Around the world, women's rights activists have deployed some form of the argument that “democracy without women is not democracy” while lobbying for gender quotas (Piscopo and Shames Reference Piscopo and Shames2020). Such a campaign, while often successful in the push for quotas to ensure women's political representation in government, oversimplifies what inclusion can achieve for women. While equal rights for all citizens are central to democratic governance, “the idea that a democracy should include women in government has shifted in recent years and is now more commonly referenced as its transformed if/then version” (Valdini 2019, 47): if more women are included in the policy-making process, then both that process and its outcome will be better and more democratic. However, this expectation has not come to pass. Indeed, increases in women's political representation have coincided with global democratic backsliding.Footnote ¹

This review brings together two recently published books that explore the context and contours of institutional designs for increasing women's presence in elected office. Melody E. Valdini's The Inclusion Calculation: Why Men Appropriate Women's Representation and Louise K. Davidson-Schmich's Gender Quotas and Democratic Participation: Recruiting Candidates for Elective Offices in Germany offer guidance on why the proliferation of gender quotas and more women in office have not resulted in more robust democracies.

These books examine the processes surrounding increases in women's political representation. Each project underscores that while gender quotas may be able to increase the number of women in office, they do not result in a fundamental rewiring of the political space in which they operate.Footnote ² These books are impressive contributions to the field, employing novel analytical lenses and empirics to shed light on a subject of sustained academic and policy interest.

Through a deep dive into Germany's political process, Gender Quotas and Democratic Participation examines the extent to which gender quotas shift the ways that women relate to politics more generally. Davidson-Schmich masterfully combines survey data with qualitative interviews, going beyond the tip of the iceberg (the number of women who hold elected office) to examine how quotas affect the entire process of mobilization into politics, from who joins political parties (and why) to the incentives facing gatekeepers in the process of candidate recruitment.

Davidson-Schmich's work produces a number of important findings about gender and politics in Germany, with implications for other settings. The book's primary conculsion is that gender quotas cannot restructure the entire political process. Quotas impact the later stages of the political process (such as becoming an elected official), but they do not significantly affect earlier stages (such as joining a political party). The book's qualitative analysis provides additional evidence for the adage “the personal is political,” demonstrating that women's disproportionate share of household labor is an impediment to their involvement in politics. Relatedly, Davidson-Schmich discusses how the tenor and timing of political business deters women from participating. She notes, “clever slogans, eye-catching paraphernalia, and entertaining videos may inspire women to look into attending a meeting of the local party organization, but if such get-togethers are held in masculinized spaces filled mainly with men, or if they drag on and on as male members repeat each other's comments, it is unlikely that interested women will continue attending the party functions in their own community” (230).

In addition to identifying attitudinal and cultural barriers to women's participation, Gender Quotas and Democratic Participation contributes to the literature on effective quota design. Davidson-Schmich's research design facilitates comparison of parties operating in the same political system to see how the proportion of women called for by various party quotas impacts their effectiveness. Based on this within-country comparison, she finds that parity quotas have the greatest impact (208). This finding builds on other assessments of the “critical mass” theory of women's representation, which has inspired the adoption of 30% quotas around the world (see Childs and Krook Reference Childs and Krook2006; Dahlerup Reference Dahlerup2006; Merry Reference Merry2016).

This dissection of Germany's political process provides a replicable framework for intersectional analysis, to examine how class, religion, and race affect women's involvement with politics. Davidson-Schmich asserts that “understanding how the many eligible citizens are narrowed into a few candidates,” is necessary for understanding which viewpoints are lost along the way, and which “ kinds of women …are likely to be sitting at the table when public policies are made and the sorts of ‘women's interests’ they may articulate” (7).

In contrast to Davidson-Schmich's single-country focus, Valdini's The Inclusion Calculation presents a cross-national analysis, including country case studies from sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and Southeast Asia to probe the conditions under which political parties will increase women's political representation. In this approachable text (mind the photo captions—a few elicited an audible laugh from me), Valdini argues that women's political representation is “an expression of the preferences of elites rather than voters” (147). Building from the assumption that the political elite are rational opportunists committed to maintaining their power, Valdini advances the notion of an “inclusion calculation” that elites use to weigh and measure the relative risks and benefits of including women. The “inclusion calculation” that Valdini describes asserts “the benefit men can receive from women's inclusion,” which varies across time and context “is a primary driver of women's descriptive representation” (8). She argues that in circumstances in which the party's image needs rehabilitating, the association of women with good governance, honesty, and democracy makes them appealing to political parties to run as candidates.

The Inclusion Calculation describes two circumstances in which male party elites’ “inclusion calculation” may produce increases in women's political representation: corruption scandals and periods of democratic erosion. In developing this argument, Valdini expands on the literature on crises and women's political representation, which often focuses on the degree to which gender norms shift in the course of conflict, opening up new opportunities to mobilize politically (Hughes Reference Hughes2009; Hughes and Tripp Reference Hughes and Tripp2015; Krook, O'Brien, and Swip Reference Krook, O'Brien and Swip2010; Tripp Reference Tripp2015). Valdini suggests that it is not merely women's postcrisis recognition of their own abilities but also the incentives facing party brokers that drive increases in women's political representation. The book echoes work on the “glass cliff” in the private sector, which finds that women often rise to leadership positions in times of crises (Ryan and Haslam Reference Ryan and Alexander Haslam2005). This book also lays the groundwork for future research examining whether female politicians are disproportionately punished for engaging in corrupt or undemocratic behavior. In addition to advancing academia's understanding of gender quotas, The Inclusion Calculation is a contribution to the literature on hybrid regimes, stealth authoritarianism, and the co-optation of democratic norms and institutions by undemocratic actors (see Cheeseman and Klaas Reference Cheeseman and Klaas2018; Gandhi Reference Gandhi2008; Varol Reference Varol2015).

Both of these books underscore the central role of political party incentives in determining the timing and extent of women's political representation (see also Caul Reference Caul1999; Teele Reference Teele2018; Weeks Reference Weeks2018). When party power brokers see either a clear advantage to the inclusion of women or anticipate a significant sanction for not including women, we can expect surges in women's political representation. By “bringing the political party back in,” these books fill a gap in the literature on the adoption of gender quotas. Davidson-Schmich and Valdini both include the adoption as well as the functioning of voluntary party quotas in their analyses; this inclusion is significant, as some of the seminal studies of quota adoption only examine legislated quotas (Kang and Tripp Reference Kang and Tripp2018; Hughes et al. Reference Hughes, Paxton, Clayton and Zetterberg2017).

In turn, both Davidson-Schmich and Valdini address the uncomfortable relationship between traditional gender norms—which portray women as morally superior altruists vis-à-vis their male counterparts—and the objectives of women's rights activists. At the same time that some of these positive gendered stereotypes have promoted women's inclusion, they are stereotypes, nonetheless, which circumscribe women's autonomy and further gender-essentialist attitudes.

Both books outline agendas for future research. As noted, Valdini's work convincingly articulates the ways in which women's political representation can be used to obscure poor governance and antidemocratic behavior. However, The Inclusion Calculation generally skirts the fact that parties have adopted the tactic of “feminization by association” only relatively recently (Bush Reference Bush2011; Krook Reference Krook2006; Norris and Dahlerup Reference Norris and Dahlerup2015). This suggests the opportunity for future work on when and why women came to be seen as a potential political band-aid for troubled governments. Additionally, the book lays the groundwork for development of a formal model that delineates the components of the “inclusion calculation” that the book describes.

Gender Quotas and Democratic Participation similarly leaves open questions about its theoretical framework's scope conditions. Davidson-Schmich's choice of a strongly democratic state without a history of recent civil conflict for her pathway case study does not reflect many of the countries with a gender quota. Considering the degree to which her findings travel to contexts in which party politics are not as well articulated and competitive provides a valuable pathway for future study. Davidson-Schmich asserts that her pathway case design helps control for interparty ideological variation; examining the ways in which party platforms or ideological bent influence gatekeepers’ perceptions of valuable candidates may help the book's theory travel geographically and temporally.

Both books also raise questions about women's agency. In focusing on the incentives of party elites and the structural constraints governing women's time, these authors produce critical insights about the nature of women's political representation. However, they deemphasize the role of women's rights groups in pressing for change. The authors acknowledge this point to a degree, but their focus is on formal processes and policymakers. In the future, scholars might consider how women's organizing interacts with political parties’ incentives (see also Teele Reference Teele2018).

Finally, both Gender Quotas and Democratic Participation and The Inclusion Calculation discuss the implications of their findings for policy makers. Davidson-Schmich makes numerous recommendations, including small changes such as cues to shift the tenor of party meetings and recommendations for parity quotas, and sweeping changes like more equitable division of labor in the home and cultural changes within the party. In turn, Valdini notes that “it seems that the path of least resistance to women's power should include a strategy that somehow benefits existing (male) elites” and suggests that, as uncomfortable as it may be, “a potential winning strategy” for women seeking political office is “emphasizing their stereotypical feminine traits, assuming that the political context is appropriate” (149). Both authors also caution against two interrelated assumptions: that women in office will necessarily be effective representatives for all women, and that they will even be interested in advancing women's rights and interests. Including these tangible tactics and considerations is a critical aspect of “bridging the gap” between academics and policy makers to produce better political outcomes for women and more democratic governance.