Political and operational gender quotas — an eternal debate with Sophie Wotschke

Political and operational gender quotas — an eternal debate with Sophie Wotschke

“We need proactive policies promoting equal opportunities rather than quotas aiming for equality of results.” — Sophie Wotschke

In November 2022 Junos, the young liberals in Austria, elected Sophie Wotschke as their new federal chairperson. Both her deputies are also women, and the executive committee they now chair is as gender balanced as it gets: four women, four men, perfect quota. So perfect one cannot but ask right away: Is this the result of deliberate intervention in the electoral process?

The quick and easy answer: No, it has been the outcome of an entirely free vote. According to Wotschke, Junos never adopted any kind of mandatory quota. PartyParty asked the 24-year-old lawyer-to-be to share her views on the ongoing debate over gender quotas with us.