Women in national parliaments
(in percentage, by region,
both houses combined)
| Nordic countries |
38.8
|
| Americas |
15.3
|
| Asia |
15.3
|
| Europe, excluding
Nordic countries |
14.1
|
| Pacific |
13.5
|
| Sub-Saharan Africa |
11.7
|
| Arab States |
3.6
|
| World |
13.8
|
| Source: Inter-Parliamentary
Union, April 2000 |
The 20 countries where women
hold at least 25% of parliamentary seats
| Sweden |
42.7
|
| Denmark |
37.4
|
| Finland |
36.5
|
| Noway |
36.4
|
| Netherlands |
36.0
|
| Iceland |
34.9
|
| Germany |
30.9
|
| Mozambique |
30.0
|
| South Africa |
29.8
|
| New Zealand |
29.2
|
| Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Venezuela |
28.6
|
| Spain |
28.3
|
| Cuba |
27.6
|
| Austria |
26.8
|
| Grenada |
26.7
|
| Argentina |
26.5
|
| Turkmenistan,
Viet Nam |
26.0
|
| Namibia |
25.0
|
| Source: Inter-Parliamentary
Union, April 2000. |
|
The 1980s has seen a powerful
counterassault on women’s rights, a backlash, an attempt to retract the handful of
small and hard-won victories that the feminist movement did manage to win for women.
This counterassault is largely insidious: (...) it stands the truth firmly on its
head and proclaims that the very steps that elevated women’s position have actually
led to their downfall.
Susan
Faludi,
journalist and American author (1959-)
|
|
Nearly everywhere, with the notable
exception of countries like Kuwait, laws entitle women to vote and be elected. But
in reality, the proportion of women in legislative bodies falls far short of representing
their percentage in the general population. The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU),
a Geneva-based organization comprising 139 parliaments, says that men still account
for 86 per cent of the world’s parliamentarians and that no country—not even in northern
Europe—has achieved total parity. In the former communist countries, which once boasted
some of the world’s highest rates of female representation in politics, the percentages
have fallen sharply since 1989.
Likewise, the IPU says, “there has been no significant increase in the number of
women heads of government and, above all, ministers throughout the world.” The average
number of women heads of government is around 12 per cent. And, they seldom obtain
strategic portfolios such as finance, the interior or defence but are more likely
to be given the ministries of social affairs, the family, health and the environment,
which have lower funding and less political clout.
Women in politics:
still “the second sex”
Regardless of their political
affiliation, in all countries women must overcome a host of stumbling blocks that
limit their political careers. “Most obstacles to progress consist. . . of deficiencies
of various kinds,” the IPU says, including lack of time, training, information, self-confidence,
money, support, motivation, women’s networks and solidarity between women.
In every culture, prejudice and stereotypes die hard. The belief still holds sway
that women belong in the kitchen and with the children, not at election rallies or
in the Speaker’s chair. The media often reinforce traditional images of women, who,
upon entering politics, also often bear the brunt of verbal and physical attacks.
In impoverished countries racked by civil strife and deteriorating economic and social
conditions, women are strapped by the tasks of managing everyday life and looking
after their families.
The IPU stresses the general lack of child-care facilities—often reserved for a privileged
few—the reluctance of political parties to change the times and running of meetings
and the weak backing women receive from their own families. That support, which is
moral as well as financial, is all the more vital because women have internalised
negative images of themselves since the dawn of time and often suffer from low self-confidence.
Another obstacle is the lack of financial resources, especially as election campaigns
become increasingly expensive. To make matters worse, women encounter more or less
overt machismo in the form of closed political circles barring entry to the “second
sex”. Lastly, they deplore the lack of solidarity between women, exacerbated by the
fact that the number of available positions is limited.
• www.ipu.org
• Politics: Women’s Insight. The views of some 200 women politicians in 65
countries—from why they run to how they feel their involvement in politics makes
a difference. Series Reports and Documents No 36, Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2000
Women in the Executive
Heads of State
(Bermuda, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Panama, San Marino, Sri Lanka) |
7
|
3.7% |
Heads of Government
(Bangladesh, New Zealand and Sri Lanka) |
3
|
1.6% |
| Number of
countries whose government includes a woman |
145
|
76.3% |
| Minister of Defence
and Veteran Affairs |
4
|
2.1% |
| Minister of Agriculture |
7
|
2.1% |
| Minister of Finance/Budget |
9
|
4.7% |
| Minister of Science,
Technology and Research |
9
|
4.7% |
| Minister of the
Economy/Development |
14
|
7.4% |
| Minister of Foreign
Affairs |
15
|
7.9% |
| Minister of Justice |
23
|
12.1% |
| Minister of Education |
23
|
12.1% |
| Minister of Labour/Employment/Vocational
Training |
25
|
13.2% |
| Minister of Family/Children/Youth |
26
|
13.7% |
| Minister of the
Environment |
28
|
14.7% |
| Minister of Health |
30
|
15.8% |
| Minister of Culture |
32
|
16.8% |
| Minister of Social
Affairs |
44
|
23.2% |
| Minister of Women’s
Affairs/Gender Equality |
47
|
24.7% |
| Source: Inter-Parliamentary
Union, 1999 |
Strategies of change
How can women—a “minority” that
makes up 52 per cent of the world’s population—take their rightful place in the management
of the world’s affairs? The controversy surrounding various measures intended to
encourage them will continue for a long time to come. As the fierce debate over France’s
recent parity law showed, the two camps are divided into the advocates of practical
efficiency and the defenders of a theoretical universalism.
“Some feminists view the demand for parity in decision-making forums as a step towards
the rebuilding of a dividing wall between the sexes, a development conducive to hierarchy-building
and discrimination,” says the IPU. “Others, on the contrary, view it as a means to
eliminate barriers and as an alternative to strategies that have failed to work:
entry into parties (in which women regularly fail), partial redistribution by means
of quotas. . . or pious hopes for a change in mentalities.”
In northern Europe, where the feminist movement is very strong, parties set up quotas
in the 1970s and have been raising them periodically to the point of achieving near-parity.
That policy is starting to spread to the rest of Europe, especially left-wing parties.
But in some countries, such as Portugal, bills in favour of such measures have recently
failed to pass (February 2000).
The situation in developing countries is more varied but seems to be changing. Many
parties and governments—especially in Angola, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chile, Guatemala,
India, Namibia, the Philippines, South Africa and Sri Lanka—have taken steps in favour
of quotas or announced their intention to do so.
|
