The 2024 elections were arguably a disappointment for women’s political representation. The percentage of women in the DPRI-RI reached 22.1%: an increase of only 1.2 percentage points from 2019, and below the 30% candidate quota for women. Studies point to high campaign costs, ballot-positioning, patriarchal attitudes to explain the limited success of quotas in increasing women’s representation (Aspinall et al. 2021; Prihatini 2019; Perdana and Hillman 2022; White et al. 2024). Less explored are how individual women experience quotas, and the way quotas shape the inequitable incorporation of women in Indonesia’s electoral system. Research with 24 female candidates contesting the DPRD-Kota Medan elections in 2024 shows how candidate quotas create demands for female participation, yet more often party elites benefit from their campaigns. If becoming a candidate does not benefit female candidates, yet extracts significant costs, can quotas be considered a positive policy, even given (marginal) increases in female representation?