Making the California Legislature 50 Percent Female Should Be Easy

The Gender Quotas Used in European Countries Offer a Straightforward Path to Parity—and More Democracy

A few months ago, the new mayor of South Pasadena appointed 18 people to the voluntary local commissions that advise the council in the San Gabriel Valley city.

Routine? Yes, except for one thing. All 18 appointees were women.

The appointments by Mayor Marina Khubesrian might have seemed like a small-town stroke for gender parity in representation. Before the appointments about one-third of all appointees on South Pasadena commissions had been women; after, slightly more than half of all commissioners were women, just like the population of the city itself.

But the …