Women of the world are being celebrated on International Women’s Day 8th March 2009 by International IDEA under the theme Translating Commitments into Action: Realities for Women to Access Positions of Power and Decision Making. Not only are we celebrating the milestones and gains made to date but importantly, re-affirm the need for women to be heard at all levels of decision making – and for the politics of accountability that ensures this!
The call for action to “…overcome gender disparities, discrimination and obstacles faced by women to attain at least 30 per cent of female participation at all levels in the public and political sphere…” has been made earlier by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Declaration and Action Plan, and the third Millennium Development Goal. Indeed, significant progress has already been made towards increasing the level of women’s participation but progress is slow and uneven. Women continue to face obstacles in the political arena and are clearly under-represented at all levels of decision making around the world, be it at national or local levels. In some instances even the small gains made have been eroded, thus, increasing women’s political participation and representation requires more robust measures to be implemented.
Increasing the level of political participation and representation of women in positions of power and decision making seldom happens by some evolutionary miracle. Rather, it is accelerated by a range of strategies on democracy building that transform the unequal power relationship between women and men in order to empower women.
Quotas on their own cannot guarantee an increase in women’s representation. Combinations of quotas and electoral systems have proved to be the best means of accelerating women’s entry into positions of power and decision making. In its report, Designing for Equality: Best fit, medium-fit and non-favourable combinations of electoral systems and gender quotas, International IDEA explores an array of possible options.
With women elected to 44 of the 80 seats in parliament – the highest percentage of women elected to parliament in the world – the September 2008 elections in Rwanda proved to be a landmark. In fact, this was an increase on the 2003 elections when women also took a large number of seats. Though affirmative action or special measures such as quotas may remain a controversial issue, the results of the 2003 and 2008 elections in Rwandan serve as a good example of the impact of such measures. Further, the experiences captured from the 23 countries that have attained at least 30 per cent women’s representation in legislative/parliamentary positions bear testimony to the impact of affirmative action.
However, affirmative action measures may not be sufficient by themselves. Sensitization campaigns directed at the general public to promote the participation and representation of women that are organized by governments, civil society and community based organizations, political parties and NGOs can help. Much can also be attributed to the type of electoral system used in each country, coupled with the intra-party democracy processes, especially the “secret garden” for the identification, selection and nomination of candidates.
Other key determinants for achieving a high level of women’s participation and representation include societal attitudes towards women’s leadership, a politically conducive climate, political parties’ systems and structures, the electoral legislation and system, empowerment of women, political will and the willingness to take special measures to increase women’s participation and representation.
Political parties remain the real gatekeepers to the advancement of women in politics: it is at the political party level therefore, that the principle of equality must be put into practice. Political movements or parties that support democracy building should themselves provide an enabling environment for the meaningful participation of women.
Strengthening accountability to ensure that women – who constitute at least half of the world’s population – are participating in decision making implies an important advance in democratic governance. Men, however well informed and committed to women’s empowerment, cannot represent women in all respects. If women are to have their fair opportunity to participate and represent themselves fully at all levels of decision making, interventions must be designed to encourage men to loosen their grip and relinquish some of their economic, political and social power.
Once in positions of power and decision making, women are expected to be effective political actors and be held accountable alongside men for public decisions. These valid demands and expectations from the public for effective performance should not be limited to women leaders only. Hence, it is politically prudent that credentials of both women and men in positions of power and decision making are built on a solid record of accountability and service to their constituencies.
There is no doubt that the low participation and representation of women in positions of power and decision making undermines not only women’s empowerment but democracy in general. Consequently, the driving force for International IDEA’s advocacy and promotion of women’s participation and representation through electoral system reform and design, gender quotas for elected positions, international advocacy and democratizing political institutions and processes goes to the heart of transforming the face of democracy.
Source: IDEA
