1. law, govt and politics
2. politics
3. political parties

A CHRISTIANSBORG SEMINAR 2012 BACKGROUND PAPER
WOMEN IN POLITICS
DIVERSITY AND EQUALITY FOR A DEMOCRATIC CULTURE
DANISH INSTITUTE FOR
PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 1
The vision of the Danish
Institute for Parties and
Democracy is to contribute
to the development of well
functioning political parties
and multiparty systems
in a democratic culture, in
support of the aspirations
for freedom and human
development of citizens in
developing countries.
DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY
WOMEN IN POLITICS
DIVERSITY AND EQUALITY
FOR A DEMOCRATIC CULTURE
A CHRISTIANSBORG SEMINAR BACKGROUND PAPER
ABOUT THE COVER PHOTO
Women actively participate in a sweep campaign before local elections in Bihar state of India. Organized
by UN Women’s partner, The Hunger Project, the campaigns motivate other women to fearlessly stand for
elections despite the risk of violence or oppositions. These campaigns also educate them
about rules and procedures to file candidatures.
(Photo: UN Women/Ashutosh Negi)
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 3
DIVERSITY AND
EQUALITY MATTERS!
Searching for ideas and practices that can inspire change
This background document is not about the statistics on women in politics, because
we already know the situation too well. As stated in the Millennium Development
Goals Report 2011 from the United Nations:
“Despite growing numbers of women parliamentarians, the target of equal participation of women and men in politics is still far off.”
Progress is clearly slow, indeed frustratingly slow. Only 26 countries worldwide
have managed to achieve the 30 per cent target for women in decision-making positions set by the Beijing Platform adopted in 1995. Globally we have still not been able
to climb above 20 per cent. When we dig deeper into the different dimensions like
top leadership positions in parties and cabinets at national level, ministerial posts, or
heads of municipal councils, the picture just gets even more depressing.
So despite some progress, the reality we live in continues to be one of discrimination against women, in law as well as in practice, resulting in both equality and diversity suffering.
Denmark is doing better than most countries in this area. As suggested in the last
article of the background document, maybe the secret is that sustainable equal status
development has been rooted in a combination of top-down and bottom-up politics.
The state pushed equality through legislation, but making it a living and vibrant reality required the hard and persistent work of various civil society organisations, as well
as strong individuals.
In a sense this is not a new recognition, but rather a general recipe for change or
development. But it is nevertheless important to remember when we search for ideas
and practices that can inspire change. Both sides are important; each side needs the
other.
This is different from stating that every country should now copy what Denmark
has done. We know that this is not possible. While recognising that principles of diversity and equality are important dimensions of a democratic culture, we must accept
and understand that they have to be managed and practiced in different cultural, religious, social and political settings.
The Christiansborg Seminar is therefore not driven by a search for the ‘one-size-fitsall’ magic bullet, but rather for ideas and experiences from our global village, which can
inspire all of us in our different localities.
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 4
Of course this search will also build on all the wealth of knowledge others have already accumulated. The journey we have travelled so far indicates that many different
areas need to be dealt with in a strategic manner to ensure progress: Equal constitutional rights for women and men need to be included; different electoral systems can
offer different avenues; the use of quotas or reserved seats for women can be considered; the role of party rules for recruitment procedures should not be underestimated;
capacity development to strengthen skills and resources of women is needed; and reform of the rules and internal procedures within parliament may also be helpful.
Changes in institutional structures and regulations are often possible in the shortterm. But history tells us – including the successful Danish history – that egalitarian
attitudes towards women and men, improvements in human development, and societal modernisation are long-term undertakings. After all, it took Denmark around 150
years to reach the present 40 per cent level of women parliamentarians and see the
first woman become Prime Minister! Maybe other countries can reach this level more
quickly.
At the end of the Christiansborg Seminar 2012, we hope to be able to adopt a statement on principles, ideas and practices that can inspire our work on support for women
in politics.
This will of course not be a legal document, but rather a commitment by the Danish Institute for Parties and Democracy to follow these principles when we engage
with our partners, both in the area of party-to-party partnerships and in the area of
multi-party partnerships. At the general level this is already codified in our strategy
for 2011-2013 “Political Parties in a Democratic Culture”, but we hope that the ideas and
practices presented in the seminar will make it possible for us to deliver more effectively than is the case today.
We believe that this is important and necessary as an end in itself. But it is also important and necessary because the empowerment of young women in politics, women
engaging in politics at the local level, as well as women in politics in countries undergoing some form of transition contribute to the overall strengthening of democracy.
Bjørn Førde, Director
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 5
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 6
CONTENTS
9
23 37
45
57
Young women in politics
FROM HOUSEHOLD LEVEL TO NATIONAL POLITICS
Women in local level politics
SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Women in transition countries
STRUGGLING FOR THEIR FAIR SHARE OF OPPORTUNITIES
Gender and democracy
DANISH DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION IN A GENDER PERSPECTIVE
Networks and toolkits
SOME RESOURCES THAN CAN INSPIRE YOUR WORK
ABOUT THE PHOTO
A woman in traditional dress peaks out from behind a Bolivian flag while listening to Bolivian
Presidential Candidate Evo Morales speak at a rally December 13, 2005 in the capital La Paz
(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images).
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 8
YOUNG WOMEN
IN POLITICS
From household level to national politics
BY MARYSE HELBERT, AUSTRALIA
The aim of this background paper is to offer recommendations as to
how to increase the participation of young women in politics through
party assistance, based on an analysis of positive and negative experiences from around the world.
They will show how these experiences attempt to answer the triple challenge that political parties are facing in engaging more young
women in politics.
Indeed, there is an overall decline in political participation and engagement among voters and members in political parties generally.
Additionally, women overall have experienced difficulty in fully participating in politics due to structural constraints. And lastly, research
shows that young people tend to be more interested in informal political action rather than formal political participation.
Getting more young women into politics can only be achieved if action is being taken from the household level right through to national
politics.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maryse Helbert has been an advocate for, and researcher on, women’s participation in politics
and decision-making for over a decade. After completing a Master’s thesis on the comparative
strengths and weaknesses of the French and Finnish political systems in encouraging and increasing women’s political participation, she became actively involved in the movement to institute
the so-called ‘Parity Law’ in France (1999-2000). She has since broadened her research to include
women’s involvement in decision-making processes related to development, specifically in the
context of resource exploitation and climate change, where evidence shows that women are
being sidelined.
ABOUT THE PHOTO
Excited supporters of the Peace, Unity and Development Party (KULMIYE) during an election rally
in the city of Hargeisa, Somaliland. (Photo by Petterik Wiggers/Panos Pictures).
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 9
INTRODUCTION
Defining young women is the first task. Typically, being young falls within the ages of
0 and 30. However, when talking about the right to vote, it is generally at the age of 18
that young people attain that right. A third pertinent point may be put forward when
talking about an interest in politics. While it is from 18 years of age that most countries
allow the right to vote, politics can be a subject of interest for those who have yet to
reach the legal voting age.
In the current political scene, political parties play a central role in the governance
of modern democracies as they are the bridge between civil society and government.
As such, any decline in their voluntary base can be seen as a source of weakening the
weight of civil society in the democratic debate. So the recruit of members is in some
ways a way to promote a healthy democracy.
Additionally, if political parties are bridges between citizens and the state, the
more diverse the citizens are within political parties, the more strength the democracy has. To be diverse, political parties need to reach out to young women. If political
parties are the gatekeepers to women’s advancement to power, and as the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child recognises the right of children and young people to be
involved in decision-making (1989), this is a strong case for political parties to reach
out and promote more young women to be actively involved in politics.
This paper will first review the triple challenge that political parties have to grasp
in order to get more young women into politics; positive and negative experiences
will highlight how political parties answer the triple challenge; and lastly, recommendations will be made.
“
We know that the guys have their own
networks, even in equal societies, there are
associations that have existed for hundreds of years
and they still do not let us women in. We need to have
our own networks supporting each other.”
ASTRID THORS
MP OF THE PARLIAMENT OF FINLAND AND FORMER MINISTER OF IMMIGRATION AND EUROPEAN AFFAIRS
AN OVERALL DECLINE OF ELECTORAL PARTICIPATION
AND PARTY PARTICIPATION
International literature on political participation shows that there is an overall decline in electoral participation and also in the participation in political parties. Overall, since the mid-1980s, there is a notable decline in voter turnout except in countries
that enjoy some form of compulsory voting. Five of the top seven countries with the
highest voter turnout – Australia, Nauru, Singapore, Belgium, and Liechtenstein – enforce compulsory voting laws.
The voter turnout decline runs parallel with the membership of political parties.
Whiteley sees in the decline the increasingly closer relationship between political parties and the state. This, in turn, has converted active members into ‘unpaid state bureaucrats’ due to increased regulation and control.
The increasingly close relationship between political parties and the state means
that there is ‘little incentive to recruit or retain members for financial reasons’ as po-
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 10
litical parties ‘rely on the state to fund their activities’.1 In other words, it could be said
that while there is an overall decline in political engagement, there is also an overall
lack of interest in engaging new, active members in political parties.
THE CHALLENGE OF GETTING MORE WOMEN INTO POLITICS
The challenge of the overall decline of membership numbers is reinforced by the historical challenges women have had in getting a fair share of the political scene. Young
women may be facing the same daunting challenges. Any move in getting more young
women into political parties will need to have an understanding of these challenges.
Only since the beginning of the 20th century did women start to have the right to
vote. For some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, women will have the right to vote and
to run for municipal election only in 2015. Switzerland gave women the right to vote
in the 1990s.
Explanations justifying not giving women the right to vote include: Women were
not interested in politics; it is impossible to find women who want to run for elections; and women would vote as their priest directed. In some countries active political policies had to be put in place in order to promote the greater inclusion of women
in decision-making positions.
Nowadays, few countries have reached equality in political representation and
while quotas have been implemented in political parties or for decision-making positions, ‘its significant effect in having the inclusion of women on candidate lists ultimately depends on the political will of the parties and effective enforcement of the
law’.2
Overall, women still constitute only 19.6 per cent of the members of parliament
around the world. Men have historically dominated parties despite women making
great strides in recent decades. For the most part, the structural constraints women
have to face if they wish for a political career are the same within political parties. And
while there may be many women at the base, there are very few at the top. As power
increases, the number of women decreases.
In the seven countries for which data was available, 51 per cent of active party
members were women, of which generally only 16 per cent of party presidents or
secretaries were women. Men commonly hold the most senior or powerful positions
(president, secretary general, economic secretary, programming secretary, etc.). Women tend to occupy less influential positions such as minutes secretary, archivist, or
director of training or culture.
This lack of political representation within political parties is due to its ‘highly
gendered institutions that incorporated women on a different basis from men and
in ways that impeded their access to leadership positions’. 3 So it is a challenging and
daunting task facing young women indeed.
THE CHALLENGE OF GETTING MORE YOUNG PEOPLE INTO POLITICS
As for women in politics, the challenges for young people in politics are just as harsh.
For example, while 65% of the African population are under 35, the parliament of the
different countries of the whole continent do not meet the challenges in matters of
political representation of such a young population. Political parties have historically
ignored young people and young people’s interests despite being, on a world scale,
half of the population. And while it is hard for young men to attain real opportunities
to reach decision-making positions within political organisations, it is even harder for
young women.
1
2
3
Whiteley, 2011, 22
International IDEA, 2012, 11-12
International IDEA, 2005, 115
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 11
There are two opposite trends regarding young people and political parties. One
is that the academic world has not considered young people and politics as a key research topic, and political parties have not considered young people as an issue of concern within their party. On the other hand, it seems that young people have different
interests in politics than their elders.
There is an overall understanding that there is a dramatic decline in the political
involvement of younger generations, and decreasing levels of youth participation in
elections, political parties and traditional social organisations. Research shows that
generally, young people conceptualise politics differently, ‘seeing it as an arena for the
older generation, and not linked directly to their own lives’.4
They also have a broad mistrust of political parties. Research also shows that, overall, young people who are not involved in politics have the feeling that political parties
are not addressing their interests and they feel powerless in relation to the political
system. They simply believe that they can’t have an impact. And even if they are members of political parties, they cannot see themselves playing important roles or being
leaders in these parties.
“
We are not going to be able to solve the
gender problem in our political parties without the
support of men within the women’s committee. We
have been missing that kind of strategy
as women in Kenya.”
MRS PENINAH MWASHEWA
NATIONAL LABOUR PARTY, KENYA
In some countries, a two-party system seems to deter the political interests of
young people as they feel they have a lack of alternatives. It is worth noting that one
of the reasons the Greens party overall attracts more young members than the traditional political parties is that the Greens party agenda tends to be much closer to
young people’s political concerns.
There are two voices in conceptualising the decline of young people’s political
interests. Some see the decline in interest in politics as a reflection of the increased
individualism within the population. Indeed, some argue that the lack of interest in a
formal model of political engagement is due to the new era of neoliberal discourse to
which young people have been submitted.
The neoliberal discourse has in some ways shifted interest from society to the
individual. Members of the younger generation would be primarily interested only in
themselves. Ward suggests that the new form of political engagement could be conceptualised as political consumerism, whereby citizens would consume politics as
consumers would consume goods.
While the pessimistic voices see the increased individualism of society and the
consumption of politics as a threat to the future of democracy, the optimistic voices
look rather at the wide variety of political actions, formal and informal, which have
emerged over the last two decades and point the finger at the political parties not be-
4
Ann and Shuib, 2011, 175
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 12
ing able to keep up with and ‘being disconnected from young people’. 5
Indeed, the optimistic voices do not see any threat to the future of democracy but
rather a revival and a renewal of democracy due to the diversity of political action that
the political parties have to grapple with. These informal political actions create new
modes of expression and participation that seem to appeal to young people. The new
modes would be elite challenging forms of participation. They would, for instance,
focus on single issues or what Norris calls a ‘cause-oriented style of politics’ 6, or what
Giddens calls lifestyle politics. Others mention other forms such as the rise of networks, issue associations and lifestyle coalitions.
Overall, the combined optimistic and pessimistic voices would point to an inadequacy of traditional democratic arrangements for contemporary youth.
Beyond the two voices conceptualising young people’s attitudes and behaviours
towards politics there are factors that determine their engagement. Major research
in the USA shows that those who get involved in the new/informal forms of political
engagement are those who are also more likely to get involved in formal forms of political engagement. In other words, young people who show political apathy in getting
involved in formal political actions are also impossible to reach through other means
of political action.
Indeed, factors which determine political engagement are linked to education and
overall social status and social economic background. The higher the education, the
higher the political involvement of the parents, and the higher the social economic background of the parents, the more likely young people will engage in politics,
whether formal or informal.
Other factors would be the multiple challenges young people have to face nowadays which may have an impact on their political attitudes and behaviour. Young people ‘have to cope with dynamic social conditions during their transition to adulthood,
which confront them with increasing demands for flexibility on the labour market,
with self-reliance concerning welfare security, and with demands for increasing activity with respect to participation in the democratic process’. 7
Although the political engagement of young women is not weaker than that of
men, it is nonetheless different. Young women tend to be less involved in formal politics and more involved in the informal ‘civic form of engagement’, such as socialmovement-oriented activities, that are for instance voluntary work, collecting money,
and collecting signatures, and it seems also that ‘youth participation in politics using
the new technology continues to be structured by gender’ in the same way. 8
There are varying factors to explain the difference. Due to the burden of duties
such as caring commitments, household domestic duties, but also the requirement
of the full participation in the workplace which involves working long hours, young
women would lack opportunities and resources to fully engage in formal politics. In
fact, a parallel could be made between women having a late entrance in professional
careers due to their other domestic/caring commitments and women entering the
political scene late for the same reasons. However, they are nonetheless a huge political force.
Another factor that could contribute to explaining the difference of interest in
politics is women’s socialisation. Women’s political socialisation is ‘understood here
as the process whereby they internalise the view that politics is a man’s world’.9 A study
of junior high school students found a significant gender gap in political interest in
the United States. Boys had more interest in politics and boys and girls did perceive
politics as something that held greater interest for boys. Except for Finland where
5
6
7
8
9
Carnegie UK Trust, 2008b, 14
in, Odegard and Berglund, 2008, 594
Gaiser and Rijke, 2008, 542
Cicognani et al., 2012, 562
Gidengil et al., 2010, 335
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 13
adolescent girls envisioned themselves as being more politically active as adults and
more skilled about politics than the boys, research shows that young women tend to
silence their engagement and knowledge in politics.
The perception that politics is a man’s world can be mitigated however if there is
the presence of female role models. Role models outside and inside the family circle
increase the likelihood of political activity. Additionally, if one parent is involved in a
political party, it is more likely that the offspring will also be. And, last but not least,
having a mother actively politically involved has a particular impact on their daughters’ political involvement.
Researchers of young women’s political involvement emphasise the mother role
model effect and say that it is not confined to the elite level. The internal functioning
and culture of political parties would also be another constraint to women’s commitment. Internal functioning, such as the way meetings are organised, the decision-making process, the formality of the decision-making process, the formality of
speaking in front of other members, deter young women’s full engagement in politics.
INCREASING YOUNG PEOPLE’S POLITICAL INTERESTS:
THE CASE OF NEW ZEALAND 10
In research undertaken on how to reach out to young people, the advice is as follows:
Keep it simple, keep it positive, keep it relevant, keep it real, leave the script at home,
hold onto your values and ask young people to participate.
In the face of an overall decline of young people’s political engagement and interest, and the overall perception as being powerless to promote their particular interests, the Auckland City Youth Council initiative is very interesting.
Created in 1984, the Auckland City Youth Council ‘enables young people to learn
about their community, their city and their local government’. It was made up of
up to 25 young people, aged between 12 and 24 years, whose role was to advocate
on behalf of young people. It was an advisory board. Youth council members were
self-nominating and were accepted provided they attended the induction. As New
Zealand overall and Auckland in particular are characterised by a young population
which is diverse in culture, identity and experiences. Despite principles at the heart
of a youth council promoting youth participation which needed to be meaningful,
connected to wider decision-making and occurring in ways that young people have
control over’, the first stage of the youth council showed that having a youth council did not guarantee youth participation, voice and power in decision-making processes.
After 15 years of existence, the youth council achievement was a source of disappointment. There was an overall perception that high achieving young people were
overrepresented on the youth council. Additionally, the formal structure of the committee meetings, such as speaking through a microphone, making formal resolutions and requesting to speak through the chairperson, seems to deter young people
from voicing their issues or engaging in robust discussion and debate.
Following a thorough review and structural changes, in 2010, a new structure
had achieved a better representation of its local communities. Not only were issues
debated in a better environment within the council but also with young people outside the council. The youth council had also increased its capacity to run effective
projects, such as implementing a regional youth council.
The success of the Auckland Youth Council in 2010 is due to the quality of the relationships that have been built between the council, the community and the wider
10
Finlay, 2010, 53-59
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 14
youth population. Overall, it could be concluded that the success of this initiative is
linked to enabling young people to have a strong voice that leads to action and to
provide a space for young people to be heard in civic affairs and in informing policy
development.
What is critical to its success is that young people have been put ‘at the centre of
a process created for them that allows flexibility and ownership over their participation’ in civic affairs. Following the initiative in Auckland, it can be shown that political
parties have to find a more fertile strategy to reach young people and one way to do
that is to build bridges between such youth councils and their own structure.
ENHANCING YOUNG PEOPLE’S POLITICAL INTEREST: AGORA DEMOCRATICA11
Another initiative to try to reach out to young people is happening in Ecuador and
Columbia. Organised with the cooperation of International IDEA and NIMD, this initiative aims at reaching young people in order to enhance their political engagement.
The first phase of its program is a series of 12 workshops that take place on the
regional level in Ecuador and that aim to raise the consciousness among young people
of their rights and of being aware of the barriers that prevent them from participating
in politics.
This initiative is associated with an interactive website called ‘activate’, where
young people can interact and learn about Ecuador’s state institutions and ways to
participate. The last phase of the initiative is to offer training, especially for young
talented political representatives in political marketing. Part of this initiative specifically targets young women.
“
Having a youth council does not
guarantee youth participation, voice and
power in decision-making.”
REACHING YOUNG PEOPLE WHERE THEY ARE
As a move to reach out to young people, and especially young women, in 2012 the
South Australia government gave a grant to a young women’s group. This grant will
be used for further developing the group’s website, connecting to other social groups,
training members to manage and update their website and to instruct others on how
to set up a website. This initiative, which has not yet been evaluated, is a really good
attempt to reach young people where they are and through tools which are of interest
to young people.
While attempts to reach young women are always welcome, particular attention
has to be paid to the message and the content. In 1999 the Greens party in the town
of Fremantle in the state of Western Australia put in place a new initiative particularly targeting young women. The local women’s wing put into place a political mandate and used its network to reach out to local young women who wanted to run for
election. Criticism, such as the complexity of the message and the lack of ownership
regarding the content of the political mandate, was raised in explanation as to the
failure of the initiative.
11
Source: Lizzie Beekman, political advisor, NIMD
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 15
WOMEN’S ORGANISATION UNITS IN PARTIES
While many political parties claim to have institutionalised structures for women in
their party rules and procedures, most of them do not get support from their parties
and they are merely used as a symbolic function as they do not have a clear mandate or resources for action. In these units, women’s political participation is limited
to support tasks, mobilisation and logistics. A specific mandate of the women’s unit
must be promoted in order to be used as an active arm of the political party, mobilising women voters and providing logistical support – especially during campaigns.
Two major papers, one by the UN and the other by International IDEA, have set up
the groundwork on what has to be done within political parties in order to make them
more women friendly.
The first one, Empowering Women for Stronger Political Parties, and the second,
Gender and Political Parties: Far from Parity, develop the basic principles at every
stage of political party life to meaningfully include young women. It is a good practice
guide with recommendations. It talks about the internal party organisation and what
to do before, during and after the electoral period.
The women’s units’ role should be promoting gender equality and monitoring
party commitments to gender equality, advising the party on gender policies and educating party members on the importance of these issues, and organising women politically from the standpoint of equal rights and opportunities that should be extended
to promote young women and young women’s interests and specific situations.
“
A male political culture created
barriers to women’s advancement
towards high positions.”
POLITICAL PARTY STRUCTURE AND YOUNG PEOPLE 12
A report conducted by the NIMD shows how the organisation of political parties is
crucial in integrating young people. In this report Gideon compares the organisation
of political parties in Ghana and Kenya.
He finds out that overall, while all political parties had a youth wing, the political
culture of the Kenyan political parties impedes opportunities for young people as it
was based to a large extent on network patronage. For young people who are less reliant on networks, it means they have to make their way in the political party outside
the traditional system of party patronage, which makes it very difficult.
Cooperation between young people in the Netherlands and Mali shows how crucial the commitment of the (older) political establishment is to ensure young people stand a fair chance in being elected to representative bodies. Sharing experiences,
ideas and best practices was useful in order to pinpoint common gridlocks in getting
actively involved in political parties.
THE JOINT YOUTH AND STUDENTS’ PLATFORM13
DemoFinland carried out a small-scale study on women’s role in Nepalese youth
politics and in the Joint Youth and Students’ Platform. The Joint Youth and Students’
Platform aims at enhancing young people’s political empowerment and constructive
12http://www.nimd.org/news/1775/gideon-chitanga-on-youth-participation-in-ghana-and-kenya
13 DemoFinland/Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, 2007.
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 16
dialogue across party lines. It also brings together nineteen political youth and student organisations from different backgrounds. It aims, among other things, to enable
capacity building of the youth and student wings of political parties.
The small-scale study on women’s role in Nepalese youth politics and in the work
of the platform clearly showed that Nepalese society still relies strongly on patriarchal
values and these were reflected in the political parties overall and in the scheduling of
youth activities particularly. Political parties were dominated by a male political culture and it created barriers to women’s advancement towards high positions.
In the interviews, young females felt that gender quotas had substantially improved their political participation even in the Joint Youth and Students’ Platform. A
common wish was that the quotas would be extended to the decision-making level so
that women could be involved on the top level. DemoFinland has also organised a successful exchange about experiences between women’s units in Ghana and Tanzania.
Similarly, NIMD has organised discussions between youth units of different countries, regions and political parties in order to share knowledge about difficulties for
young people in being meaningfully included in political parties. Initiatives such as
Suriname and The Netherlands youth wing, the Bolivian partner program (FBDN), The
Youth Commission of the Permanent Forum of Political Parties in Guatemala, were
implemented to increase knowledge among young people.
THE AUSTRALIAN ‘NEXT GENERATION’ INITIATIVE14
Following a call from its members to increase young women’s political en-gagement
in decision-making positions, the Labor Party in Australia has put in place the ‘Next
Generation’ initiative. This initiative aims at giving real-life experiences of political
action to young women. The program consists of two streams: a residential program
and placement in a campaign.
The residential program aims at placing young women with women who hold a
decision-making position, such as a high position in a political office, a union or a nongovernment organisation. The second part of the program is to place young women in
a political campaign. As such, young women will follow a candidate that is running for
election and learn first hand the ‘unwritten rules’ of a political campaign.
These two programs are associated with workshops: one is called ‘Empowering
Women’s Professional Development Program’ and the other is speed date mentoring.
The first workshop aims at ‘providing political skills training, including campaign
planning, government lobbying, affirmative action strategies and social change advocacy’. Speed date mentoring is aimed at providing a platform for women to support
women, such as Networking Events. These events are tailored for young women. The
women’s wing of the Labor Party is using a wide range of mediums that include Facebook, Twitter, the political party base and university political groups to reach out to
young women via this program.
After running it for two years, an evaluation of the ‘Next Generation’ initiative has
shown real enthusiasm as members asked to retain it.
THE COMMITTEE TO PROMOTE WOMEN IN POLITICS IN CAMBODIA
A grant was made by the UNIFEM/UNDEF program to promote women in politics in
Cambodia. This was used to improve public support for women politicians. It included
strategies to achieve objectives such as training, advocacy, dialogue, civic education
and the development of a peer support network. This project was put into place in 12
of the 24 provinces of Cambodia.
14
A special thanks to Hutch Hussein, EMILY’s List Australia National Co-Convenor who was interviewed to share information about this initiative.
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 17
It is believed that the work of this program tripled the number of women commune councillors in two provinces in 2007, doubled the number nationally by 2008,
doubled the number of women in the top ranks of national party lists and raised the
percentage of women in parliament from 19% to 22%, despite the short timeframe
to implement it.
Beyond the numbers, this initiative increased women’s skills as politi-cians and
reinforced the links between women at the local and national levels. It increased
awareness and support for women politicians by political leaders and voters.
Specifically, the program put into place eleven courses for existing women commune councillors to strengthen their effectiveness in office and each woman councillor was individually helped through monitoring to ‘work through scenarios faced
in council meetings’. Additionally, within political parties in Cambodia, women were
provided with some basic items, including clothing appropriate to wear while campaigning and a bicycle for moving around.
AFRICAN REGIONAL PROGRAM TO INCREASE WOMEN’S
POLITICAL PARTICIPATION 15
This initiative was aimed at sharing experiences and knowledge about women’s political participation in the different countries of the African continent.
For instance, in the documentary produced around this program, Alice Nzomukunda, Member of the Democratic Alliance for Renewal in Burundi, travelled
with other women members of political parties in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and
Zambia in order to understand what kind of challenges other women are facing in
other political parties: ‘What they are going through and how they have been able
to overcome challenges’, as Peris Tobiko from the Orange Democratic Movement in
Kenya stated.
In other words, the aim of this program is for women to share positive experiences and knowledge about women’s political participation. While this kind of cooperation consisting of cross-party or cross-country exchange is being praised as a
key tool in understanding the challenges women are facing to get into positions of
power, the participants of this initiative also emphasised the crucial role of grassroots activism as a way to increase political engagement.
“
Participants emphasised the crucial
role of grassroots activism as a way to
increase political engagement.”
THE SWISS MENTORING PROJECT: ‘FROM WOMAN TO WOMAN’ 16
Started in 2000, the National Youth Council of Switzerland (NYCS) has been running
a mentoring program in politics for young women called ‘From woman to woman’.
The NYCS decided to run this program in 2009 when it became aware that there were
only a few women in the higher positions of organisational bodies of the NYCS as well
as in the overall political participation of young women in Switzerland in general.
15http://nimd.org/document/1916/increasing-womens-participation-in-decision-making
16 Neruda, 2005
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 18
The program was broadly understood as aiming to promote more women in
the political sphere, including encompassing political parties. Each year there are
around 25 mentoring couples participating. Usually, a young woman member of the
NYCS – the mentee – is associated with a woman occupying a position in politics
or another high position in the public sphere (NGO, union, political party) as the
mentor. The idea is for the mentee to exchange ideas and gain experience from the
mentor.
This mentoring program is associated with ‘additional training sessions on issues such as gender politics, media work, international politics, a visit to the Federal
Office for Women’s Issues and a meeting with a female minister’.17 The mentee/mentor is expected to fulfil a number of goals set up by the mentee, such as face-to-face
meetings to talk about personal issues, and discussions on how to organise and manage the work-life balance with job, family and politics.
After three years of evaluation, the results have shown that overall, the mentees
reported a better career and future planning, broader networks and more self-confidence in delivering public speeches. They also mentioned being more interested
in political issues in general, in political organisations such as parties and in gender
equality. The program helped them improve their knowledge and practice in project
management, the planning of their further education in the area of political issues
and their media performance.
It is also worth noting that this program resulted in really good media coverage
in bringing the under-representation of women to the forefront of political issues.
Another effect was the multiplication of the program at different levels, such as the
European level in Austria, Estonia, Portugal and Malta.
More has to be done by setting realistic expectations about the mentoring relationship, increasing the range of activities to increase experience, and expanding
the time to be invested between the mentee and the mentor in order to extend positive outcomes. It is worth noting that some mentees were disillusioned about the
reality of political life.
THE WOMEN CAN DO IT PROGRAM IN THE BALKANS 18
Originating in the Norwegian Labour Party Women’s Movement, it was then implemented in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Kosovo province, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. It aims at ‘raising awareness about gender inequality and creating the capacity to change the situation’. It is essential for women and young women
who are already involved or who could potentially become active in public life. They
can also be women coming from NGOs and local political parties, from the health
and social sector, schools and local administration.
It is sustained by a training program to increase ‘political skills and motivation
among women to take on responsibilities and decision-making positions in public
and political life’. It encompasses four steps: The Training-for trainers – two-day local seminars where the participants learn about gender equality status in their own
countries; a training workshop to deliver speeches, cope with domineering techniques, solve problems in a creative way, manage stress and defeat, campaign and
network; then the participants plan a local action to practise the new skills; and
following that there is an evaluation seminar. Local partners (women’s group) have
been the main actors within the program, carrying the main responsibility for the
seminars.
Overall, the evaluation of the seminars is appreciated by the participants, espe17
18
Neruda, 2005, 2
NORAD, 2005
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 19
cially their down-to-earth and practical skills. Thanks to this program, a substantial
number of women have been involved and the activities have ‘strengthened women’s organisations and underpinned the work done for gender equality in general’.
RECOMMENDATIONS AT THE GENERAL LEVEL INCLUDE 19
´
working through grass-roots campaigns, school programs (mock elec-tions), entertainment events and other methods of communication to reach out to young
people and to engage them politically;
´ participating in the creation of young people’s spaces to meaningfully voice their
concerns, issues, interests and ideas;
´ promoting structures in these young people’s spaces which meaningfully facilitate
young people’s voices to make them feel they can have an impact and to ensure
diversity of representation;
´ facilitating cooperation between youth councils (at any level) or youth organisations across party, ideology, regions and countries to share ideas, experiences and
knowledge about how to improve young people’s and especially young women’s
voices to be better heard and included in political agendas at every level;
´ participating actively in cause-oriented political action as a way of reaching out to
young people;
´ promoting young women’s political action, initiative and method of communication by offering support including financial support and web support.
RECOMMENDATIONS AT THE POLITICAL PARTY LEVEL
´
´
´
´
´
´
modifying the structure of the political party organisation to be more ‘young women friendly’;
have a legal framework and governing documents which are gender sensitive;
have a youth and women’s organisation;
have measures taken to promote young women’s participation in governing boards
and decision-making structures;
establish party consensus to promote young women’s electoral positions and to
place them in winnable positions on party lists with real financial assistance;
give a real voice to young women by including their interests and agenda in the
overall political party mandate.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ASSISTANCE TO YOUNG WOMEN
´
´
´
19
mentoring: residential program and placement in campaigns;
organise workshops to share knowledge and experiences about the party rules and
unwritten rules, and how to make their way through the political party structure;
offering workshops to increase political skills and motivation among women to
take on responsibilities and decision-making positions in public and political life;
promote cooperation between youth and women’s units of political parties across
ideologies, regions and countries to share information and knowledge.
Carnegie UK Trust, 2008b, 14
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 20
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ann, Teo Sue and Shuib, Rashidah (2011), ‘Young People’s Perceptions of Roles and Responsibilities
as Political Party Members in Malaysia’, International Conference on Social Science and Humanity
(IPEDR 5; Singapore: IACSIT Press).
Institute of Politics: John F. Kennedy School of Government, A Guide to Reaching Young Voters, Anonymous, Harvard, 2004.
DemoFinland/Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, Political Youth Organisations: Strengthening the
Voice of Yout in Politics: The Finnish Experience, Anonymous, Helsinki, 2007.
UNIFEM-UNDEF, Democracy with Women, for Women: Seven Grants that Helped Change the Face of
Governance, Anonymous, New York, 2008a.
Carnegie UK Trust, Empowering Young People: The Final Report of the Carnegie Young People Initiative, Anonymous, London, 2008b.
UNDP/NDI, Empowering Women for Stronger Political Parties: A Good Practices Guide to Promote
Women’s Political Participation, Anonymous, New York City, 2011.
NDI/UNDP, Empowering Women for Stronger Political Parties: A Good Practices Guide to Promote
Women Political Participation, Ballington, Julie, New York City, 2011.
International IDEA, Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers, Ballington, Julie and Karam, Azza,
Stockholm, 2005.
Briggs, Jacqueline Ellen, ‘Young Women and Politics: An Oxymoron?’, Journal of Youth Studies, 11, 6,
579-92, 2008.
Cicognani, Elvira, et al., ‘Gender Differences in Youths’ Political Engagement and Participation. The
Role of Parents and of Adolescents’ Social and Civic Participation’, Journal of Adolescence, 35, 561-76,
2012.
Finlay, Sarah, ‘Carving out Meaningful Spaces for Youth Participation and Engagement in DecisionMaking’, Youth Studies Australia, 29, 4, 53-59, 2010.
Council of Europe, Revisiting Youth Political Participation: Challenges for Research and Democratic
Practice in Europe, Forbrig, Joerg, Strasbourg, Council of Europe Publishing, 2005.
Gaiser, Wolfgang and Rijke, Johann de, ‘Political Participation of Youth. Young Germans in the European Context’, Asia Europe Journal, 5, 541-55, 2008.
Gidengil, Elisabeth, O’Neill, Brenda, and Young, Lisa, ‘Her Mother’s Daughter? The Influence of Childhood Socialization on Women’s Political Engagement’, Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 31, 334-55,
2010.
National Youth Council of Switzerland, Mentoring as a Means to Empower Young Women in Politics:
Conclusions of the Swiss Mentoring Project “From Woman to Woman”, Neruda, Veronika, Bern, 2005.
International IDEA, Gender and Political Parties: Far From Parity, Rosa, Vivian, Beatriz, Llanos, and
Garzon de la Roza, Gisela, Stockholm, 2012.
Sloam, James, ‘Rebooting Democracy: Youth Participation in Politics in the UK’, Parliamentary Affairs, 60, 4, 548-67, 2007.
Whiteley, Paul F, ‘Is the Party Over? The Decline of Party Activism and Membership Across the Democratic World’, Party Politics, 17, 21, 21-44, 2011.
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 21
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 22
WOMEN IN LOCAL
LEVEL POLITICS
Social accountability and public participation
BY SUMONA DASGUPTA, INDIA
Involvement of women in local politics is critical for their political and
economic empowerment.
Yet across the world there are several impediments to this process.
Patriarchies cut through cultures and institutions across the world,
sometimes in more open forms, at other times in a more subtle hidden manner even as it may differ in the degree in which it can affect
women’s participation in politics.
This paper will begin with examining the term “local politics” and
critically discuss the factors that both enable and inhibit women from
entering this space.
It will also analyse what difference women can or have made as
elected representatives at the local level both in rural and urban spaces drawing from examples and case studies across the world.
Finally it will explore some of the best practices of advocacy strategies that promote the role of women in local politics.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sumona DasGupta is a Political Scientist and independent research consultant based in New
Delhi. She is currently senior research consultant with Society for Participatory Research in Asia
(PRIA). Her research and publications focus on issues of governance and democratic dialogue,
conflict and peace building, and South Asian politics. Gender is a cross cutting issue that informs
all of her work. Her book ”Citizen Initiatives and Democratic Engagements: Experiences from India” from 2012 looks at issues concerning women’s political leadership in local governance as one
of the issues covered.
ABOUT THE PHOTO
A villager casts her vote in a polling booth in Nungmaikhong village, Manipur, India. About 62 percent of the 802,000 registered voters voted in an incident-free second phase of Lok Sabha (Lower
House of Parliament) elections for the Inner Manipur parliamentary constituency on April 22nd
2009. (Photo by Sanjit Das/Panos Pictures).
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 23
INTRODUCTION
The growing discourse on deepening democracy around the world is increasingly being anchored around democratic decentralisation and meaningful local governance
which is also being linked to greater social accountability and public participation. Governance is not just about government, but is now seen as a much wider process that
involves how the idea of “public good” is both framed and contested – a process that
involves both private sector and civil society actors.1
The idea of local politics rather than local government provides space to examine
how multiple actors – among them political parties – connect and contest for power
in the formal and informal local spaces in a scenario where local governments have to
increasingly live up to the expectation that they can indeed be responsive, accountable
and participatory.
If being participatory is one of the principles informing the call to decentralize it
follows that inclusion of women in local politics has to be ensured and actively encouraged – through political parties, organisations, social movements, etc. Involvement of
women in local politics is critical for their political and economic empowerment.
“
The importance of women’s informal
community work also amounts to their
involvement in local politics.”
LOCAL POLITICS
Local politics is intrinsically linked to the idea of the local community2 whether in rural
or urban areas, which is increasingly being invested with some degree of local autonomy across the world through a process of local self government. The local community
so empowered with the right of self government is then in a position to perform a series
of functions related to planning, development, service delivery, maintenance of local
assets such as schools, houses and streets et al.
In performing these functions it engages in decision making and governance for
promoting public good in the local area. Since what constitutes ‘public good’ is itself a
matter of contestation, the business of local government also becomes an arena where
local politics is played out, under the overarching principle of democracy. Like at the
national level, various aspects of a political process are in evidence at the level of local politics such as local elections with or without direct party activity, and rise of and
changes in political participation by the local population.
There are different political phenomena around local autonomy and it can be noted
that local politics within local communities, the relationship between national politics
and local politics and the conflict and cooperation between central governments and
local governments are all significant points of departure for the study of local politics.3
Though the question of autonomy is lined with local politics and it may be analytically possible to study this as an isolated political space it is still necessary to pay attention to the manner and extent to which local politics and government is guided by
the interventions of national politics and governments. The central-local relationship
theory or the inter-governmental relationship theory is the theoretical frameworks
that have developed these viewpoints systematically.4
1
Tandon and Mohanty (2002).
2
Encyclopaedia of Life Support Systems.
3Ibid.
4Ibid.
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 24
While contesting the post of an elected representative (as urban councillors and
mayors in towns and cities or as representatives in countries and villages) is the most
visible form of participation in local politics this is not the only means of involvement. There is a considerable amount of literature that indicates the importance of
women’s informal community work that also amounts to their involvement in local
politics.
Drawing on experiences from Africa, Chabal (1999) has indicated the porous borders between the personal and the political and the importance of unravelling this
in order to understand the political process. If this is so then informal dynamics at
the community level possibly work in conjunction with formal democratic processes
to enable women to access leadership positions. The by now well-known feminist
articulation that the personal is in fact the political logically led to such a distinction
between formal and informal spaces of politics and the importance of the latter for
women’s political agency.
For instance drawing on case studies from South Asia and West Africa, Purkayastha and Subramanium (2004) point to a large number of informal networks that foreground women’s agency – and this would clearly also include political agency – in the
developing world. They point to how local networks from the state of Karnataka in
India have formed informal groups at the periphery and become recipients of development assistance preventing such resources from being captured completely by
local elites. The participation of women in new social movements across the world,
most of them centred on local issues related to life and livelihoods, has also become
an important instrument of political transformation.
However taking a slightly different line of argument, some scholars have rejected
what they see as the artificial dichotomy between the formal and informal spaces
and modes of local politics pointing instead to the commonality of the underlying
political processes of both. For instance Brownhill and Halford (2004) draw on examples of women’s community action in London’s docklands and local government’s
women’s committees to indicate there are theoretical and empirical interconnections rather than disconnects between these two forms of action rendering this dichotomy between formal and informal politics meaningless in any substantive way.
Having identified the spaces for local politics we now turn our attention to the
reasons that are advanced for women’s inclusion in local politics.
WHY WOMEN IN LOCAL POLITICS
There is a substantive body of literature on why it is necessary and desirable to have
women involved in local politics. The economic conditions of men and women differ
and women must have the opportunity to allocate scarce resources to also benefit
women and bring their perspective to the decision making table. The democratic
component of the system will be strengthened by inclusion of women, and the legitimacy of decisions taken will increase as women gain equal access to a system largely
dominated by men.
It is also possible to argue as Siddiq and Allen (2011) have done that women councillors can make a difference for the women they represent, and could introduce a
feminized view to local governance more broadly, something that has the potential
to aid all constituents. That is not to say that women should have to help women in
order to ‘earn’ their place on the council, but that the presence of higher numbers
of women in local politics will make this feminization process more likely to occur.”
Acknowledging this, the role of women in decision making at the local level was
specifically addressed by landmark international agreements and conventions notably CEDAW and Beijing Platform for Action (1995). The International Union of Local Authorities Worldwide Declaration on Women in Local Government 1998; Item 9
says:
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 25
“The problem and challenges facing humanity are global but occur and have
to be dealt with at the local level. Women have the equal right to freedom from
poverty, discrimination, environmental degradation and insecurity. To fight these
problems and to meet the challenges of sustainable human development, it is crucial that women be empowered and involved in local government as decision makers, planners and managers.”
While the participation of women in local politics has been poorly documented
till specific studies were commissioned such as the UNESCO study of 2000 to document and increase awareness of the issue in Asia Pacific and the study conducted by
the Council of European municipalities and regions of 2008, it appears that despite
being under represented in positions of power worldwide, women across the world are
better represented in local politics and government as compared to the national one.
We now examine why this is so more closely.
ENABLING FACTORS
The basic factor that has enabled women to access local politics more felicitously as
compared to national politics is because participation in local government is probably
easier for women to accommodate in their daily lives along with their multiple roles
in the family, household and employment. Local government is also seen as more accessible in terms of the number of positions available and perceived to be less threatening as it is an extension of the work they already do in the community.
“
Women councillors can make a difference
for the women they represent, and could introduce
a feminized view to local governance more broadly,
something that has the potential to
aid all constituents.”
Once the process of women being elected at the local level gained momentum
the environment became more open for them, and to women’s issues being on the
agenda. Of course much of this culture of acceptance in the last two decades has been
prompted by an active women’s movement and by statutory requirements for quotas
of women.5
The report ‘Comparative study Women in Local Government in Asia and the Pacific’ has identified some key factors that create an enabling environment for women
to enter local politics. These are:
Positive laws, practices and initiatives that ensure participation including statutory provisions guaranteeing women the right to participate, signing of CEDAW; national policies and programme such as specific women’s departments and plans; participatory local government structures even if these are not specifically gender specific;
participation of NGOs in encouraging women to participate; training to participate;
regional and international conferences that provide support, training and initiatives
that increase the number of women; encouragement by women within local government to other women to participate and support them and collection of data that enhances the visibility of women.
5
Comparative study of Women in Local Government in Asia and the Pacific.
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 26
In fact training and capacity building are seen as crucial interventions that would
provide an enabling environment for women to enter and assume leadership in local
politics.
In the e-discussion conducted by iKNOWPolitics in 2009 on women in local politics, women from Burkina and Ivory Coast including an aspirant from the latter wrote
in about the importance of support and capacity building for women to enter local
politics. The aspirant from Ivory Coast wrote:
“Women are not enough confident they are not prepared for the job. Many of
them refuse to run for election. In order to increase women number in election at
the local level the following measure are required: Strengthen women ability to do
politics; promote best practices in local governance; promote women candidacy
thanks to coaching and experience sharing; and the reinforcement of women’s
leadership.”
Women are also more likely to participate in devolved systems of local governments which have more autonomy, financial freedom, hold regular elections and are
generally more open to change rather than ones strictly controlled by the central government. In fact decentralisation is seen as a key to women’s participation in local
level politics.
Contributors from Senegal and Mali made this point in the e-discussions on women in local governance in August 2009.
For instance Fatou Diop from Senegal made the case for decentralization as a key
tenet in improving local governance mechanisms by making them accessible to women.
“The decentralization process is one of the main measures undertaken for improving local governance. In order to have solid local institutions, more women involvement is required. In villages and small towns, women are doing all the work
and they are also the first victims. In order to increase the number of women in
local governance quota is required in the case of Senegal.”
Mariam Diallo makes the point that decentralization can also result in enhancing
the capacity of local communities through knowledge transfer:
“In Mali we have 8 regions, 40 circles, and 287 administrative districts. There is
three level of decentralized authority: Regions are divided into circles, circles into
commune and communes into quarters. The main goal of the decentralization process is to share the central power with the local entities. Not only will the power be
conveying but also the skills and knowledge for an effective decentralization.”
A proportional representation system can result in more women being elected
and there also appears to be some evidence that local elections based on the ward system create more visibility for women, and give them a better chance to win elections
as well as keeping campaign costs low.
Introduction of quota systems for women in local government in some parts of
the world such including South Asia has resulted in significant increases in the number of women being elected and employed. However the discussion around the quota
system may need to be qualified a little further.
The summary of the e-discussions on women in local governments in 2009 cites
the example of Jordan as a case in point where the use of quotas in 2007 led to over
300 women being elected as municipal council members. At the time of the discussion in 2009, some 35 countries had quotas at the constitutional level or legislative
quotas at the subnational level, quotas at the party level for electoral candidates (pro-
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 27
portional representation in party lists such as in South Africa), and other forms of
electoral reforms that support women’s participation at the local level.
At the same time many discussants pointed out the need for a deeper understanding of the existing quota models and their impacts. It was pointed out that in
some countries including Pakistan for instance there appeared to be a bias against
those who were elected through quotas – a fact that would be true for other South
Asian countries as well.
A revealing study from Tanzania titled “Why women succeed in local politics”
conducted by Anne Francis (undated) reinforces that in this case the informal factors
that enable women to succeed to political positions cannot be discussed in isolation
from the formal processes.
In Tanzania the local elections are fought on a party basis and in fact the entire
sample of councillors interviewed entered the political arena through the ruling party. From the research sample it was evident that all the women were long term party
members including the women’s wings. Special seats were considered as a stepping
stone to being a ward councillor, but the study indicated an ambivalence about how
women themselves perceived this affirmative action and whether the special seat
provision in this case was in fact more divisive and disempowering.
Informal factors were also at play with the study indicating that it helped to have
a family member active in a party –however further investigation was needed to reveal the extent to which women mobilise these contacts for advice, funds or campaign strategies or simply use them to smoothen the route to power. The study further hypothesizes that a number of informal factors could be at play in explaining
why women do succeed in local politics – among them activism/leadership in formal
community groups such as church, women’s groups school board, village committees or economic and self help groups, supportive family and positive role models.
“
Decentralisation is seen as a key to women’s
participation in local level politics.”
Interestingly in a very different setting in Norway where women entered the
political process in a big way since World War II including at the local level, there
was at least till 1971 a urban-rural divide with lower participation by women in the
countryside where traditional sex role patterns were more firmly entrenched than
in urban areas. Here too at least in the first three decades after World War II family
engagement in politics and role models were factors that contributed to the women’s
success in local politics.6
As a comparison between women in local politics in South Asia, East Asia and
Pacific regions with that of the south east Asian region indicates women are more
likely to succeed if they have had a longer history of enjoying the right to vote and
participate, enabling political and electoral arrangements including affirmative action. Participation at the local level would also be related to the social and economic
circumstances under which women live.
While it may be easier for women to enter local politics as compared to national
politics there are also formidable structural and institutional factors that hinder
their participation. This largely emanates from patriarchy being the organisational
principle at home and in the workplace across the world though in different degrees.
Highly patriarchal societies enforce rules, responsibilities and behaviour for women,
6
Means 1973.
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 28
enforcing these norms in ways that affect their self-confidence, limiting their access
to information and skills and reinforcing their lower status. The following section
deals with this.
BARRIERS TO PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN LOCAL POLITICS
Some of the institutional and structural barriers to women’s participation in local
politics can be identified as follows:
´Entrenched sexual division of labour within the households and outside: While in many
parts of the world such as South Asia women do enjoy constitutional rights their actual
roles are still closely tied to their reproductive and household functions. This makes
it difficult for them to find time for politics. Closely tied to these sexual divisions of
labour are associated cultural and traditional norms that entrench these even further.
´Low indices on the human development index for women: Demographic statistics in
South Asia and Africa for instance indicate low literacy rates, poor health and poverty
particularly for women that points to a lack of basic rights to education, health care,
safety and employment opportunities.
´Discrimination: Women often face discrimination in practice when standing for office
to local government positions even if laws are in their favour. Attitudes that put policies and decision making into the male preserve see women as incapable of management and governance roles.
´Institutional cultures within political institutions at all levels including local ones are
not favourable to women as they often have styles and modes of working that are
unacceptable to them. The male dominated environment within the institution can
limit the extent to which women can bring forward issues relevant for women and ones
related to social justice. Some also find that society and colleagues have unrealistic
standards and expectations for them.
´The culture: Women are not prepared to be involved in political environments which
support an aggressive culture, combative debate and personality conflicts as well as
male; colleagues who have difficulty coping with women and so belittle and personally
attack them. The increasing corruption in politics is another disincentive.
´Campaign expenses can be prohibitive for women who are also active in the unpaid
care economy and earn less than men in the labour market. Once elected they have to
superimpose their new duties on their already existing ones in the home – the lack of
child care support and timings of the meetings have also been a problem.
´The provision of quotas for women in local government has not necessarily created a
culture open to facilitating the participation of women though it may have facilitated
their initial entry into the system. In some cases reserved seats are decided through
indirect elections and women have little autonomy. Sometimes women are nominated
rather than elected from reserved seats – this creates a system of patronage that can
prevent them assuming independent positions of leadership. Even when they are elected from reserved seats and not nominated the reserved seats are seen as having an
inferior status. Considerable training and support is needed to assist women to learn
the way the political environment works and fulfil their roles.
´Dependence on support through kinship and family: For women without family connections barriers to participation remain and even when they enter the system the pres-
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 29
ence of a supportive family has often been cited as the reason for their active participation. This dependence syndrome often means that those who do not have this support
system may not be able to enter local politics even if they have the qualities and inclination to do so.
´Absence of support from political parties: Political parties have historically acted as gatekeepers to political participation and there is considerable evidence from South Asia
that when it comes to giving tickets to women at any level a clear bias exists in favour of
male candidates. Due to the rhetoric around gender equality political parties field some
women candidates but often these are more signs of tokenisms. It does not necessarily
come out of a change in gender ideology that regards equal participation as a norm.
“
The informal factors that enable women to
succeed to political positions cannot be discussed in
isolation from the formal processes.”
WHAT DIFFERENCE DO WOMEN MAKE IN LOCAL POLITICS
Research appears to indicate that women in local government believe they can make a
difference as women leaders by bringing a different style to local government and approaching the job in a different way. Drage (2001) indicates that increasing the number of women in local government will “accelerate the pace of change, promote collaborative styles of leadership and decision-making, broaden perspectives and move
communities forward.”
The report on Comparative study of Women in Local Government in Asia and the
Pacific make the following points about the changes that women can bring to local
politics. According to the report women have a greater sense of the social issues and
the well being and welfare of their communities and factor these into the decisionmaking process; promote policies and activities which strengthen communities; encourage participation; emphasise the importance and the practice of good communication with the community; have a different approach to the way their local authority
is governed; develop a team approach; set different priorities; bring the mediation
skills that they have developed as mothers, the ability to have clear goals, to juggle
many tasks at once, and to be practical; are dedicated, responsible, practice what they
preach and show a great deal of spirit and stimulate and encourage other women to be
part of development. The study further elaborates:
“Women’s concerns and priorities are more likely than are those of men to
center on people’s needs for safety and clean water supplies and for community
facilities rather than just the traditional roads, rates and rubbish. Women also have
a strong focus on women’s issues and a human rights flavor in their goals for local
government, suggesting that changes in local politics will lead to changes in society, less discrimination against women and greater flexibility in work and childcare.
By bringing a grassroots perspective to local government, women make it more
people orientated and closer to the community it serves.”
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 30
WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS AT THE LOCAL LEVEL
For women to make a real difference at the local level not only must they enter the
system but must also be prepared to take on the mantle of political leadership. As
Pant and Farrell (2009) point out “the pedagogy for empowering women politically
for leadership roles aims to enhance the capacity of women leaders to understand,
organise and act upon their needs, priorities, and makes demands upon the system
for better service delivery.”
Drawing on the experience of women being elected through three terms of local
rural and urban elections in India they point out that in the first term women got
elected with no precedence or role models and since governance was new to them
women stepped back, allowing the men to provide guidance including male members
of the family.7
In the second term however the community was more accepting of women in
leadership roles with women now using the legitimacy of their elected position to address several critical issues such as children’s education, drinking water facilities, family planning facilities, hygiene and health, quality of healthcare, roads and electricity
in the village areas. They also took the initiative to bring alcohol abuse and domestic
violence on to the agenda of political campaigns.8
The third term of women’s participation in rural and urban local bodies in India
saw women leaders become more visible as they became more familiar with the processes of governance. Despite this change in leadership roles however, women continued to lack an effective participation base due to gendered identity practices and
institutional inadequacies.
“
Provision of quotas for women in local
government has not necessarily created a culture
open to facilitating the participation of women.”
The Indian experience of local elections over the last three decades showed that
while numbers may indicate presence it does not necessarily translate into meaningful inclusion in the political process as women can be deliberately excluded from the
political process through force or covert strategies.
In this connection a recent study indicates that an increase in female representation in local government in India appears to have induced a significant rise in documented crimes against them, but argue that this is driven by greater reporting of the
crimes rather than an increase in the crimes per se.9 In another significant finding
they point to the fact that large scale membership of women in local councils also affects crimes against them more than their presence in leadership positions.
However there is little doubt that violence against women in politics particularly
at the level of local politics has been endemic in not just India but other parts of South
Asia as well. In fact within the community and political parties as well there have been
backlashes for women who exercise their decision making power and the resistance
often from upper caste males can range from threats to attempts of bribery, charges of
7
8
9
Pant and Farrell (2009).
Nambiar and Bandyopadhyay (2004).
Iyer et al. (2011).
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 31
incompetence, spreading false rumors designed at character assassination, and willful use of the power of no confidence.10
Taking into account the violence against women in politics particularly at the local level, which is one of the most important barriers to their participation, a South
Asian initiative was launched by South Asia Partnership International that specifically
called for an end to violence against women in politics.
A resolution passed by South Asian citizens in 2008 says:
“There are inherent structural impediments that prevent and dis-courage
women from participating in decision-making processes which consequently perpetuates violence, both visible and invisible against women….Violence is not just
limited to overt, visible and manifest ac-tions but can also be congealed and invisible and is deeply embedded in the system of the state mechanisms. Such violence is
unacceptable to the men and women of South Asia.”
It goes on to express concern that “women in politics are subject to a range of
violence and intimidation and practices that adversely affect their active participation in decision-making processes. Such forms of violence include but are not limited
to (honor) killings, actual violence and threat of violence, psycho-social torture, humiliation, degrading treatment, intimidation, character assassination and sexual harassment, targeting women, their relatives and supporters. Abuse of religion, culture,
traditions and patriarchal practices subvert and undermine the interest of women
and inhibit and not only prevent the scope of their political participation in decisionmaking processes but also negate the overall development of South Asia.”11
“
By bringing a grassroots perspective to local
government, women make it more people orientated
and closer to the community it serves.”
CIVIL SOCIETY INITIATIVES TO PROMOTE WOMEN IN LOCAL POLITICS
In recent years a number of civil society initiatives working in conjunction with the
state have been undertaken in different parts of the world to promote the role of
women in local politics. Two examples – from Turkey and India – are instructive in
understanding how such multi stakeholder initiatives can play an important role in
this regard since this is a job that a government cannot do on its own.
On September 9, 2008, a project on women in local politics was launched in Ankara with broad participation from political parties, women parliamentarians, civil society organisations, academics, media representatives and well known international
experts and activists aimed at increasing the number of women elected for the 2009
elections. It involved capacity building activities for present and potential women
candidates and significantly both male and female representatives of local institutions that play a role in increased women participation in local politics and decision
making processes.
At the roundtable and workshops different stakeholders discuss chal-lenges and
lessons learnt on how women can be supported to participate in local level politics
10 Nussbaum et al. (2003); Sisodia (2005); Kalpagam and Arunachalam (2006).
11http://www.sapint.org/uploads/DECLARATION2.pdf
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 32
amidst a scenario where only 0.6% were mayors, 1.81% members of provincial councils, and 2.42% are members of municipal councils. The role of the media as a key opinion maker and its role in increasing awareness on this issue were reiterated.12
In India in the year 1995 a civil society organisation called Society for Participatory research in Asia launched an ambitious and massive civil society campaign ahead
of the elections to institutions of local self government in the rural areas elections
(popularly known as panchayat polls in India). Called Pre Election Voters Awareness
Campaign it involved three important players, namely civil society coalitions, state
election commissions and the media and one of its primary purposes was to launch a
special drive to ensure participation of women both as voters and candidates.
Thus began a process of politicization of women for local elections regardless of
whether they actually contested the local elections or not. Through this campaign
some of them emerged as animators, others as engaged voters. Women candidates
who chose to contest the local elections were supported not only in the constituencies reserved for women but also from unreserved constituencies to drive home the
fact that women need not restrict their political aspirations to reserved constituencies
only.
STRATEGIES FOR CHANGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS
While specific strategies to increase meaningful participation by women in politics
can be context specific, drawing up some broad generalizations and guidelines are
possible.13
´The first of these operate at the systemic level. A quota of reserved seats for women in
countries where few women have been elected filled with direct open elections with the
same status as general seats work better than any form of nomination with its associated culture of patronage. A proportional system of representation and ward system
appear to work better for women. It is also important that local elected representatives
should be paid at a level that will allow women to participate. Funding for gender and
development that emphasizes capacity building, networking and advocacy and finally
recruitment by political parties of women are important steps that can be taken in this
direction.
´Systemic changes need to be backed by attitudinal changes – the culture of local government needs to change to ensure that women are treated fairly and for this gender
awareness programmes for both men and women need to be developed. Local government needs to be more women friendly and consensus style politics and meetings at
times that fit into other responsibilities that women have will create a more enabling
environment for women in local politics. Most importantly opportunities need to be
made for women to understand their roles and functions as soon as they are elected.
´The third set of strategies is meant to increase the number of women in politics and change
their subordinate status. Policies on economic and social empowerment are needed to
enable women to participate on an equal footing with men. Local government needs to
work closely with NGOs civil society and women’s groups to develop communities and
services that take care of women’s needs. Women will be able to enter local politics only
if they find financial support, childcare support and training opportunities and women’s
associations for women councilors need to provide a voice for women’s views and networking. Funds need to be established to assist women to stand for election and gender
disaggregated data needs to be built to increase visibility of women.
12http://www.undp.org.tr/Gozlem2.aspx?WebSayfaNo=1571
13 Comparative Study of Women in Local Government in Asia and the Pacific, p. 8-19.
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 33
Trainings by NGOs, political parties, educational and political institutions are imperative in order to secure greater participation of women in local politics to develop
their skills self confidence, gender awareness rights and also for political leadership.
CONCLUSION
We began by emphasizing the importance of local politics at a time when the discourses on deepening democracy are gaining importance including that of deliberative democracy that celebrates debate and discussion on matters of policy rather than this
being taken up exclusively by elected legislators. If such practices are indeed gaining
ground, the role of women in local politics cannot be overstated.
Since their experiences are different from that of men they bring in new perspectives and new ideas, and to ignore this or bypass it would defeat the very purpose of
such a decentralisation process associated with deepening democracy.
Whether it is in the countries that are held out as exemplars of women’s political
participation such as the Scandinavian countries or states in Africa and South Asia
where the hold of patriarchy is palpably more, the phenomena still exists across the
world. This mindset produces a certain sexual division of labor in the household and
corresponding gendered institutions and ideologies that militate against women participating in local politics.
These are the barriers that need to be identified and removed. This is why the
South Asian resolution around the issue of violence against women in politics concludes:
“We, the people of South Asia, both women and men, collectively challenge patriarchy and seek to replace it with a culture that actively supports equal participation of all. We encourage a South Asian forum that promotes such culture and
values through mass communication.”
This will be as true in different degrees for the rest of the world as it is for South
Asia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Bloomington: James Currey and Indiana University Press, 1999.
“Comparative study Women in Local Government in Asia and the Pacific.” http://www.unescap.org/
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Farrell, Martha and Mandakini Pant. “Women’s Political Empowerment and Leadership: Pedagogical
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Kalpagam, U. and Jaya Arunachalam. (ed.) Development and Empowerment: Rural Women in India.
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Jaipur: Rawat Publications, 2006.
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(working paper) 2001, http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/11-092.pdf
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Purkayastha, Bandana and Mangala Subramaniam. The Power of Women’s informal Networks: Lessons in Social change from South Asia and West Africa. MD: Lexington, 2004.
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Tandon, Rajesh & Ranjita Mohanty. Civil Society and Governance. Samskriti: New Delhi, 2002.
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WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 36
WOMEN IN TRANSITION
COUNTRIES
Struggling for their fair share of opportunities
BY RUMBIDZAI KANDAWASVIKA, ZIMBABWE
One major issue that persists throughout the world is that women’s
physical presence and voices in the decision making during political
transitions to democracy remain weak and almost non-existent.
Though women participate visibly and actively in revolutionary transitions, their participation does not always guarantee women’s inclusion in the decision making in transitional processes and structures.
Consequently, securing any meaningful participation and representation of women in countries in transition is an on-going democratic
challenge.
It can be argued that the unfinished business of political transitions
is the inclusion and representation of women in transitional decision
making processes and the transitions are largely “unfinished transitions”.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rumbidzai Kandawasvika-Nhundu is the Senior Programme Manager responsible for the Global
Programme on Democracy and Gender at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) in Stockholm, Sweden. She is a gender equality advocate and
practitioner, with more than twenty years of hands-on professional experience on gender equality and women’s empowerment initiatives at national, regional and international levels. She has
worked with capacity building and gender mainstreaming in parliaments, intra-party democracy
processes, management of electoral processes from a gender perspective and transformative leadership strategies for women in politics.
ABOUT THE PHOTO
Maliha Ahmadzia, a 25 year-old law and political science student at Mawlana University in Balkh
province, who was running for parliament poses for a photo a day before the parliamentary election September 17, 2010 in Mazar-e-sharif, Afghanistan. About 2,500 candidates contested the
249 seats in Afghanistan’s lower house of parliament. (Photo by Majid Saeedi/Getty Images).
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 37
INTRODUCTION
The issue is not whether women are able to and/or can perform an active role in transitional politics, because they can and are able to contribute at many levels. The issue
is how women’s participation and voices can be translated into critical influences and
decisions in political and transition processes and why is it that women perform visible
and instrumental roles in certain contexts and stages of transitions, yet their participation is not matched with their presence and involvement in transitional decision making processes.
There is global evidence that attest to the existence of various factors that are the
drivers for the continued exclusion of women from the critical decisions that shape
the outcomes of political transitions and subsequently their participation beyond the
transitional uprisings. Ultimately, the critical area of concern is how to ensure that the
”gains” women make through their involvement and partcipation in the demands for
political transformation is institutionalized and translates into changes of women’s
status and position in society as well as into gender-sensitive changes in political systems and institutions.
This paper highlights that women’s involvement and participation in political
transition processes is not a guarantee for their inclusion and representation in the
critical positions of power and decision making at the peak of transitions and in the
established nation building institutions.
The paper focuses on some of the prominent factors and dominant trends that perpetuate the marginalisation of women in many parts of the world including countries
in political transitions. Four striking issues or factors across the different regions of the
world, which are intricately connected and have significant impact on women in different countries and transitional processes and political contexts are presented.
Being cognisant of the fact that there is no “one size fits all” approach as the magnitude of the issues varies within different country and regional contexts, the paper will
also outline possible strategies that can be adapted to support women in transitions
as well as address some of the obstacles encountered by women in these political processes leading to the formation of democratic governments.
Before discussing the prominent issues, there is need to underscore the lessons
learnt from the most recent political transitions that occurred in 2011 and are still underway in the Arab Spring. The most recent experiences from the Arab Spring attest to
the deep-seated hurdles that women encounter in order to attain their fair share of participation and representation in positions of power and decision making at all levels,
despite women’s contributions.
LESSONS FROM THE ARAB SPRING
In 2011 women in the Arab world demonstrated that women can often play important
roles in revolutionary processes and events as women have done before in Africa, Latin
America and Europe. For instance in Egypt and Tunisia they participated in the popular uprisings for democracy and changes in their societies. As elsewhere in the world,
women in the Arab Spring countries in transition are struggling for their fair share of
opportunities to access political power at the onset of transition processes, in view of
the rules of the game that are clearly based on patriarchal values and still in flux.
When participating in the revolutions across the transiting countries, women’s demands were not only calling for the change of the oppressive regimes, but also sought
justice and greater empowerment of women in all spheres of life. Many women still
have reason to hope that the “Arab Spring” will bring changes to the Middle East and
help them realize their dreams and secure a better life for the next generation of women through the democratic transitions away from legacies of autocratic rule, social,
economic and political marginalisation of women to collaboration between men and
women, Muslims and non-Muslims, government and civilians.
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 38
A year later, women in the Arab Spring countries in transition are beginning to ask
why the benefits from the revolutions do not seem to be shared equally between men
and women. Why are few women represented in key decision making positions and institutions across the countries in spite of women’s active participation alongside their
male counterparts during the revolutions and uprisings to end the reign of dictatorships?
Recently, the President of the Egyptian Feminist Union, Hoda Badran, stated that,
“Now that the dust of revolution has begun to settle as the Arab spring countries
begin their transition process towards democracy, women are finding themselves
marginalised and excluded from decision-making. The many disturbing incidents
that have occurred illustrate the extent to which, in spite of the new freedoms championed by revolution, women are still considered as subordinate to men. In Tunisia
a mass protest called for all women to be veiled, which led to unveiled female professors of religion being hounded off campuses. Mobs shouted at Tunisian women
demonstrators to go back to the kitchen “where they belong”. In Egypt, too, conservative thinking is on the rise and voices are growing louder in support of policies that
would represent a backward step for women. A good example of this are the reforms
being made to family legislation.”1
The words of Tawakkol Karman, a Yemeni journalist and first Arab woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 aptly capture the reason for hope and expectations
for change for women in Arab Spring countries, namely Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen
and Syria and in other Arab countries such as Algeria, Morocco, Bahrain, Sudan, Saudi
Arabia. In her speech at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, she stated that,
“Millions of Yemeni women and men, children, young and old took to the streets
in eighteen provinces demanding their right to freedom, justice and dignity, using
non-violent but effective means to achieve their demands. I see the great number of
Arab women, without whose hard struggles and quest to win their rights in a society
dominated by the supremacy of men I wouldn’t be here. This supremacy has caused
a lot of injustice to both men and women. To all those women, whom history and the
severity of ruling systems have made unseen, to all women who made sacrifices for
the sake of a healthy society with just relationships between women and men, to all
those women who are still stumbling on the path of freedom in countries with no social justice or equal opportunities, to all of them I say: thank you ... this day wouldn’t
have come true without you.”2
BATTLES FOR RECOGNITION AND PARTICIPATION
Most transitions towards democratic changes are motivated by expectations for greater social equity, improved political participation and representation in making decisions that impact on societies and the lives of many women and men. Yet around the
world, women have found that, “participation is one thing and recognition and voice
is another”.
In past and present transitional processes, women’s meaningful participation can
be illustrated by an analogy of a journey, which is best captured by expressions such
as, “still have a long way to go”. As women’s participation in revolutionary transitions
is evident, their demands for inclusion continue to rise. For example in Egypt, Dr.
Omaima Kamel, a member of the Constituent Assembly tasked with drafting Egypt’s
1
Article by Hoda Badran, The Arab Spring is looking like a great leap backwards for women,
Summer 2012
2http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2011/karman-lecture_en.html
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 39
new Constitution, affirmed that, “we are working hard to write a Constitution that will
protect the dignity of all citizens, especially in the chapter on women’s rights. We are
also working to ensure the right of women to work and representation in important
positions in the state”3.
Political transitions to democracy are strengthened when genuine participation
and representation of women is included on the list of priorities for countries in transition. Too often, this is generally seen as a luxury to be left aside until the other important democratic values and objectives have been achieved. All kinds of women’s
participation and representation in transitional politics contain battles over rights,
recognition, participation and redistribution of power. The intensity of each battle is
determined by the extent to which consider themselves excluded and are conscious of
the degree to which the critical decisions are made by men only.
These battles are a manifestation of the many deeply entrenched obstacles (both
formal and informal/traditional) to women’s political, socio-cultural and economic
advancement of women across the world. In many parts of the world, these battles and
issues are varied and complex and the challenges for women are enormous. While the
participation of women in revolutionary uprisings in the Arab Spring provided opportunities for the active presence of women, women are still battling for equality on
all fronts and an uphill climb still looms.
UNEQUAL POWER RELATIONS
Evidence abounds to attest that the continued marginalisation of women in decision
making processes in transition countries is in fact part of the broader gender discrimination and the resulting inequalities that span the world from developed countries
such as the Gulf States to low income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
The unequal power relations that impede the effective inclusion of women in transition countries operate at many levels of society, from the most personal to the highly
public. In some countries the inequalities are clearly blatant in the legal frameworks,
such as constitutions, laws and policies.
Across the world, the attitudes about the superiority of men and inferiority of
women at the household and family level are still very common. Within each region
and within countries the magnitude of the attitudes differ reflecting factors such as
culture and religion, the rural-urban divide, the political and legal system. Due to patriarchal notions of power, traditional practices and religious interpretations, men are
still widely considered the ‘head of the household’ with superior status and decisionmaking authority and often greater rights and freedoms.
“
Participation and representation of
women is too often seen as a luxury.”
The implications of family and household hierarchies and stereotyped roles for
men and women are many, including diminished access of women to economic and
political participation and violence against women. Transformed relations between
men and women’s at the household and family level is critical to their full participation in and contribution in transition processes and outcomes in all spheres of society
and it will benefit men as well as women. Periods of transition provide opportunities
to create democratic societies by establishing principles of non-discrimination and
gender equality if the different needs and priorities for women and men are taken
into account during the transitional phases.
3http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=30211
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 40
INSTITUTIONALISED MALE DOMINANCE AND PRIVILEGE
Everywhere in the world, it is evident that political transitions are gendered and their
outcomes ultimately reflect the different social meanings attributed to men and women. Hence, the unequal participation and representation of women and men is evident
in the predominance of men among the leaders of political parties or movements, parliamentarians, cabinet ministers and heads of governments and states.
In most countries, although not in all, women and men have equal rights to vote
and to stand for elective positions. After at least 40 years of struggle, Kuwaiti women
gained comprehensive political rights in 2005. In 2003 in Oman and Qatar, women were
granted the right to vote and to stand for parliamentary office for the first time.
Currently women make up only 19% of the parliaments of the world. 4 Why, then are
there so few women in elective positions of power and decision making at all levels? Why
is that political transitions keep producing and reproducing men as leaders in higher
proportions to women?
To illustrate the point, despite the promising start to the year, according to the Inter
Parliamentary Union by the end of 2011, women represented only 10.7% of parliamentarians in the Arab region. The Arab region remains the only one in the world without
any parliament that has at least 30% representation of women.
However, it is worthy to note that a number of countries in the Arab region have
introduced quotas to improve the political participation and representation of women,
in the face of political, cultural, religious, economic and institutional factors that pose
particular challenges to women in this region. For example, in Morocco, following the
2011 elections and in accordance with a bill passed by the Council of Ministers on 9 September 2011, women now constitute 16.7% of Morocco’s Lower House and this is largely
due to the reservation of 60 seats for women and 30 for candidates under the age of 40.
In Tunisia, the political parties participating in the October 2011 elections were required to include women in their electoral lists in strict alternation. In theory, this was
a strong affirmative measure, but in practice, most of the more than 80 parties contesting the elections (with more than 1,500 lists registered) won only one seat in any one
constituency, which went to the male candidate invariably heading the list. In Libya, the
adopted Election Law stipulates that the General National Congress (constituent assembly) would be composed of 200 members elected freely and directly, and requires parity
on party lists for 80 of these seats.
In Egypt, however, the new law on the Exercise of Political Rights amended the previous quota for women, which used to allocate 64 seats (or 12%) in the parliament to
women. The amended law required each political party to include one woman on their
candidate list, but did not require the positioning of women in “winnable” slots – each
party has the freedom to decide where to allocate the name of the woman candidate,
even at the bottom of the list. This has ultimately resulted in a decrease in the number
of seats held by women before the revolution and democratic uprising, with only 10
women out of 508 members (2%).
MOBILISATION OF WOMEN AS WOMEN
In any political transition process, a key question is why women choose to organise or
not to organise in the different contexts. It is important to pose this question because it
points to the reality of the diversity among women and the absence of a homogenous
“category” of women who are not differentiated by class, religion or ethnicity.
Equally important is the fact that not all women may have women’s strategic interests on the top of their agenda during transformative transitional processes. It can be
argued that women’s exclusion is due in part to the significant social and ideological differences among women as well as to the dynamics of social mobilisation in transitional
processes.
4http://www.quotaproject.org/aboutQuotas.cfm
See Women in Parliament in 2011-The Year in Perspective, Inter-Parliamentary Union.
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 41
Another key factor that prompts women to mobilise as women is the pre-transitional politics in each country. Though the circumstances of transition varied from country
to country, in much of Latin America women mobilised both as several groups primarily
made up of women and women organising specifically as women to press for the guarantees on women’s rights and democratisation of everyday life.
In some countries as diverse as Argentina, Spain and South Africa women maximised the opportunities presented during revolutionary transitions to democracy by mobilising as women along women’s issues. In countries such as Brazil and Chile women
mobilised across class and party lines to ensure that women’s equal participation and
representation in politics and decision making is guaranteed during and post the political transitional processes.
In all transitional processes the capacity for women to mobilise as women consolidates women’s political clout and attracts the attention of predominately male political
actors who tend to then harness women’s support for their own political gains.
On the other hand, this can lead to the incorporation of women’s de-mands on the
political agenda if political actors begin to see women as a constituency worth co-opting. The exclusion of women from the agenda setting and women’s concerns from the
agendas articulated by predominately male leaders heightens the political salience of
gender equality relative to other values. Too often, women’s concerns are considered but
not followed through in the actual decisions and in practice as women’s concerns seem
to have an imposed duty to “give way” or yield to other important values.
RECOMMENDATIONS
How women’s roles in transitional politics translate into critical actions and decisions
is highly controversial politics because those without voice are often ignored by those
with voice. In the face of such on-going challenges, the following multi-dimensional
recommendations if adequately implemented hold enormous potential to increase
women’s participation and representation in politics and transition countries in the
long term. In defining these recommendations, it is important to ask, how much are the
national, regional and international stakeholders willing to invest in women’s empowerment and gender equality?
WOMEN AS AGENTS FOR CHANGE
´Support for women to mobilise as women: Supporting women’s mobilisation as a constituency is a key investment to increase women’s effective participation in transitions. The
support for women has to reinforce women’s capacity as agents for change and cultivate
robust initiatives to mobilise women as women. In order to ensure that the political spaces
opened by revolutionary transitions do not get closed by supporting women to seize the
opportunity offered by transitions to negotiate the changes to their condition and status.
´Additional empowerment: Cultivating and reinforcing transformative leadership skills
among women through additional empowerment strategies that translate women’s presence into critical influence and actions to engage from an understanding of women’s rights
as human rights and the broader democratic issues.
´ Agenda setting: One way to support women in transitions is to strengthen the defining
of women’s strategic interests in the agenda setting of transitional processes and institutions especially constitution drafting bodies and electoral reforms proposals. The agenda
setting support should buttress the need for the implementation of principles and values
on gender equality and women’s empowerment that are written in international covenants such as the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against
Women(CEDAW), which is among the most ratified of United Nations treaties.
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 42
OPENING SPACES AND INCREASING ACCESS
´Adoption and implementation of positive measures: Legislated quotas to get women into
the spaces for decision making is an urgent priority to reduce the representation gap of
women in politics. As it is not only men who are always unconvinced of women’s right and
capacity to participate in public life, the measures that are advocated for and put in place
have to be reinforced with public awareness campaigns on women’s participation and representation. This is because obstacles to women’s participation in all political processes
including transitional processes stems from a range of political and electoral structures
and processes and cultural patterns opposing women’s participation in public life.
´Political parties, movements, groups: Developing political parties’ capacity to analyse their
intra-party processes, rules and regulations on the identification, nomination and selection of candidates for elective positions within the political parties and into public positions of power and decision making. This will involve providing examples to political parties on how they can be conduits women’s empowerment.
´Male advocates: Working with men and designing initiatives that sys-tematically engage
men and boys in women’s empowerment and gender equality promotion and making men
equally responsible as women for the achievement of women’s empowerment. This is involves encouraging men to relinquish some of their power in order for women to have a
fair share in political participation and representation.
POWER OF THE MEDIA
´Mobilisation of media support: The way women are portrayed in the media has enormous
impact on women’s participation and representation in processes and positions of transitional decision making. Working with the media to provide balanced coverage of women
and men and equality issues is an essential strategy for supporting women in politics and
in transitions.
´Advocacy to end gender based violence: The media is an effective tool to fight violence
against women and girls as this remains a global pandemic. Women’s particular vulnerability to gender based violence is one of the most obvious deterrent for women’s participation in political transitions. Media advocacy to address the underlying gender inequalities
that are the key drivers of gender based violence is a vital strategy.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Arab Spring is looking like a great leap backwards for women, Article by Hoda Badran, Summer 2012.
Progress of the World’s Women 2008-2009: Who Answers to Women, UN Women (2008).
Women’s Movements and Democratic Transition in Chile, Brazil, East Germany and Po-land, Lisa Baldez,
Comparative Analysis, 2003.
Unfinished Transitions: Women and the Gendered Development of Democracy in Venezuela 1936-1996,
Elizabeth J Friedman (2000).
No shortcuts to Power: African Women in Politics and Policy Making, Anne Marie Goetz and Shireen Hassim (Editors), 2003.
The Role of Women in Rwanda’s Transition, Elizabeth Powley, 2003.
Women and Democratization: Conceptualising Gender Relations in Transition Politics, Georgina Waylen,
World Politics, Vol 46, No. 3(April 1994), pp 327-354.
Women in Transitions, Fast Facts UNDP Tunisia, July 2011.
Women’s Political Participation in the Great Lakes Countries Emerging from Conflict, International Alert
Report(2007).
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 43
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 44
GENDER AND
DEMOCRACY
Danish democratic transition in a gender perspective
BY JYTTE LARSEN, DENMARK
Women’s political history in Denmark is a success story. Danish women were among the first in the world to be granted full political rights,
in 1915.
Today, almost forty per cent of the Members of Parliament are women, and sixty per cent are men – a gender distribution matching international standards for equality of status. Furthermore, four of the
eight parties represented in Parliament are headed by a woman.
In 1924, Denmark made political world history with the appointment
of the first female cabinet minister. Today, the cabinet has a similar
gender distribution to Parliament.
When Helle Thorning Schmidt became the first female Prime Minister following the 2011 elections, the last male stronghold in Danish
politics fell.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jytte Larsen is a senior research consultant at KVINFO, the Danish Centre for Information on Gender, Equality and Ethnicity. She is a historian and her research and publications focus on gender history, feminism and equality. Over the last twenty years, Jytte Larsen has contributed extensively
with scientific articles and lectures on Danish women’s history, gender equality, feminism etc.,
especially for the Danish Labour Union and several women’s organisations. She is producing book
reviews for Danish and international gender research periodicals, and has contributed to several
lager anthologies. Her latest book ”Også andre hensyn. Dansk ligestillingspolitik 1849-1915” is the
first volume of a handbook about the history of Danish equality policies.
ABOUT THE PHOTO
Leader of the Social Democratic party, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, speaking in the Danish parliament
’Folketinget’ for the first time since winning the September 2011 election and being appointed
Prime Minister. (Photo by Martin Lehmann/Polfoto).
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 45
THE DANISH PROCESS OF DEMOCRATISATION
The Danish success is greatest on the national level. Women have found it harder to
break into local politics, where historical male dominance has survived, notably on
the leadership level. Women hold around thirty per cent of the seats on municipal
councils, and there is only one female mayor in ten.
Achieving this success has been a lengthy process. It took seventy years from the
time women’s suffrage was instituted until female politicians made up a so-called
critical mass of thirty per cent, which any minority generally speaking must achieve
in order to obtain real influence.
In Denmark, as everywhere else in the world, women’s political history is an integrated part of the national development towards democracy. And in Denmark, as
in other Western countries, the women’s movement has been a central player in the
struggles for political rights and, subsequently, for political representation.
Over the course of the nineteenth century, Denmark – initially bringing up the
rear of the democratic transition that created the modern Western world around the
year 1800 – became a pioneer democracy when the Scandinavian welfare model became an international brand. The model – based on equality of status and notably
characterised by a high degree of inclusion of women on the labour market, and a high
degree of female political representation combined with public child care policies and
care for the sick and the elderly – has been labelled as woman-friendly.
The history of democracy in Denmark is thoroughly evolutionary and remarkably
undramatic. The country’s first free Constitution, from 1849, had been carefully prepared, and was adopted in the atmosphere of broad consensus that still characterises
political life. Thus, the absolute monarch remained as constitutional monarch following adoption of the Constitutional Act, and today, Denmark is one of only a handful of
democratic monarchies in the world.
“
The history of democracy in Denmark is
evolutionary and remarkably undramatic.“
Danish democracy was imported from abroad. Following the uprising against British colonial rule in North America and the founding of the United States of America as
an independent nation in 1776, a flood of revolutions swept over Europe in three separate waves. The two first waves did not reach Denmark with enough force to overthrow
the absolute monarchy, but they initiated a much-needed process of modernisation.
During the time of the French Revolution (1789-99), a series of comprehensive
land and educational reforms were carried out in Denmark. Farmers were released
from servitude under the landed aristocracy and were granted the opportunity to buy
the land they farmed. During this period, the establishment of teacher training colleges brought improvements to education, which, particularly in rural areas, had been
of a meagre standard. Compulsory general education was instituted in 1814.
The July Revolution of 1830 led to cautious democratisation through the establishment of elected regional councils – the so-called Advisory Provincial Estates – and
the fledgling beginnings of municipal government. Only a few per cent of the male
population were eligible to vote, but in the years leading up to 1848 the new political
arenas, along with the easing of censorship and a modern press, created a bourgeois
public sphere. Knowledge of international developments was no longer the privilege
of a tiny academic elite that was in command of the major European languages and
undertook educational journeys to the centres of culture. Broad swathes of the pop-
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 46
ulation were now able to read about current political movements and literature in
Danish-language newspapers and periodicals.
Due to these reforms, it was a relatively egalitarian, prosperous, and enlightened
population that took over the management of national affairs in 1848, when the King
renounced absolute power and convened a constitutional assembly.
Since then, the Danish Constitutional Act has been revised three times, with the
latest revision adopted in 1953. The fact that the current Constitutional Act is coming
up on its sixtieth anniversary is remarkable not least because the concepts of democracy and citizenship have been subject to swift and profound transformations in the
period following World War II. Due to this singularly conservative constitutional tradition, Denmark – unlike most other nations – has not embedded a modern notion of
human rights in the Constitution.
DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Modern democracy is defined by both a political system of government and a political ideology. Both aspects were developed during the Enlightenment, whose ideas of
human rights, popular sovereignty, and social contract legitimised the abolishment
of tyrannical regimes and inherited privilege. Under the watchword of “liberty, equality, fraternity”, the great majority of farmers and burghers joined forces to combat the
concentration of power in the hands of royalty, clergy, and nobility.
The grand narrative of modern democracy is about free and equal individuals
who enter into a covenant in order to institute governments that further the development from a state of barbarity, where the jungle law applies and might makes right, to
civilised societies and the rule of law. The societal covenant is, in other words, a social
contract under which private individuals relinquish sovereignty to public authorities
that, in their turn, undertake to ensure the rights of citizens and maintain law and
order. From this perspective, despotism and oppression deprives individuals of their
rights.
This narrative was laid out with model conciseness in 1776 in the American Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of
the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in
such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”1
This was followed in 1789 by the French Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du
citoyen – the first declaration of human rights proper, containing a catalogue of rights
and duties of democratic citizenship.
HUMAN RIGHTS AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS
‘Men’ and ‘homme’ can both mean human, but in the context of the two foundational
texts of the democratic movement, they meant ‘man’. These documents instituted a
man’s rights discourse, which was not replaced by a human rights discourse until the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations in 1948.
1 American Declaration of Independence
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 47
As soon as absolute monarchy came to an end, the liberal bourgeois class broke its
alliance with the less privileged classes and grabbed power for itself. Running entirely counter to its egalitarian rhetoric, the bourgeoisie defined democratic citizenship
in its own image, and reserved political rights for the educated and married man of
means – the paterfamilias. And they called this model ‘universal suffrage’.
The revolutionary left responded with socialism – the second great political ideology of modernity – which recycled the liberal criticism of the old regime, but with the
emphasis on equality and fraternity rather than on individual liberty.
The fact that both bourgeois liberals and socialists conceived of human rights as
men’s rights prompted the emergence of feminism – the third great political ideology
of modernity – with its demands for liberty, equality, and solidarity for both sexes.
Feminist voices were raised in protest from the very outset of the democratic
movements. Among the first was Abigail Adams (1744-1818), who was married to John
Adams, one of the signatories of the American Declaration of Independence. When
she saw the contours of the man’s rights discourse begin to take shape, she warned her
husband that a new rebellion loomed if women remained without legal rights:
“I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, in
the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire
you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than
your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands.
Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention
is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold
ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”2
In France, the voice of protest was raised by revolutionary activist Olympe de
Gouges (1748-93), who penned the first declaration of women’s rights, Déclaration des
droits de la femme et de la citoyenne, in 1791. Here, she replaced the word ‘man’ from
the Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen with ‘woman’ – and gave us an
object lesson in just how patriarchal the famed original text is.
Olympe de Gouges was also the first to gender the deprivation of rights by drawing parallels between the King, who deprives the people of their rights, and men, who
deprive women of their human rights and tyrannise them:
“Liberty and justice consist of restoring all that belongs to others; thus, the only
limits on the exercise of the natural rights of woman are perpetual male tyranny;
these limits are to be reformed by the laws of nature and reason.”3
It is worth noting that human rights in their original inception are founded in
both a religious and a secular world view. In the Christian, American tradition they are
God-given, while the secular, French tradition roots them in nature and reason.
Likewise, it is important to emphasise that feminism pertains to political views
that may be held by both genders. From the outset, men participated in the struggle
for equal status, which is, after all, just another word for equality.
One example is the French Enlightenment philosopher J. A. Condorcet (1743-94),
who forwarded the simple argument that human rights perforce apply to all human
beings. Rights that apply only to some sections of the population are special rights,
group rights, or inherited privileges, which the revolution had set out to abolish.
Rights awarded to wealthy white men can only be called human rights if poor people,
coloured people, and women are not human beings.
From around 1830, we may speak of an international women’s move-ment, driven
2History.com
3
Duiker 2006, p. 499
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 48
“
From the outset, men participated
in the struggle for equal status.”
by American, French, German, and British women, who developed both theory and
practice through close contacts maintained through travel, letters, and exchange of
literature. Against the backdrop of the 1848 revolutions, the world’s first women’s
rights convention, in Seneca Falls, USA, adopted a manifesto entitled the Declaration
of Sentiments, which called for full implementation of equal rights.
THE STRUGGLE FOR WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE
The late fall of absolute monarchy in Denmark meant that feminism had already
found a definite form when the Constitutional Assembly convened. It was thus an act
of bad faith when the Danish founding fathers, who were well-informed of international developments, inducted the Danish Constitutional Act of June 5th, 1849 into the
man’s rights tradition based on the infamous – and erroneous – statement that “it is
thus everywhere recognised that persons of incompetence, children, women, criminals shall not be eligible to vote.”
Hardly had the ink of the Constitutional Act dried before the men of the new democracy admitted that they had set aside women’s human rights. As early as in 1857,
Parliament passed a collection of equal rights laws as part of a major reform programme with the goal of making women full citizens. The first concern was making
unmarried women legally competent, independent citizens.
This was because the pre-modern marriage code, with its autocratic paterfamilias,
stymied the rights of married women. In the article “Three Questions about Womanhood Suffrage”, political scientist Carole Pateman reflects on the differences between
women’s and other social groups’ struggles for political rights. Why did suffragettes in
Britain and the United States have to fight for half a century for the right to vote? How
could demands for voting rights in Western democracies around the year 1900 lead to
assassinations and suicides, mass arrests, hunger strikes, and forced feeding?
Her answer is that the man’s status as head of the family was regarded as the last
bastion of patriarchy. Voting rights was not a question of the women’s cause in general; it was a matter specifically of the position of the married woman. “[S]uffrage was,
at bottom, the wife question, not a woman’s question”4.
Danish equal rights policy between 1849 and 1915 falls into two stages. The most
obvious marker of the watershed is the ascent of the women’s movement in 1871 with
the formation of the feminist mother organisation Danish Women’s Society.
In the first phase, the initiative was in the hands of Parliament, who constructed
the female citizen in the image of the paterfamilias by according civilian and social
rights to unmarried female heads of household. The second phase is characterised by
a close alliance between the women’s movement and the increasingly successful political left, whose agenda was the extension of democratic rights to all, regardless of
gender, social class, and civil status.
In other words, the women’s cause was integrated into the general de-mand for
democratisation, and the struggles for equal and universal suffrage and against patriarchal marriage could be synthesised in the assault on the privileged paterfamilias.
The chief architects behind the new equal status strategy were the husband and
wife couple Fredrik and Mathilde Bajer. They drew their inspiration from the international women’s movement, and specifically from the British power couple Harriet
4
Pateman 1994, p. 336.
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 49
Taylor (1807-58) and John Stuart Mill (1806-73), whose close intellectual collaboration
found its final form in The Subjection of Women (1869) – the first scholarly dissertation on the societal significance of gender, published by John Stewart Mill as a memorial to his deceased wife.
In keeping with the women’s movement in general, Harriet Taylor and John Stewart Mill placed great emphasis on women’s political rights. The right to vote is labelled
“a means of self-protection”, which women had sore need of in questions involving
“interests of women, as such,” since “we know what legal protection the slaves have,
where the laws are made by their masters.”5
“
The 1970’ies became the women’s
decade par excellence.”
The work was an exemplary exposition of the three classical forms of argumentation employed by the movement for women’s suffrage, and which will here be labelled
justice, representation, and resources. The first two of these advocate for women’s human rights, including the right to political representation of their interests. The third
claims that it is not only an obligation of a democratic society to allow its entire mass
of talent to unfold, doing so is also beneficial to that society.
While feminist scholars have agreed on the typology, terminology has varied. The
argument of representation is also known as the interest argument or the feminist
argument, because insisting on gender-specific political interests is often regarded as
especially radical. The resource argument is also known as the utility argument or the
utilitarian argument, with reference to its roots in nineteenth-century utilitarianism.
Today, it is typically labelled the diversity argument.
The historical influence of The Subjection of Women can hardly be overestimated.
The book spurred the formation of the Danish Women’s Society, chaired by Mathilde
Bajer, and it forms the subtext for the political debaztes on equal rights that Fredrik
Bajer, as a Member of Parliament, initiated in close collaboration with the women’s
movement. In the years leading up to the turn of the twentieth century, the women’s
movement had changed from being an elite Copenhagen phenomenon to a countrywide organisation with tens of thousands of activists that had made universal suffrage a popular demand.
On the local level, the breakthrough came in 1908 with the adoption of a modern
Municipal Voting Rights Act, and on a national level the watershed moment was the
adoption of the new Constitutional Act in 1915.
With its duration of some thirty or forty years, the Danish struggle for universal suffrage was a brief one when compared with the campaigns in the United States,
France, and the United Kingdom, where the demand for political rights for women
was raised earlier and honoured later. In France, this did not happen until 1946. The
violent confrontations that marked the struggle for universal suffrage in the United
Kingdom were entirely absent in the Danish campaign.
In Denmark, married women were granted the vote by special exemption because
they were unable to fulfil the general demands in the Voting Rights Act that all voters
have disposal over their estate and be taxpayers, until a reform of the Marriage Act
rendered them fully competent in the eyes of the law in 1925 – sixty-eight years later
than their non-married sisters. The tenet that “suffrage was, at bottom, ‘the wife question’” thus also applies to the history of equal rights in Denmark.
5
Mill 1924, p. 49
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 50
THE STRUGGLE FOR WOMEN’S REPRESENTATION
Equality before the law is the original feminist demand, and the 1915 amendment to
the Constitutional Act was celebrated with parties, parades, and memorials across
Denmark because the recognition of women’s political rights was regarded as the constitutional establishment of women’s rights. This view was supported by the fact that
the government had changes to remaining gender discriminatory legislation on its to
do list, and that those political parties that did not already have equal rights on their
agendas now revised their platforms to include it.
According to this logic, the women’s movement had accomplished its mission,
and many of the extensively ramified movement’s associations dissolved themselves.
Their take on the future was that women should safeguard their interests in the voting booth, through membership of political parties, and in Parliament. However, the
pioneering Danish Women’s Society kept up its work.
The first elections were something of a wet blanket to this mood of victory. The
municipal elections of 1909 resulted in a female representation of 1.3 per cent and a
gender distribution in municipal politics of 127 women to 9682 men. Women fared
only marginally better in the national elections of 1918. Only 4 of the 140 elected candidates were women.
Those who put the initial results down to teething troubles were about to be even
more disappointed. As Figure 1 shows, the following elections brought a decline in
women’s representation.
FIGURE 1
Women in the Danish Parliament 1918-20116
No. of MPs
No. of female MPs
200
150
100
6
2015
2005
1994
1987
1979
1973
1966
1957
1950
1943
1932
1924
0
1920
50
Note: In the lower house up until 1953, when the present unicameral system was adopted.
Source: Kvinder i Folketinget http://www.ft.dk/Demokrati/~/media/Pdf_materiale/Pdf_publikationer/Informationsark/Folketingets_medlemmer/kvinder_i_folketinget%20pdf.ashx
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 51
Generally speaking, developments are uneven, particularly for the first fifty years,
which are characterised by long periods of stagnation broken by some notable forward leaps in the early 1940s and again in the early 1970s.
The representation of women in Parliament thus falls into three phases, which
mirror the general situation when it comes to equal status policy.
1915-1945 with less than 5 % female representation.
1945-1971 with a female representation of up to 10%.
1971-2011 with a rapid and sustained growth in female representation towards the
40% mark.
The first phase ends with the close of the Second World War, when a great window
of opportunity opened up in equal rights policy, as is often the case in post-crisis situations. Across the world, women had made a significant contribution during the war
years, both on the home front and in the field.
Recognition of this contribution came in several forms. Equal gender rights were
included in international legislation through the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The political representation of women increased
in countries with women’s suffrage, including Denmark, and having a female government minister became a must. Other countries, including, as previously mentioned,
France, instituted voting rights for women.
The second phase ends with the beginning of the second feminist wave in the
wake of the 1960s youth rebellions. The 1970s became the women’s decade par excellence, not least due to the United Nations’ prominent focus on equal rights, including
the International Women’s Year, the World Conference on Women, and a bill of rights
for women: the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW).
In Denmark, women charged into parliament, where the percentage of women
surged from eleven to twenty-four per cent over the course of the 1970s. And in a new
development, women’s political representation continued to increase. Following the
long period of stagnation, focus shifted from political rights to political participation,
and the feminist tenet that political organs not having an equal gender distribution
are illegitimate now garnered broad popular support.
Revolutions are created by the assault of youth on old regimes, and the second
feminist wave became the historical youth rebellion of women. In earlier days, female
politicians were typically middle-aged, because they did not run for office until the
children were out of the house. Since the mid-1960s, the mean age for women in Parliament has dropped by ten years, from fifty-five to forty-five, and the age composition has become more diverse. The latest national elections gave seats in Parliament
to two women between the ages of twenty and twenty-four, and two between the ages
of sixty and sixty-nine.
“
The entire female elite in the country was
mobilised in a large-scale media push.”
The young women brought the issues of pregnancy, birth, and parental leave with
them into political life. When the first pregnant woman ran for Parliament in 1971,
and was elected, it made the headlines. Front pages were cleared again when the first
female minister gave birth while in office in 1998. Since then, many have followed in
their footsteps, and today nobody disputes female politicians’ right to have children
while holding office.
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 52
On the municipal level, developments in female representation mirror those of
Parliament, though women’s representation in local politics still lags behind the national level.
FIGURE 2
Women’s representation in municipalities and in Parliament 1918-2006
%
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
2006
1998
1990
1982
1974
1966
1958
1950
1942
1934
1926
1918
PARLIAMENT
MUNICIPALITIES
FROM EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW TO GENDER MAINSTREAMING
Why did it take a hundred years to achieve political participation on an equal level?
A very significant explanation is the fact that for centuries, feminism was hobbled
by a theoretical deficiency in relation to liberalism and socialism, modernity’s two
other political ideologies. Whereas the latter were formulated by the male academic
elite based on major new theories of politics, economics, sociology, and history, feminism did not gain an academic foothold until the 1970s.
While it is true that the University of Copenhagen (the only university in Denmark
at the time) opened its doors to female students in 1875, and that female academics
returned the favour by getting involved in the women’s cause – two of the first four female Members of Parliament were academics – research positions were long reserved
for men. And even if a woman managed to squeeze through the eye of the needle, this
was due to merits in traditional fields of research.
Commitment to feminist politics was relegated to off-duty hours up until the second feminist wave, in which a large, young, and highly educated generation of women
occupied universities and under the motto of Research of women, by women, for women developed theories on the societal import of gender that finally put feminism on a
scholarly par with liberalism and socialism.
By organising the insights that had run as a subtext throughout the feminist criticism of liberalism and socialism since the democratic transition in the late eighteenth
century, women’s studies and gender studies forged the basis for new and effective
strategies, including affirmative action towards the underrepresented gender and
gender mainstreaming.
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 53
In point form, these insights, which seem commonplace today, may be summed
up thus:
´Formal equality is a necessary, but not a sufficient, prerequisite of true equality.
´Direct gender discrimination is only the tip of the iceberg, with wide-spread indirect gender discrimination hiding beneath the surface.
´The private is political.
´Civilian, political, and social rights are based on sexual and reproductive rights.
But in 1915, equality before the law and political rights were the undisputed road
to equal status. Though there were discussions in what remained of the women’s
movement of forming a women’s party, and though women’s lists were entered in
the first municipal elections, the main tenet throughout the inter-war years was that
women should enrol in, and run for office via, existing political parties.
However, in the parties the interest in female voters was higher than the interest
in female candidates, and more so once the first election results had been reviewed.
Political parties maintained that the state no longer had a part to play given that direct gender discrimination in legislation had been abolished. From here on out, it was
up to civil society and the market to create a fitting gender balance. Until 1945, this
meant one female Member of Parliament per party – the so-called token woman.
The women’s movement thus ended up with the full responsibility for increased
political representation of women. To begin with, the movement took up the gauntlet
by launching a nationwide educational programme in citizenship, and by facilitating the founding of women’s organisations within the political parties. Thanks to the
initiative of members active in the women’s cause, all political parties had women’s
committees in the 1930s.
The close collaboration between the women’s movement and the political parties
could also be seen in the fact that women’s organisations until the end of the 1970s
drew their chairman from the ranks of prominent female politicians – preferably government ministers – and that the parties took turns holding the post.
Following the Second World War, the women’s movement expanded its repertoire
to include proper electoral campaigns. In the 1945 elections, the “vote for a woman”campaign was launched. This was to become a fixture of Danish electoral campaigns
for many years to come. The concept is simple: activists position themselves outside
voting stations carrying posters encouraging voters on their way to the ballot to vote
for a woman. This is also when the women’s movement founded the tradition of crossparty election meetings – a tradition still alive today.
The most spectacular campaign was carried out in the municipal elec-tions of
1970, when the entire female elite in the country was mobilised in a large-scale media
push. The weekend preceding the elections, every nationwide newspaper as well as the
major regional papers carried opinion pieces urging voters to vote for a female candidate and written by politicians from all parties, leading members of the women’s organisations, and famous artists. Demonstrating the strength of the feminist heritage,
every single opinion writer drew on the classical arguments of justice, representation,
and resources in their plea for increased political representation for women.
In 1945, the women’s movement also suggested the implementation of a quota
system in the form of a proposal that all parties be mandated to reserve 33 per cent
of the spots on their lists of candidates for women. However, this type of affirmative
action did not receive broad support until the third wave of the movement: between
1977 and 1996, several parties operated with some form of quota system or other.
By this time the glass ceiling had, however, been broken by the second feminist
wave, which paved the way for a new understanding of the entire concept of politics
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 54
and set new standards of female citizenship with the demand that women have the
right to rule their own bodies. Affirmative action became statutory and was, on the
advice of the United Nations’ fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, supplemented by a third equal status strategy, gender mainstreaming.
WOMEN AND DEMOCRACY
So what has a hundred years of women in politics meant to Danish society? First and
foremost, it has meant democratisation. Long gone are the days when regimes that
reserved political rights for (select groups of) men could be labelled democratic. Today, democracy legitimises itself through universal human rights and equal political
representation. In other words, by recognising the legitimacy of feminism’s first two
arguments for women’s political rights.
The resource argument – that women have different areas of compe-tence than
men, and that this has contributed to an improved process of political decision-making – is more questionable.
On the one hand, a clear, gender-based division of labour can be demonstrated,
under which women have handled the ‘softer’ policy areas, such as equal status policy,
social policy, and cultural policy. On the other hand, women have stuck to party lines
in these as in all other policy issues. There are very few examples of women collaborating across party divides, and in the end, it is the male majority that has established
the “woman-friendly” welfare state through their votes in Parliament. More research
is thus needed to properly investigate this important question
The question remains whether the Danish model may serve as inspiration for
countries undergoing democratic transition today, when alternative, and faster, roads
to political equality are available. Quota systems, in particular, have proven to be very
effective instruments.
But maybe the secret to sustainable equal status development is that it is rooted
in a combination of top-down and bottom-up politics. The state may institute equality before the law, but carrying this over into equality in life required the cooperation
of civil society. And here, others can perhaps draw on the experiences of the Danish
women’s movement when it comes to information campaigns, women’s mobilisation
and organisation within political parties, and electoral campaigns.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
American Declaration of Independence. United States National Archives; http://www.archives.gov/
exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html
Dansk kvindehistorie www.kvinfo.dk
History.com; http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/abigail-adams-urges-husband-to-remember-the-ladies
Kvinder i Folketinget; http://www.ft.dk/Demokrati/~/media/Pdf_materiale/Pdf_publikationer/Informationsark/Folketingets_medlemmer/kvinder_i_folketinget%20pdf.ashx
Dahlerup, Drude, Vi har ventet længe nok: håndbog i kvinderepræsentation, Kbh.: Nordisk Ministerråd, 1988
Equal democracies?: gender and politics in the Nordic countries, Christina Bergqvist (editor in chief),
Anette Borchorst ... [et al.], Oslo: Scandinavian University Press, 1999
Duiker, William J., and Jackson J. Spielvogel. World History: From 1500. Cengage Learning, 2006.
Larsen, Jytte, Også andre hensyn: dansk ligestillingspolitik 1849-1915, Århus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2010
Mill, John Stuart. The Subjection of Women. Hayes Barton Press, 1924.
Pateman, Carole, “Three Questions about Womanhood Suffrage”, Caroline Daley & Melanie Noland
(red.), Suffrage and Beyond. International Feminist Perspectives. New York University Press, 1994
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 55
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 56
NETWORKS AND
TOOLKITS
Some resources that can inspire your work
Participating in the ‘Christiansborg Seminar’ in Copenhagen offers the
participants an opportunity to meet with colleagues from around the
world who struggle with similar challenges on a daily basis.
While there is probably no better way of learning than to share your
experiences face-to-face with colleagues in the global community,
this is not an option for all. In fact, for most of us the most practical
option is to read what others have put on paper or decided to share on
the internet.
Much has already been produced by practitioners, academics and
institutions, and some of the resources are listed in the bibliography
section of the previous chapters. In this section we only highlight a few
resources that we find particularly relevant and useful.
ABOUT THE PHOTO
A worker removes election posters on January 8, 2008 in Nairobi, Kenya. Normal business has
resumed in the capital after post election violence abated. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty
Images).
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 57
IKNOWPOLITICS – INTERNATIONAL KNOWLEDGE NETWORK OF WOMEN IN POLITICS
A network developed by International IDEA, International Parliamentary Union, National
Democratic Institute, UNDP and UN WOMEN.
http://iknowpolitics.org/en
This is an interactive network of and for women engaging in politics. The goal of the
network is to increase participation and effectiveness of women in political life by
utilizing a technology enabled forum that provides access to critical resources and
expertise, stimulates dialogue, creates knowledge, and shares experiences on women’s political participation. The network also allows women to collaborate on issues of
common interest. The platform runs e-discussions on selected topics, offers e-learning, and provides a knowledge library.
WOMEN’S DEMOCRACY NETWORK – EMPOWERING WOMEN TO LEAD
International Republican Institute
http://www.wdn.org/about-wdn
The Women’s Democracy Network connects women leaders and aspiring leaders with
their counterparts around the world to share best practices and learn new skills. Working together, members of the Network are building thriving communities and lasting
democracies.
In many countries, women are just beginning to enter the political sphere, and
many continue to struggle to gain positions that will enable them to push forward
democratic reforms. Among women worldwide, there is a growing need to break traditional barriers that discourage or prevent their political participation. The WDN seeks
to enable women to do this, by connecting them to their best resource: themselves.
The goals of the Women’s Democracy Network are: To formalize a network of women
who have gained experience in political and civil society with women who struggle to
take part in the democratic development of their countries so that they might engage
in sharing experiences; to provide training and mentoring opportunities that address
the specific needs of women within the regions of Africa, Asia, Eurasia, Europe, Latin
America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, and North America.
ACE ELECTORAL KNOWLEDGE NETWORK
ACE is a collaborative effort between nine organisations: International IDEA, EISA, Elections
Canada, the Federal Electoral Institute of Mexico (IFE), IFES, UNDESA, UNDP and the UNEAD.
The European Commission is an ex-officio member.
http://aceproject.org
Established in 1998, the ACE network promotes credible, and transparent electoral processes with an emphasis on sustainability, professionalism and trust in the electoral
process. ACE offers a wide range of services related to electoral knowledge, assistance
and capacity development. The network comprises of a global, thematic component,
and a regional component.
The ACE website is an online knowledge repository that provides comprehensive
information and customised advice on electoral processes. The website contains indepth articles, global statistics and data, an Encyclopaedia of Elections, information on
electoral assistance, observation and professional development, region- and countryspecific resources, daily electoral news, an election calendar, quizzes, expert networks
and much more. It is freely accessible to all and the number of visitors is constantly
growing – as of January 2012 the website has more than 1,3 million visitors per year.
While ACE does not have a particular focus on women like networks like iKNOWpolitics and Women’s Democracy Network, it is possible to find a lot of very relevant information regarding women’s involvement in elections.
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 58
EMPOWERING WOMEN FOR STRONGER POLITICAL PARTIES –
A GUIDEBOOK TO PROMOTE WOMEN’S POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
UNDP and NDI, February 2012, 120 pages
This publication identifies targeted interventions for promoting the stronger presence and influence of women in political parties as well as advancing gender equality
issues in party policies and platforms. The lessons learned and common strategies
in this Guide are drawn mainly, but not exclusively, from 20 case studies that were
commissioned by UNDP and conducted by NDI during 2009-2010. The entry points
identified are designed to provide ideas for action for political parties, development
assistance providers, party foundations, and CSOs in their work to support parties.
GENDER AND POLITICAL PARTIES – FAR FROM PARITY
International IDEA, June 2011, 90 pages
The election of four female presidents in Latin America in recent years has drawn attention to women’s political participation and their access to political decision-making. Despite these encouraging results, statistics reveal that the Latin American region
is still far from achieving gender equality in politics. Although women are increasingly involved in politics, they still have limited access to leadership positions in political
party contexts.
Researchers from 18 countries provided input to the Gender and Political Parties
in Latin America database (www.iadb.org/research/geppal/) based on a survey of 94
political parties. This report presents an analysis of database information. The purpose of the report is to provide comparative data on women and men in political parties to inform on the situation and challenges of women’s political participation.
WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT: BEYOND NUMBERS
International IDEA, 2005, 264 pages
Little research had been done so far on the way and extent to which women Members
of Parliament influence politics. With this Handbook, the focus shifts from getting
more women elected to the parliament, to giving those elected the means to make a
greater impact on politics. Key findings include:
It is not all about numbers: While a critical mass of women is necessary to ensure
women’s representation, the quality of the representation is just as important. Training is crucial to avoid the trap of electing “token women”.
Gender perspectives, not gender issues: Women elected to parliament change politics globally; they introduce a women’s perspective into all areas of political life, they
are not limited to gender issues.
Representation means more than elected politics: It means that more women
must have seats at the Cabinet table, more women must be appointed to senior decision-making positions, and more women’s voices must be heard and included when
major political reform or transformation is undertaken.
The handbook includes case studies from Argentina, Burkina Faso, Ecuador,
France, Indonesia, Rwanda, South Africa and Sweden, as well as regional overviews
from the Arab World, Latin America, South Asia and a case study on the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
HANDBOOK FOR MONITORING WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN ELECTIONS
OSCE, 2004, 54 pages
This handbook provides guidance on monitoring women’s participation in the electoral process. The handbook was designed as a working tool to assist ODIHR election
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 59
observation missions in identifying the various elements of an election process that
may impact on women’s equal participation. It sets out practical steps to be taken to
integrate a gender perspective into election observation and should serve to ensure
that conclusions drawn on the extent to which an election process meets OSCE commitments and other international standards for democratic elections fully takes into
account how the election process affects both women and men.
GENDER EQUALITY IN ELECTED OFFICE: A SIX-STEP ACTION PLAN
OSCE/ODIHR, 2012, 76 pages
The report is an overview of current trends in women’s political participation across
the OSCE region. It identifies a Six-Step Action Plan, a series of fast-track strategic interventions which can contribute towards the attainment of gender equality in elected office, in a ‘nested’ model. Each of the six strategies can be a starting point for action, taking into consideration the variety of different political and electoral systems
and traditions in place. It offers a visible understanding of the need to cover all of the
areas, not just one or two, and it links up very well to the understanding of the need
for both a top-down state focused response (legislation) and a bottom-up civil society
oriented response (changing gender attitudes etc.).
COUNTRIES IN TRANSITION – OPTIONS FOR WOMEN’S POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
A conference report by Africa Contact, Gendernet, The Danish Institute for Human Rights,
KVINFO, and Danish Institute for Parties and Democracy, 2011, 36 pages.
The report is a short record of the conference which dealt with the challenges related
to developing and enabling a democratic political culture for women in a large number of countries that are undergoing various processes of transition, including countries in Sub-Saharan and North Africa.
The key areas of the conference were: the structures of exclusion – focusing on
barriers to political participation; responses to exclusion – focusing on best practices
for enhancing the political participation of women; and finally, workshop discussions
on challenges and recommendations in relation to; local civil society cooperation; engaging international actors; from politics of presence to critical influence and action;
and from elite driven democracy to broad-based participation.
AFGHANISTAN’S PARLIAMENT IN THE MAKING – GENDERED UNDERSTANDINGS AND
POLITICS IN A TRANSITIONAL COUNTRY
UNIFEM & Henrich Böll Stiftung, 2009, 192 pages
The report casts a light on the socio-political context and the space of agency for male
and female parliamentarians in both houses of Parliament, the Wolesi Jirga and Meshrano Jirga. Due to conservative gender relations and traditional beliefs about the
status of women in Afghan society, women politicians much more than their male
counterparts have to prove themselves in their roles as the people’s representatives.
However, instead of joining together as one force against the current political environment that is curtailing the political, social and economic freedoms that have only
recently been achieved, women parliamentarians are being swept up in political, ethnic or regional power structures and agendas.
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MAKING DEMOCRACY WORK FOR WOMEN: INITIAL EXPERIENCES
FROM 10 UNDEF FUNDED PROJECTS
UNIFEM, 2008, 24 pages
The document describes initial results of the projects of the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF). Women’s participation in governance, whether in time of peace
or war, continues to be limited, yet it remains a top priority and a critical element
for achieving gender equality. Only when women have full access to decision-making
positions will laws, policies, and budgets reflect the needs of all citizens and support
women’s rights.
The purpose of the Fund is to promote democracy by providing assistance for
projects that consolidate and strengthen democratic institutions and facilitate democratic governance. A common factor among the projects is the creation of an enabling
environment that provides an opportunity for women to participate in reform policies, agendas and decentralization processes. Many of the countries involved have
held elections between 2006 and 2009, and in several countries, women have run for
office.
PARLIAMENT, THE BUDGET AND GENDER
UN Women, 2004, 105 pages
This handbook was inspired by a series of regional and national seminars on Parliament and the Budgetary Process, including from a Gender Perspective. Intended as
a reference tool, the handbook sets out practical examples of parliament’s active engagement in the budgetary process. It seeks to advance parliament’s own institutional
capacity to make a positive impact on the budget, and to equip parliament, its members and parliamentary staff with the necessary tools to examine the budget from a
gender perspective.
DEMOCRACY AND THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE –
A GUIDE TO INCREASING WOMEN’S POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
National Democratic Institute, 2011, 138 pages
The Guide focuses on programs in the areas of citizen participation, elections, political parties and governance. It presents the case for increasing women’s participation
and provides information on best practices and strategies to move that goal forward.
It also offers case studies, check lists and additional reading for each of the areas highlighted, as well as a general list of factors or tactics to consider when designing a program.
WOMEN IN POLITICS DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY PAGE 61
© Danish Institute for
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CHRISTIANSBORG
SEMINAR
The ’Christiansborg Seminar’ is an annual event, bringing
DIPD partners and colleagues from around the world
together to share ideas and practices on a specific theme.
The seminar offers a unique opportunity for Danish
political parties and NGOs to learn from other Nordic
organisations as well as from partners in political parties
and democracy organisations in Africa, Asia, the Middle
East and Latin America.
DANISH INSTITUTE FOR PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY
INSTITUT FOR FLERPARTISAMARBEJDE
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