There are a variety of mechanisms possible to ensure "minority" representation - it say that guardedly as women are in fact the majority!
Note that guaranteed representation for women voters and election of women members are two diff things.
Do we want to
-hive off women's votes to give women dedicated representation -- that is, ensure that women members are elected by women voters only .
or
-ensure that women are elected, by votes cast by any mixture of voters, male or female ?
The following are ways to use districts or ballots to get that...
(thus I am not talking about zippering under list PR.)
"Dave Lowe method" in each district hive off women voters and say they can only vote for women (seems draconian to me)
"Maori districts" have separate set of districts for women and say they can vote for candidates on the ballot of their districts only. men could stand for seats in these districts, but only women voters could vote there.
"Edmonton southside" rep. method -- have multi-member districts and say at least 40 percent of seats in each district will have to go to women candidates - women can win seats through normal election process (whatever that is), but if not enough women are elected that way (using votes of men and women mixed), then men set to be elected are dropped and the women with the most votes are declared elected.
This could be done at overall level - say 40 percent of seats in the legislature must be filled by women. and if not enough women are elected that way (using votes of men and women mixed), then men set to be elected are dropped and the women with the most votes are declared elected.
(this would break with local representation principle so not appealing, even if fair.)
other more-technical options are presented below in excerpt from Electoral Society of Britain publication.
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Minority group (Indigenous) representation
about gender parity (minority representation), here's a survey I have done myself on minority group (Indigenous) representation and the four or so routes to such.
Indigenous representation in Canada - how will they get it?
for Indigenous representation, four methods seem possible:
Affirmative gerrymandering - Nova Scotia ... "Some Canadian provinces have already taken steps to improve the representation of certain minority groups in their provincial legislatures. They have done this by drawing “protected constituencies” that have a specific group as a significant proportion of the population within it, which increases their voting power when electing a representative"
[The majority-minority district would likely not work for women's representation. likely all districts are women-majority districts!]
"Parallel system" - NZ Maori seats
Croatia's "multiple parallel systems"
Croatia uses what might be termed multiple parallel systems, the minority systems using at-large districts, whether electing single or multiple members. two of the minority contests would elect multiple members -- three would elect just one member "the creation of reserved seats for national minorities within the Sabor, the Croatian Parliament. There are eight of these seats, with each assigned to specific minority groups based on the group’s population...."
4th method would be modification of Edmonton southside method described above.
Something as simple as this works to ensure election of women members
-- if only one seat is left open and for fairness sake, it should go to a woman, then a woman gets it, whether ahead in votes or not.
if two or more women still in the running, then all votes still remaining with un-elected male candidates should be transferred as per marked back-up preferences, if any, to ensure the woman who is most popular overall is elected to the seat. (speaking of STV here)
women members would be elected partially by men's votes, in other words.
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Electoral Society of Britain recently published a study of methods to get women representation. (link provided below)
it seems to fudge principle of election of women members with representation of women voters, and speaks of nomination fairness to women as well as election of women members
election of women members discussed in "Reserved seats".
its technical discussion style is likely just for hard-core electoral fanatics:
Quota Mechanisms
-a women-only nation-wide tier [Dave Lowe method?]
-constituencies reserved for women [Maori],
-best loser "Reserving seats guarantees political representation of women in parliament..." [perhaps close to Edmonton southside guarantee?
Non-legislative party quotas [voluntary]
"Party quotas rely on each political party to mandate gender quotas in their candidate lists. ..."
[if one party run women candidates, then others do same]
"There is evidence of voluntary introduction of party quotas influence on other parties to adopt quotas. Table 1 shows how the main political parties in Germany all implemented quotas in the space of 13 years from 1983 following the adoption of a 50% gender quota by the Green Party...."
Legislative quotas [legislated gender equality on party slates]
"Legislative quotas are laws which require a certain percentage of women to be nominated by each political party. They can be mandated via candidate selection and at party list level."
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