LESSONS ON GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN’S POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT gender, offering insights into the challenges and questions presented when courts are called on to apply some of these gender equality provisions in practice. 11 In this paper, IFES offers an initial analysis of critical judgments on gender in election decisions, with the expectation that this field of jurisprudence will continue to grow in quantity, range and complexity across the world. For elections and political participation for women, comparative case law provides insight into real-world efforts to operationalize the goal of gender equality espoused by many countries but achieved by almost none. A review of the litigation in this space shows that the argument for gender equality and fairness has been used both for and against the cause of women’s equal participation in politics. In pursuit of a continuing goal of identifying common challenges and identifying emerging issues, this piece provides a preliminary analysis of judicial actions on gender in elections today. Quotas on Trial—Constitutionality and Implementation The primary theme identified in a survey of gender-related cases available in the Election Judgments database is the issue of affirmative actions—corrective, compensatory and promotional measures, including gender quotas, that states have taken to increase the representation of women in politics. Such measures, when applied in accordance with CEDAW, “realize de facto or substantive equality for women, rather than an exception to the norms of nondiscrimination and equality.” 12 These “temporary special measures” may include “recruiting, financially assisting and training women candidates; amending electoral procedures; developing campaigns directed at equal participation; setting numerical goals and quotas; and targeting women for appointment to public positions such as the judiciary or other professional groups that play an essential part in everyday life of all societies.” 13 While temporary special measures have resulted in more women being elected to political office, as the data above indicates, they have been insufficient to achieve gender equality. By 2009, half of the world’s countries used some type of electoral quota for their parliaments. 14 These quotas generally take one of three forms: 1) a reserved-seat quota, which mandates by law that a certain minimum number of seats be set aside in the legislature for women; 2) a legal candidate quota, which regulates the number of women each political party must, as mandated by law, nominate as candidates; or 3) a voluntary party quota, in which individual political parties adopt voluntary quotas. 15 Only the reserved-seat quota guarantees that women occupy the 11 This paper relies on the cases that have been captured in the Election Judgments database, which, to date, include 22 judgments captured using the “gender” filter 12 UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), CEDAW General Recommendation No. 25: Political and Public Life, para 14, 1997, https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/recommendations/General%20recommendation%2025%20(English).pdf 13 CEDAW General Recommendation No. 23 (Political and Public Life), para. 15. 14Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), Inter-Parliamentary Union & Stockholm University, Gender Quotas Database, (2021), https://www.idea.int/data-tools/data/gender-quotas/quotas 15Anisa A. Somani, The Use of Gender Quotas in America: Are Voluntary Party Quotas the Way to Go?, 54 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1451, 1455 (2013), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3477&context=wmlr 7