In Ireland, a 2009 report of the Joint Oireachtas Justice Committee concluded that the “overall masculine image of politics” remains as a powerful as ever, and proposed the introduction of mandatory gender quotas. The report was published earlier this year and it triggered a very intense and ongoing debate in the country.
The 23 women in the Irish Dáil opposed the idea of implementing gender quotas, arguing that this measure would not solve the problem. The National Women's Council, on the other hand, strongly advocated that gender quotas would ensure the equal representation of Irish women.

Given the slow speed by which the number of women in politics is growing - women constitute only 19% of the members of parliaments around the world[1] - more powerful methods to overcome this persistent gender underrepresentation are needed. The electoral system can greatly influence the likelihood of women being elected, and currently an increasing number of countries is introducing various types of gender quotas. According to the Quota Project (www.quotaproject.org) research, half of the countries in the world use electoral quotas for their legislature. At the same time, however, gender quotas are still very debated and face strong resistance in many countries.