| Abstract [eng] |
Gender equality is one of EU’s fundamental values promoted not only in the social and economic spheres, but also in political decision-making, where women still participate to a lesser extent. That is why the EU encourages its member states to take action and propose strategies, which seek to improve gender balance in political leadership positions. One of the tools recommended by the EU is electoral gender quotas, which are widely used in European democracies and considered to be effective in bringing more women into the process of decision-making. However, gender quotas are rarely used in Lithuania (the only political party that formally applies this tool is the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania). This raises the question of why gender quotas are not a widespread solution to gender imbalance problems in Lithuania, despite active promotion by the EU and the proven effectiveness of such measures in other member states. The aim of this thesis is to examine the implementation of electoral gender quotas in Lithuania, both at the national law level and within the individual political parties currently represented in the national parliament (Seimas). The empirical part of this work is composed of two parts: analysis of bills of law amendments that sought to consolidate gender quotas in national law and analysis of individual parties’ positions on gender quotas acquired by the method of qualitative interviews with nine representatives of seven different political parties and four experts on gender equality. Such analysis allows to identify the primary factors that influenced the decision of Lithuanian political elite to refrain from supporting attempts to implement gender quotas in national law, as well as to define the reasons why political parties are hesitant to formalize gender quotas in their individual statutes. Analysis of bills of law amendments (proposed from the year 2001 to 2020) that aimed to solidify gender quotas in electoral lists of all Lithuanian political parties and boards of state-owned companies indicates two main reasons, why these initiatives did not garner enough support from members of Seimas. Firstly, gender quotas are not compatible with most of the Lithuanian political parties’ ideologies, which is why the only ones that supported gender quotas were the members of Social Democratic Party of Lithuania – the most left-leaning party in Lithuania. Secondly, gender imbalance in politics was not seen as an important political issue that required changes in the national law. On the contrary, the main argument against gender quotas was that Lithuania is a progressive enough country, where women do not require special measures to be able to occupy leadership positions. Analysis of qualitative interviews with politicians and experts demonstrates a more detailed view, why political parties are not supportive of formalized gender quotas. Five main factors are identified. Firstly, political parties lack either active groups of gender quota advocates within the party or compelling enough pressure to take action from non-governmental organizations. Secondly, with the absence of a solid leader, who would be willing to include the question of gender quotas in the political agenda, the problem of gender imbalance in Lithuanian politics is currently seen as of secondary importance. Thirdly, the leaders of political parties may be unwilling to introduce gender quotas within the party if they fear causing dissatisfaction of rank-and-file party members. Fourthly, political parties are aware that male candidates are more popular among Lithuanian voters and therefore see gender quotas as something that could diminish their chances of winning elections. Fifthly, political parties fear that in order to comply with formalized gender quotas they would be required to artificially seek out women candidates, who are generally seen as less qualified or less willing to take on leadership roles than their male counterparts. |
