This article assesses the pre-adoption, adoption, implementation and impact of
party parity penalties established in 2002 to promote gender equality in the National
Assembly. The analysis argues that while the penalties were implemented and
increased over the years and had some success in enhancing women’s numerical
representation, from 12.3% of all MPs in 2002 to 38.7% in 2017, rather than
being “more than meets the eye,” the parity sanctions were actually far less. The
limited scope and authority of the parity penalties and the gender-biased norms of
key gatekeepers and political elites in the political parties and the high courts have
circumscribed the extent of the progress in women’s numerical representation and
the quality of that representation; women MPs in the National Assembly still remain
marginalized in a variety of ways in comparison with their male counterparts. Thus,
the outcome of the party parity sanctions, in GEPP terms, is “gender accommodation”
over “transformation.”