Countries where women’s representation in parliament is greatest - such as China, Bangladesh and Pakistan, for example- generally rely on legal gender quotas. The experience of Timor-Leste, the Asian country with the highest share of women in parliament in 2016, is instructive - following the introduction of a 25% female candidate quota in 2006, and the later extension of the quota to 33% in 2011, the female share of seats in the national parliament jumped from 25% in the 2001 election to 29.2% in 2007 and to 38.5% in the election in 2012 (IPU, 2017). However, some of the countries where women’s political representation is relatively high have not adopted legal gender quotas. Instead, some rely on voluntary gender quotas and/or targets adopted by political parties, as in the Philippines, or on the promotion of women by the state, as in Viet Nam.