Abstract
Women’s political participation is a prerequisite for women’s empowerment and gender equality in society. To increase the number of women participating in political and decision-making processes and consequently becoming an active voice in governmental institutions, many countries, including North Macedonia, have introduced quota systems as an affirmative measure to. Prior to establishing legislated gender quotas in 2002, only three of North Macedonia’s political parties had introduced voluntary political party gender quotas to support women’s political participation. This paper conducts a analysis of the progress of women’s participation in decision-making, since the 2002 legislated quota system in North Macedonia. Additionally, it explores further steps that should be taken into consideration to help overcome the everlasting gender inequality of women’s political participation. It focuses primarily in the executive branch of the government including not only ministerial positions but also positions of mayors and executive board members. To achieve the above objectives, the paper relies on a systematic literature review that synthesizes and selects all existing papers, reports, official documents, and other relevant data.
Keywords: gender equality, women’s empowerment, women’s political participation, affirmative measures, legislated quotas.
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