Social norms can both work on a positive way and negative one too. It is quite a delicat question as there is not right or wrong answer to this. Yes, when we measure how the social norms affect women and their political participation (from a western perspective) one may conclude that social norms do stand as a handicap in advancing women's political participation, but when we look at things from inside-out... one may have a different picture. Therefore, it is important to first undertand what are these particular norms (because not all social norms are bad, second these social norms are constructed by society and society includes women and men, therefore the process of increasing women's political particiation should be initiated by both these actors. Creating mechanims for awareness and including both men and women in the processes of social and potitical change is critical in advancing women in areas such as politics.
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I think that while quotas are a surefire way to increase the number of women in local or national legislatures, the effort has to be combined with other measures such as trainings and workshops to support politically active women. This will allow women to illustrate how effective they can be as politicians and in future elections could permit their being elected outside the quota itself. At the same time, if quotas are simply used as a "quick fix" for women's participation, they may be more limiting than helpful.