Following news that the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru will now include legally binding gender quotas as part of their cooperation agreement which sets out ~50 policy areas where the two parties will work together, leading national equality body publishes new briefing which indicates the benefits of quotes to ensure diverse representation.

This briefing, published here by Women’s Equality Network (WEN), provides an overview on the use and evidence around quotas for other protected characteristics and underrepresented groups, including quotas for racial, ethnic, national or religious minorities, for young people and for disabled people.

It also looks at the impact of quotas on people who experience intersecting disadvantage, such as women from ethnic minority backgrounds. It shows that gender quotas tend to benefit women from dominant backgrounds more than women from minority backgrounds and that quota systems need to be designed carefully to ensure diverse representation, with intersectional embedded quotas emerging as global best practice.

Wales has been a leader on equal representation in politics since 2003, when the Senedd became the first legislature in the world to achieve gender parity. But this has been hugely dependent on the electoral success of the parties that used positive action such as All Women Shortlists to improve representation, rather than through measures initiated by the Senedd itself.

To further promote varied representation, WEN Wales worked alongside 21 organisations including Electoral Reform Society Cymru, Race Council Cymru and EYST Wales (Ethnic Minorities & Youth Support Team) to launch the Diverse5050 campaign.

The campaign garnered the backing of 17,000 supporters with a key aim to encourage the use of quotas to promote gender parity and wider diversity amongst elected representatives.

The campaign had three main goals which asked parties to:

1. Publish party diversity plans,

2. Commit to collecting and publishing data on the diversity of candidates and elected
representatives in the 2021 Senedd elections and 2022 Local Government elections,

3. Make manifesto commitments for 50:50 gender balance alongside increasing diversity of representation of LGBT+ people, Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds and disabled people in the Senedd through positive action to ensure that the Senedd is reflective of the population it serves.

The commitment to implement gender quotas into law is a ground-breaking moment for this campaign. WEN Wales strongly believes that diverse and equal representation needs to be legally bound into Wales’ electoral system and this new pledge is a historic step in achieving this.

The organisation emphasises however that gender equality is not enough and feels more needs to be done if we are to see a Senedd that truly reflects the Welsh population with greater representation for Black, Asian and minority ethnic women, disabled women, and LGBT women.

Evelyn James, Diverse5050 Campaign Manager at WEN Wales comments:

“We are delighted by the announcement that there will be legally binding gender quotas in the Labour/Plaid Cymru co-operation agreement – this is a historic moment. Quotas have always been a key ask of the Diverse5050 campaign coalition and represents a huge step forward for guaranteeing gender equality in the Senedd for years to come.”

“Now we must continue our fight to ensure further representation, hence this evidence based briefing document. All of the 21 organisations behind the Diverse5050 campaign want to see diversity quotas or strong positive measures to include all underrepresented groups in our politics. It took 20 years for a Black, Asian, or minority ethnic woman to be elected to the
Senedd and we cannot wait another 20 years for more to join her.”

Catherine Fookes, Director of WEN Wales said:

“Whilst this is an incredible step towards equal representation, there is still much work to be done. Quotas should be seen as a tool to break down some of the barriers that prevent women, disabled people, Black, Asian and minority ethnic people and people from the LGBTQ+ community becoming politicians. We believe quotas can help us advance towards a true meritocracy, rather than being an obstacle to it.”

“WEN believes quotas can help us strengthen our democracy in Wales and makes space for those currently not represented in politics.”

Join WEN Wales and support our work. Read the briefing in English here and Welsh here.