Louise K. Davidson-Schmich, "Implementation of Political Party Gender Quotas: Evidence from the German Länder 1990-2000," Party Politics, 12 (March, 2006), 211-232.

First Paragraph:
Both the use of gender quotas to increase women's political representation in legislatures around the world and the academic study of this practice have expanded in recent years. Scholars have identified three main categories of gender quotas (Global Database, 2003). First, 14 countries have adopted 'constitutional quotas' in which the country's constitution mandates a particular kind of gender representation. For example, Uganda's requires one female representative from every district of the country. Second, 31 countries now have 'election law quotas' which utilize rules governing elections to ensure some representation for women. Third, and of interest to readers of this journal, 130 parties in 61 countries have adopted 'political party quotas' in which parties set out rules or targets for the gender balance of the individuals they place in office. Party quotas are different from constitutional quotas and election law quotas in that they lack the sanctioning power of the state. Parties simply promise to improve the gender balance of their elected officials, but there are no official punishments for failing to live up to these promises.

Figures and Tables:
Figure 1. Implementation of party gender quotas: Average across 16 states
Table 1. Frequency with which quotas were met
Figure 2. Average % of state legislative seats held by women 1990-2000
Table 2. Virtuous and vicious cycles
Table 3. Bivariate correlations
Table 4. OLS results

First Paragraph of Discussion:
This article has shown that, in the German case, political party quotas did make a difference, despite their voluntary nature. Women's representation at the federal and state level in Germany doubled over the course of the first decade that quotas were in effect. Furthermore, the findings presented here suggest that just as party ideology shapes the willingness to adopt gender quotas, it also makes a difference in terms of whether parties actually implement their quotas. Left-wing parties, especially new-left parties, set the highest quotas and came much closer to meeting them than did the rightwing Christian Democrats, whose women's quorum was more modest.