It won't work without quotas

It is as if you wanted to pass a difficult maths exam but only switched half of the brain on. This is the exact feeling one experiences when one comes across the current list of lower house candidates. Out of the 13 ODS leaders' positions only one is taken up by a woman. Social Democrats have a similar proportion. Even though it was hard to imagine it, it is in fact worse than it was in the parliamentary elections three years ago. The key question is what prevents the women in ODS and ČSSD to get into the leading positions? And what can be done about it?

It is not easy to look for an explanation of what is going on on the Czech political scene. The argument of women not being interested in politics has been heard around for long. The simple examples, however, show what we have long been suspecting – it is not this simple. What rings true more is that the men applying for positions in the lower house have sensed that their female colleagues, often untouched by scandals, present a threat to them. Let's take Central Bohemia for example. Some 16 candidates out of 51 were chosen by the ODS onto the final list. "We chose a non-public agreement over an open competition,"Eva Dundáčková, departing Central Bohemian MP told Respekt. She said the men did not allow the female candidates on top of the list because the "competing women were more convincing and promoted clearer opinions".