Yesterday, India’s upper house approved a quota for women lawmakers serving in India’s parliament.  The bill was certainly not without controversy, as it took 14 years to pass and involved a small hissy fit by some of the lawmakers yesterday.  (“[S]even lawmakers were suspended for causing a disturbance Monday by tearing up the bill and throwing it at the chairman.”)  Even so, the bill’s approval is a big step towards greater gender equality in Indian government.

So would something like this be appropriate in the U.S.?  Gender quotas (requirements that a certain number of women stand for election, or a certain number of seats be filled by women) have been around for some time now, but we in the States seem to be content with an incrementalist approach.  That slow-and-steady strategy has produced a legislative body of only about 16% women (in 2007).  Is that really ok with everyone?

Absent a constitutional amendment, quotas would no doubt spawn an enormous number of legal headaches.  (For instance, how could such laws be reconciled with the Equal Protection Clause, as in Bakke, or the First Amendment?)  But putting those aside for a moment, why couldn’t we adopt a quota system?  As it turns out, there are a few reasons:  Americans are pretty averse to quota systems generally, quota systems in other countries are often manipulated or go unenforced, and there is worry that quotas will only perpetuate the stereotype of “female weakness.”  See Nancy Millar, Envisioning a U.S. Government That Isn’t 84% Male, 62 U. Miami L. Rev. 129, 138 (2007-2008).  Tokenism probably is a legitimate concern.  Still, at the end of the day, there would be more female voices in Washington, and that can’t be an entirely bad thing for women.

I realize I’m coming late to the party on this issue, but I would conclude that we probably don’t need to implement the quota system in the U.S. just yet.  Still, it would be interesting to see someone — particularly a male legislator — introduce a bill proposing such a quota.  For whatever reason, the troubling dearth of female representation in Washington has become less of an issue in recent years, perhaps due to “feel-good” spillover effects from Obama’s election.  Proposing a quota would certainly bring the issue back to the fore, and make American votes consider putting someone other than just another old guy into office.

-Michael