The concept of critical mass as applied to women’s political representation, and the UN targets that have flowed from it, have played an important role in supporting countries in the adoption of gender quotas in various spheres of the public and private sectors. According to data provided by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU, 2015), the global average of women in national parliaments has nearly doubled in the past 20 years from 11.3% in 1995 to 22.1% in 2015 (a rise of 10.8 points). However, recent socio-political studies (Childs and Krook, 2008), as well as IPU data (IPU, 2015) confirm that the achievement of a critical mass is no longer seen as the sole target of efforts to bring about gender-equal participation in positions of leadership.