ABSTRACT

One factor which has regularly been identified as a crucial ‘enabling condition’ for women to progress within a political system is the type of electoral system used. For example, a study by Norris found that although cultural attitudes were significant in shaping women’s representation, institutional factors were the most significant, notably whether a system of proportional representation was in operation.1

Almost a decade later, Rule and Zimmerman were able to claim that almost 30 per cent of the varying proportion of women in national legislatures could be accounted for by electoral systems. They claimed that ‘several studies document that the system for selecting MPs is the single most important predictor of women’s recruitment to parliament’.2