European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE)
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European Institute for Gender Equality, Gedimino pr. 16, LT-01103 Vilnius, Lithuania
+370 5 215 7444
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24/02/2023
The Gender-sensitive Parliaments (GSP) tool is a self-assessment tool developed by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) to help parliaments at any level (European, national, regional) measure how well they respond to, and represent, the different needs and interests of diverse groups of women and men.
The GSP tool questionnaire is divided into five “Areas” dealing with different aspects of gender-sensitivity in relation to parliaments:
Area 1 – Women and men have equal opportunities to ENTER the parliament
Area 2 – Women and men have equal opportunities to INFLUENCE the parliament’s working procedures
Area 3 – Women’s interests and concerns have adequate SPACE on parliamentary agenda
Area 4 – The parliament produces gender-sensitive LEGISLATION
Area 5 – The parliament complies with its SYMBOLIC function
Each Area is sub-divided into “Domains” that cover different aspects within the Area. Each domain includes indicators measuring relevant issues. Full details of the questionnaire and how responses are scored can be found here.
Four versions of the questionnaire exist, tailored to support the self-assessment process at each of the different levels at which parliaments are convened (European, national, regional with legislative power and regional without legislative power). A shorter “general” version can also be completed by external users, such as media representatives, general public or NGOs. The four versions designed for use within parliaments vary only slightly in terms of specific questions that are included/excluded. The general version includes fewer questions and excludes some domains for which the indicators rely on information that is unlikely to be available outside the parliament.
The GSP indicators presented in EIGE’s Gender Statistics Database cover all EU national parliaments and the European Parliament. There have been two collections of data for the European Parliament and all national parliaments of EU Member States, both using the general version of the questionnaire. The first was undertaken in May-July 2019 and the second in May-August 2023. Data were collected by national researchers who consulted with relevant national contacts in cases where information was not readily available from public sources.
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Unit of measurement
Most questions in the GSP tool questionnaire require yes/no answers or selection from a number of fixed options.
Other questions ask for the numbers of women (W) and men (M) in relevant positions within the parliament (e.g. members, leaders, chairs of committees). Related indicators utilise the share of each gender and are scored on this basis. In most cases, relevant data are already collected by EIGE as part of their work on women and men in decision-making and can be found in EIGE’s Gender Statistics database. Wherever possible, in both 2019 and 2023, relevant questions were filled using this data to ensure consistency in the approach and avoid duplication of effort.
Concepts and definitions
Gender budgeting: A gender-based assessment of budgets, incorporating a gender perspective at all levels of the budgetary process, and restructuring revenues and expenditures so as to promote gender equality.
Gender quotas: A gender quota is an instrument aimed at accelerating the achievement of gender-balanced participation and representation by establishing a defined proportion (percentage) or number of places or seats to be filled by or allocated to women and/or men, typically under certain rules or criteria. Such quotas can be legislative or voluntary. Legislative candidate quotas regulate the gender composition of electoral candidate lists and are binding by law for all political parties in the election; they are mandated either through national constitutions or by electoral legislation. Sanctions for non-conformity, such as financial penalty or rejection of candidate lists, can be put in place to deter political parties from violating a legislated gender quota. Voluntary party quotas are adopted by individual parties for their own candidate lists and are usually enshrined in party statutes and rules. The data collected in 2019 and 2023 covers only legislated quotas.
Major political parties: Major political parties are those with at least 5 % of seats in the national parliament (either the upper or lower house in bicameral systems). A list of the major political parties in each Member State is available here: https://eige.europa.eu/sites/default/files/wmid_mapping_polpart.pdf
National gender equality bodies: Equality bodies are independent organisations that work to promote equality and combat discrimination in relation to one, some, or all of the grounds of discrimination covered by EU law, i.e. gender, race and ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief and disability. EU equal treatment legislation requires Member States to set up an equality body. Most EU Member States have implemented the Gender Equal Treatment Directives.
Symbolic representation: Gender-sensitivity of the social meanings, perceptions, messages, and physical spaces conveyed by parliaments.
Women's caucus:Women’s caucuses or working/reference groups are mechanisms created within national parliaments to strengthen cooperation among women engaged in political life. Such caucuses can bring women parliamentarians together across party lines in effective alliances around a common goal.
These, and other descriptions of key terms and concepts, can be found in Annex 2 of EIGE’s Report on Gender equality in national parliaments across the EU and the European Parliament.
The statistical unit is a chamber of parliament. For countries with a bicameral parliament, data are collected separately for the lower and upper houses.
The statistical population is the EU Member States and the European Parliament, with composition of the EU as per the data collection date (i.e. including the UK in 2019 but not in 2023).
European Unions.
April/July 2019 and May/August 2023.
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For individual indicators, results are presented as one of the following units:
Gender sensitivity ratings both overall and by Area presented as scores out of 100.
The reference period is April-July 2019 and May-August 2023
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There is no formal release calendar. Data are published as soon as possible after each data collection.
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Gender sensitivity ratings (scores by Area and overall) and results for selected indicators (focused on those that can be readily visualised in charts or data tables) are publicly available from a dedicated entry point of EIGE’s Gender Statistics Database.
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No regular news releases.
Relevant publications can be found on the Gender-sensitive Parliaments page of EIGE’s website, including the following publications:
Data on Gender-sensitive Parliaments (GSP) are published under a dedicated entry point of EIGE’s Gender Statistics Database.
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The methodology used to collect data for the GSP tool questionnaire is described in the document "Description of indicators and scoring model", available at this link.
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Data collection in both 2019 and 2023was implemented through desk research. Where information was not readily available from public sources, information was sought from relevant national contacts.
Researchers were provided with comprehensive guidelines on the intention of each question and the types of answers required and were also asked to provide metadata with supporting evidence (e.g. links to online sources) and explanations. The data collected were subject to an extensive quality assurance process to ensure that responses were comprehensive and relevant to the guidelines provided. In both 2019 and 2023 there may be differences in the way some questions were interpreted across countries. As far as possible, the QA process attempted to ensure coherence across countries in the approach but it was not always possible to obtain sufficient information to challenge or justify changing some responses so that some different interpretations may remain.
Overall, the data from Gender-sensitive Parliaments (GSP) tool can be considered of good quality, collected from reliable sources and with careful application of a common methodology.
The tool is designed as a self-assessment exercise for parliaments; it supports the assessment of the gender-sensitivity of elected bodies at regional, national, and the European level by considering the presence, roles, and positions of women and men across the organisation together with the working procedures and practices of the parliament and the outputs it produces.
All internal staff, including administrative staff and elected members, can benefit from the assessment, which highlights areas in which gender equality can be improved. The users of the data collected for the GSP data collection include – but are not limited to – members of parliament, parliamentary leaders, dedicated gender equality bodies, women’s caucuses, political parties, and other stakeholders who have the power and interest to foster a greater participation of women in political decision-making and the implementation of a gender-sensitive parliament. The tool is also meant to be used to carry out regular self-assessments, in order to monitor changes in gender-sensitivity over time.
Other target groups that may find the tool useful include civil society organisations that can use this tool to support their awareness-raising and lobby activities regarding gender equality in parliaments and within political parties. Also, academic researchers and scholars interested in the topic of parliament gender-sensitivity can use the 'general' version of the tool for case studies on parliaments and as research material on gender and politics, and gender and institutional transformation. The external actors will not be able to assess all of the included indicators since some of them require internal assessment within the parliaments. Nevertheless, the 'General' version of the tool can be used to pursue collaboration with parliamentary members, bodies, and parties, and to actively advocate for gender equality in political decision-making.
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The completeness of the GSP data depends on the extent to which parliaments openly publish, or are willing to share, information. Any important gaps in the data are detailed in relevant methodological reports (2019 and 2023).
Overall accuracy of the data collected has been ensure through the quality assurance process described under point 11, (Quality management).
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The GSP indicators presented in the Gender Statistics Database have been collected using the “general” version of the questionnaire through desk research and consultation of national contacts. The quality assurance process aimed to ensure consistent application of guidelines but some differences in the way that national researchers interpreted certain questions may remain (see section 11.1).
Inherent institutional differences between national parliaments exist and should be considered when making comparisons across countries. This is especially important when comparing unicameral versus bicameral parliaments.
The questionnaires used for the 2019 and 2023 data collections are broadly the same but there are a number of small differences to the wording of certain questions that impact on comparability. For some further questions there may also have been a change in the way that the guidelines were interpreted from a quality assurance perspective so that checks were more or less strict in terms of what constituted an appropriate response. In combination, it means that the 2019 and 2023 data are not fully comparable and are consequently presented under separate sub-themes in EIGE’s database,
Where relevant, data from EIGE’s data collection on women and men in decision-making, published on EIGE’s Gender Statistics Database, were used to fill questions in the GSP questionnaire. The data are, therefore, fully coherent.
The indicators from the Gender Sensitive Parliament (GSP) tool are internally coherent. Linked sub-questions are only taken into account when an appropriate response has been provided to the primary question.
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There is no fixed revision schedule.
The GSP data were compiled through desk research using public available data sources, including EIGE’s Gender Statistics Database, which was used to fill questions related to the gender balance in parliamentary bodies. Relevant data sources for each Domain can be found in documentation entitled "Description of indicators and scoring model" at this link.
Where information was not publicly available, attempts were made to collect data through consultation of national contacts.
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The data have been collected using the “general” version of the questionnaire, which was completed by national researchers through desk research. Where information was not publicly available, information was gathered (when possible) through direct consultation of appropriate national contacts.
Data validation procedures have been described at point 11 (Quality management).
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