Using quota’s to achieve descriptive representation in decision—making is one of the hardest measures in affirmative action, and often unpopular. Yet in the last years, numerous polities world wide have grasped electoral quota’s as a means to improve representation of minority groups, with European states such as Belgium and France in the lead.  Today other arenas of decision making that still remain dominated by male decision makers are the target for quota and other hard measures to improve particularly the representation of women, with the proposed measures of the European Union for corporate boards taking a primary place in  media coverage.  This panel will explore the use of quota measures for decision making in other sectors than electoral politics and the experiences of European polities with second- and third generation quota’s for gender balance in bodies such as advisory councils, scientific panels, and business boards of trustees. It aims to compare the public debate and the experiences with implementation from the north and south of Europe and its implications for the discussion of European Union wide measures.

PAPERS

Balance in Advisory Boards: the use of quota's to regulate advisory councils in the EU- Woodward

Gender quota's in Scientific Decision-Making - Husu

Complying with second generation quota's - Holli

Beyond politics- the spread of gender quota to corporate boards - Teigen

Gender squotas: Gendering economic governance in a time of crisis - Walby

Making markets efficient: in defence of regulation of the gender composition of corporate boards - Gonzalez Menéndez and Fagan