The Variation of Quota Designs and Their Origins in Latin America (1991–2015)

Differences in the ability of quotas to increase the proportion of women in parliaments have often been associated with dissimilar policy characteristics, such as the proportion of nominations reserved for women, the specification of ranking systems, and the presence of sanctions for non-compliance. Although these institutional dissimilarities have been generally noted, specifications of gender quota policies have rarely been the focus of scholarly work. This chapter uses the cases of gender quota adoptions (and revisions) in Latin America to comprehensively explore the different specifications of legislated candidate quotas in the region. Mainly, it contributes to understand the different configurations of gender quotas and explains why these differences arise.