Over the past two decades, over one hundred countries have adopted gender quotas in one form or another, making them somewhat of a political phenomenon. Not surprisingly, this has resulted in the development of a rich and broad body of work on the subject, making gender quotas a quickly emerging sub-field within feminist political science. The existing research has however overwhelmingly concentrated on two themes: he introduction of quotas and the outcomes. Although this work has been extensive and fruitful, it has largely overlooked a key stage in the process: implementation. It is in this phase that change is enacted through the reform of well-established and often informal recruitment processes. This paper examines this underexplored area through an empirical analysis of the Irish case. In 2012, the Republic of Ireland introduced legislative quotas, which require the four main political parties to run no less than 30 percent male or female candidates in the 2016 general election. Focusing on the implementation of gender quotas in the Irish context allows us to interrogate an underexplored and crucial aspect of the reform process but also enables us to examine new areas of concern. Adopting a feminist institutionalist (FI) perspective, this paper also seeks to explore what attempts at formal reform tell us about the operation of both gender and institutions. It is through the disturbance of taken for granted patterns that institutional dynamics become explicit and emerge through informal practices and narratives of resistance. As institutions of disruption, quotas can therefore expose the ‘hidden life of institutions’ and the generally concealed operation of gender and power within political parties. An understanding of these dynamics is a large, if not primary concern for FI theorists. Thus this paper concludes by suggesting further research that seeks to connect gender, informal institutions and change.
