Gender Quota and Local Political Parties: Varieties of Implementation in Italy

After the 2001 and 2003 Constitutional amendments which legalized the adoption of affirmative action policies to promote gender equality at regional and national levels, Italy introduced electoral gender quotas by law. The first and major interventions occurred at the local level, where in 2001 quotas were adopted for regional and municipal elections. Since then, the Italian parties gradually shifted from a voluntary quota system to a regulatory one. How did the legislative gender quotas affect the party processes of recruitment, selection, and list preparation? And how do Italian parties interpret the issue of equal representation? Is it merely a bureaucratic procedure or a real commitment to enhance female representation? The chapter studies how the major political parties organized the processes of candidate recruitment, selection, and list preparation for municipal elections, with a special focus on the case of the Province of Trento. The research results evidence degrees of variation between parties with regard to their selection mechanisms, and in their interpretations of the roles women play within the party. It is argued that the party’s culture and organizational structure are the key factors, which, taken together, affect the effective implementation of party gender quotas.