are better political leaders than women”. The share of respondents who do not
agree with this statement was in 1995 51 percent and increased in 2012 to 72.8
percent which is distinctive change (comp. Selišnik and Antić 2014 forthcoming).
If it is to believe the findings of Inglehart’ and Welzl’ studies Modernisation, Cultural
Change and Democracy (2005), that in countries where the public rejects the belief
that men are better leaders than women actually higher proportion of women elected
to the national parliament and that cultural norms and values are more significant
predictor of the proportion of women in parliament then democratic institutions (2005,
176) then applying this to Slovene case means either that public stick to the ‘desired
answers’ or it’s only a matter of the moment when this will be actually featured in the
constant higher numbers of women elected.
b) Mezzo level
Some researches also found out that there are more chances for women in politics
where there is a strong demand from women’s organizations in civil society, where is
strong and wide women’s movement and where demand for more women in politics
come from their side (ref.). In Slovenia independent women’s initiatives started to
grew in the second half of the 1980s but most often dealing with social and much
less with political issues (ref.). These groups are also quite small and mainly
concentrated in two big cities. Even in the last two decades there no big changes
concerning the scope of activities, numbers and concentration of this groups. In the
past three decades there were only two organised initiatives from civil society that
demanded more women in politics “Women for politics” (Jalušič) from the end of
1980s and Coalition for Equal Presence of Women in the Public Life (2001).
Described situation suggests that there is a wide gap between politicians (female
included) and other social and civil engagement of women in Slovenia. As we know
that social networks are very important for the work in politics and if women do not
have supportive social networks, they mostly depend on the support of a family and
narrow private circles.
Our interviews with the politicians also show that after women enter the politics they
lose professional ties with their previous colleagues as they are now perceived as
politicians and in many times that also mean that they are dirty, corruptive, etc.
Apart from that women active in civil society organisations are also very critical to
women in mainstream politics. All these leads to the conclusion that in many cases
women in politics are in very difficult position: in the political field their male
colleagues do not accept them as equal and they are in many times perceived as
masculinized (ref.) and women outside mainstream politics think that they behave
and act as men and that they make no difference in politics. They are foreigners
and/or foreign for both sides and for this reason often not given support from any
side.
But this question is not adequately researched and needs more careful and in-depth
insides and analysis.
c) Individual level
The results of our analysis confirm the findings of other researches that politics - not
only concerning gender relations, but also in terms of organization and methods of
work and, consequently, the possibility of harmonization commitments in professional
and private life – highly masculine profession (…). Schedules are long and
unpredictable work also takes place on weekends, evenings or at night. Such a
professional environment assumes singlehood or that the majority of unpaid
household work and care family members in the private life have to be taken by
somebody else: partner, children, parents, or paid domestic help. In a society where
it is expected that the greater part of the household and care work is done by women,
poses a problem mainly to them.
Our research also shows that when considering to enter the politics women mainly
consult with their partners and family members. Their support is decisive for them. In
these circumstances this means that only women whose partner is ready to take
responsibility and most of the workload for household and/or family and in some
cases also put aside their professional life are really in the position to enter the
politics. Vice versa is more common. Our politicians report that women or partners of
male politicians most often take the whole burden of private life on their shoulders.
These result in the situation in which male politicians in Slovenia are younger, have
more children and stay in politics longer than their female counterparts.
Asymmetrical division of work in private sphere either in practice or at the level of
expectations results in additional obstacle to women considering entering the political
field (comp. Kanjuo Mrčela, Šori, Podreka, 2012).
Narratives of political elites in Slovenia indicate that the combination of factors such
as: high risk of "protecting achievements" in the main job when exiting and entering
the political field; low reputation of politics; deeply rooted expectations regarding the
care of children and family as well as the lack of support of a husband or partner
women further complicates decision to enter the politics. Their responses also reveal
important differences and inequalities between men and women (including deeply
rooted masculine culture in the political field (comp. Selišnik and Antić Gaber 2014
forthcoming).
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