Holzleitner Demands Women’s Quota on Electoral Lists

Background: Share of women in the SPÖ has fallen

The background to the demand is developments within her own party. As the report shows, all of the SPÖ’s state party leaders are male. In addition, the share of women in the SPÖ’s National Council club has recently fallen to below 40 percent.

As a result of this drop below the 40-percent mark, an associated funding program has been discontinued. Holzleitner had previously expressed dissatisfaction with the share of women in her own party.

Comparison of parties in the National Council

In a comparison of the parties represented in the National Council, the SPÖ is in the middle of the pack with a share of women of 39 percent. The Greens have the highest share at 56 percent, and the FPÖ has the lowest at just under 23 percent.

Holzleitner belongs to the SPÖ and holds the office of Women’s Minister in the current federal government. With her initiative, she is departing from the line of purely voluntary support for female candidates and is instead demanding a statutorily anchored quota.

The debate over quota regulations is not new in Austria. Various institutions and interest groups have made similar demands in the past. Holzleitner’s initiative could give the debate new momentum.

What a mandatory list quota would mean

A mandatory quota on electoral lists would mean that parties would have to allocate a certain percentage of places to women when drawing up their candidates for National Council elections. Violations could be punished with sanctions up to and including the non-admission of the list.

Reactions from the other parties to the initiative were not yet foreseeable at the time of publication. In particular, the FPÖ as the party with the lowest share of women and the Greens with the highest share of women could take opposing positions in the debate.

Holzleitner had also announced that the exact percentage of the quota would need to be the subject of further discussion. The aim would be to find a realistic but effective threshold that would sustainably increase the share of women in elected bodies.

The initiative comes at a time when several European countries are revising their regulations on gender parity in political representative bodies. Holzleitner’s reference to international experience suggests that she would like to draw on tried-and-tested models.

Whether and when the SPÖ will introduce a concrete draft law on this matter remained initially unclear. The minister spoke only of a prospective change to electoral law.