Venice Commission - Report on Bicameralism

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8.Gender. Are there any requirements to achieve gender parity between men and women in the composition of the second chamber or is there any gender quota system? If so, is there a similar requirement or gender quota system for the lower chamber?

Algeria

Austria

There is no such thing as a gender quota system regarding the composition of the Federal Council. Nevertheless the delegating provincial parliaments are bound to the general provisions of the Federal Constitutional Law concerning gender equality: Art. 7 para. 2 B-VG: The Federation, provinces and municipalities subscribe to the de-facto equality of men and women. Measures to promote factual equality of women and men, in particular by eliminating actually existing inequalities, are admissible.

Belgium

Non

Bosnia and Herzegovina

There are no explicit requirements for achieving gender parity between men and women in the composition of the House of Peoples. According to the rules of procedure of both houses, it was determined that the composition of the collegium (which consists of the chairman and the first and second deputy chairman) will try to secure the representation of both sexes. In the "Assessment of Gender Equality in Political Life", which was carried out by the OSCE in 2023, it was stated that "the example of the Collegium of the House of Peoples proves that this measure is considered declaratory, not binding.”

Brazil

Canada

There is no constitutional requirement to achieve gender parity in the Senate. This has been effectively achieved, however, in recent years, by an enlightened appointments policy. In 1929, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (then Canada’s final court of appeal) ruled in Edwards v. Attorney General for Canada [1930] A.C. 124, that Canada’s constitutional statute, the British North America Act of 1867, must be interpreted as having “planted in Canada a living tree, capable of growth and expansion within its natural limits”, and so construed the provisions of the Act referring to the appointment of “qualified Persons” to the Senate as including eligible women.
The first woman was appointed to the Senate in 1930. As of May 2023, of the 90 Senators currently sitting, 48 are women. (There are 105 places in the Senate, including 15 vacancies at present,) The current Speaker of the Senate is also a woman.
Likewise, there is no constitutionally-mandated gender quota system for the lower, elected house. In the last election to the House of Commons, 103 women were elected out of a total of 338 seats.
Amongst the considerations taken into account by the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments, it is stated:
“Individuals will be considered with a view to achieving gender balance in the Senate. Priority consideration will be given to applicants who represent Indigenous peoples and linguistic, minority and ethnic communities, with a view to ensuring representation of those communities in the Senate.”

Chile

Czechia

There are no gender requirements.

France

. In the departments that elect senators according to the proportional representation system, the law imposes a mix of men and women on each list (the lists must be composed alternately of one candidate of each sex). This parity rule does not exist directly in the lower house, because of the single-member plurality electoral system. However, there is a general rule that financially penalises political parties whose representation is not sufficiently balanced between the two sexes, in order to promote the balanced election of deputies of both sexes.

Germany

There are no gender requirements to achieve gender parity between women and men in the second chamber as well as in the lower chamber. Since currently only 34,8 % of all members in the Bundestag are women, there are debates about increasing the percentage of women in the Bundestag, but there is no consensus among the political parties in which way this aim could be achieved. Demands range from a quota system to soft law measures as voluntary obligations by political parties. In the Bundesrat, there are currently (April 2023) 43 men (62%) and 26 women (38%).

Ireland

At the present moment there is no requirement to achieve gender parity in either House of the Oireachtas. In 2012 however, the Oireachtas adopted a law encouraging political parties to select at least 30% women candidates and 30% men candidates to contest general elections to the Dáil. This threshold rises to 40% from 2023 onwards. If the quota is not met, political parties will lose 50% of the State funding they receive on an annual basis to run their operations.

Italy

8. Gender is only a requirement for the composition of the electoral lists both for the Chamber and the Senate. If the voters want to express more than one preference the second one should be of a different gender.

Kazakhstan

Mexico

Mexico foresees the parity principle for all the positions of public office. Mexican women have the right to be elected, respecting the parity principle, for all popular election positions, including the Senate. Furthermore, political parties must observe the principle of parity in the nomination of their candidacies. Additionally, regarding the 32 proportional representation Senators, the list of the candidacies must respect the parity principle, and the order of the candidacies must be observing the alternation of men and women in every election. The candidacies of proportional representation federal Deputies must follow the same principle.

Morocco

Juridiquement non, des discussions sont en cours pour coordonner avec le groupe de travail déjà constitué dans la chambre basse ; Dans l'affirmative, existe-t-il une exigence similaire ou un système de quotas pour la chambre basse ?au niveau de la chambre basse, il y a un système de quotas, une liste de 90 sièges est réservée aux femmes et la constitution d’un groupe de travail thématique relatif à la parité et l’égalité.

The Netherlands

Poland

In the case of the Senate and the Sejm, the legislator decided that mechanical steering is not the best guarantee of gender equality. Voters decide who they want to vote for, not politicians.

Romania

The list of candidates must ensure the representation of both genders, but there is no specific gender quota (see article 52 of Law no 208/2015).

Slovenia

There is a gender quota system for the elections to the National Assembly but there is no gender quota system for the elections to the National Council.

Spain

Since 2007, the electoral law provides for a quota system for all elections in Spain, so that no gender can be represented on the lists by more than 60%. In the case of the Lower House, this proportionality must be guaranteed every 5 seats on the lists. In the case of the Senate, the law establishes a less strict rule: "When the candidacies for the Senate are grouped in lists, ..., these lists shall also have a balanced composition of women and men, so that the proportion of women and men is as close as possible to the numerical balance". In practice, the presence of women in the Senate is lower than in the lower house because parties often only include 3 candidates in most constituencies where two are men and only one is a woman. The same effect is frequent for senators elected by regional parliaments because the 60/40 % rule is not so easy to comply with when there are not so many candidates to select from. In any case, for the first time in the current composition of the senate almost 60% are men and 40% women, while in the lower house it is 52.6% men and 47.4% women.

Switzerland

There are no such legal requirements.

Tunisia

Following the 2011 Tunisian revolution, Article 16 of the 2011 electoral law mandated gender parity in elected assemblies. This commitment was later institutionalized in Article 46 of the 2014 Constitution and remained unchanged in Article 51 of the 2022 Constitution.

United Kingdom

There are no gender parity requirements for either chamber.

United States of America

There are no Constitutional or other similar requirements to achieve gender parity in either the lower or second chamber.