International IDEA Celebrates International Women’s Day, 8 March 2009

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Translating Commitments into Action:

Realities for Women to Access Positions of Power and Decision Making

Women of the world are being celebrated on International Women’s Day 8th March 2009 by International IDEA under the theme Translating Commitments into Action: Realities for Women to Access Positions of Power and Decision Making. Not only are we celebrating the milestones and gains made to date but importantly, re-affirm the need for women to be heard at all levels of decision making – and for the politics of accountability that ensures this! Read more

Different Voices - International IDEA has interviewed women from Nepal, Peru and Sierra Leone on their real-life experiences on achieving positions of power and decision making…

Getting the numbers right! – How well represented are women in Latin America, Asia and Africa…

New publication – In 2008, International IDEA and Stockholm University authored a study commissioned by the European Parliament on Electoral gender quota systems and their implementation in Europe…

International IDEA gender resources – More than 30 titles on gender, both from a regional and global perspective, are available for download free of charge!...

Different Voices

What are the strategies to sustain the opening up of political spaces for women to access the decision making positions as well as retaining the “critical minority” of women in these positions of power and decision making?

International IDEA has interviewed women from Nepal, Peru and Sierra Leone on their real-life experiences on achieving positions of power and decision making.

peru

Interview with Anel Towsend, Peruvian politician, former member of the Peruvian Congress and former Minister of Women and Social Development. Currently she is a Consultant on Gender issues. (Spanish)

"The responsibility to promote gender-sensitive legislation and ensure that it is enforced is shared by the state, political parties and civil society. Once elected, women face constant challenges related to staying in office and running for re-election, including conflicts with their family responsibilities."

Nepal

Interview with Pushpa Bhusal, Constituent Assembly member of Nepal, Central Committee Member of the main opposition Nepali Congress Party. (English)

"Our society is dominated by the male figure, male attitudes..so we need to change our society attitude..we need some other language in our new constitution, because that new language can change our social attitude, our male attitude...we need some honourful language concerning women's issues."

Nepal

Interview with Amrita Thapa, Constituent Assembly member of Nepal, Central Committee Member of the ruling United CPN Maoist Party. (Nepali)
Transcript (English, PDF format)

"The state should take responsibility for education, employment and health so that more women can come into politics. If the state can take responsibility for children and elderly people and build women friendly infrastructures, this will also encourage women and increase their representation."

sierra leone

Interview with Yasmin Jusu-Sheriff, Commissioner, the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone (English)

"We need to maintain the support system which we have built to put women into power. Sometimes talking to women in decision making positions, and even feeling it myself, you feel that you get a lot of support, a lot of advocacy, a lot of good will to get you into the position, but when you are there, you sometimes feel a little bit on your own."

Latin America

Thirty years after the start of the third wave of democracy in Latin America, the region´s critical challenge is ensuring that democracy works for all citizens in equal measure regardless of gender. While real progress has been made, it is uneven. Electoral engineering and quotas have increased the number of women elected in a number of countries. Broader change however also depends on a series of long-term strategies that involve a broad spectrum of actors, including government, political parties, women´s movements, media and civil society.

Nepal

The elections of Nepal’s Constituent Assembly (CA) were held in April 2008 - these elections witnessed a sea change in terms of women’s representation in the CA/Legislature from 6% to 33 %, which can be considered a big victory for the women of Nepal. The women CA members are now struggling to include gender equality and women’s perspectives into the new constitution – women are making their arguments based on numbers but are also referring to the importance of being part of politics so as to open up doors for women in other sectors.

Sierra Leone

Established by an act of parliament, the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone is an independent national institution with the responsibility to promote and protect human rights in the country. In the legislation setting up this Commission, there is a legal requirement that there should be at least two women out of the five commissioners on the Commission.

Getting the numbers right!

Latin America

In 2008, only the Dominican Republic and Paraguay held presidential elections, while Paraguayans also elected parliamentary representatives. But these elections resulted in little overall change in women’s political representation.

The average proportion of female government ministers is 24%, although they now head ministries of defense, internal security and foreign relations, which were historically male bastions.
The average proportion of women in Congress (lower house or unicameral) is 21%
There are also significant differences among countries in the region. In Argentina, one of every three members of Congress is female, contrasting with Brazil, where the figure is one in 12. Women are also conspicuous by their absence at the local level. In most of the region’s countries (11), no more than 10 percent of mayors are women.

Africa

Quotas are a necessary short-term strategy for women to access the male dominated decision making sphere. Findings show that:

African countries with quotas (legislated or constitutional quotas (Rwanda) and voluntary party quotas) have fared well in terms of parliamentary/legislative seats held by women compared to countries without quotas.
For instance Rwanda 56.3 %, Angola 37.3 %, Burundi 30.5 %, Mozambique 36 %, Uganda 30.7 %, Namibia 30 %, South Africa 32 &, Tanzania 40 %.

Asia

In Nepal, women’s representation in the lower house went from 6% to 33% as a result of the Constituent Assembly elections in April 2008.
The proportion of women in lower house in India is 9.1% and in Indonesia 11.6%

New publication on electoral gender quotas in Europe

In 2008, International IDEA and Stockholm University authored a study commissioned by the European Parliament on Electoral gender quota systems and their implementation in Europe.

Go to the report!

Executive summary:

Although controversial, electoral gender quotas are in use in almost half of the countries in the world today. Until recently, Europe has not been in the forefront of this new development. However, this report shows that five European Union (EU)/European Economic Area (EEA) countries have introduced gender quotas by law – most recently Spain, Portugal and Slovenia – and that in more than half of the EU/EEA countries some of the political parties have adopted voluntary party quotas for their electoral lists.

This report maps the diffusion of gender quotas in Europe and lists the many different types of quotas in use. The arguments for and against quotas are studied, and the implementation and effect of gender quotas are scrutinised. In-depth case studies have been conducted of eight countries, four with legislated gender quotas – Belgium, France, Slovenia and Spain – and four with voluntary gender quotas – Germany, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. A questionnaire, which has been sent to all political parties in the EU/EEA countries, illuminates some attitudinal differences concerning gender quotas among the responding parties (the PARQUOTA Survey).

The report shows that gender quotas have led to remarkably rapid increases in women’s representation in some cases but also to disappointment in other cases. The main conclusion is that, in order to be effective, a quota system must be compatible with the electoral system in place and that quota rules – for example, of 30 or 40 per cent women on electoral lists – must be supplemented with rules concerning rank order as well as – in the case of legislated quotas – effective legal sanctions.

Quotas are only one among many measures for increasing women’s political representation. In general, the political parties are the gatekeepers to gender balance in political decision making because they control ‘the secret garden of nominations’. The study ends with six recommendations for future action.

With or without gender quotas, political parties should adopt action plans for recruiting an equal number of women and men as candidates for ‘winnable’ seats and, in general, for making party politics more inclusive.
Tools for gender monitoring of nominations and elections should be developed.
Multiple measures, such as capacity-building programmes, should be developed and applied.
If gender quotas are applied, they must be compatible with the electoral system if they are to be effective.
Explicit rules about the implementation of gender quotas, such as rank-ordering rules, legal sanctions for non-compliance (legislated quotas) and a ‘contract’ with the local party organisations (voluntary party quotas) are needed.
In the case of legislated quotas, institutional bodies should supervise the implementation. Money should be provided for further research on the implementation and effects of gender quotas.

IDEA gender resources

iKNOW Politics

The International Knowledge Network of Women in Politics (iKNOW Politics) is the first virtual network linking women in politics throughout the world. Drawing on a database of over 100 experts on women in politics, this innovative global platform was specifically designed to promote gender-sensitive governance and advance the role and number of women in political and public life.

Quotas for Women

International IDEA and Stockholm University are producing a comparative knowledge and resources on their implementation and impact of quotas for women. This website provides information on the various types of quotas in existence today, detailing the percentages and targets in countries where they are applicable. This database is intended as a working research tool.

IDEA women in politics publications

From Rhetoric to Practice: Best Practices for Women's Participation in Political Parties in Latin America (Spanish) »
Del dicho al hecho: manual de buenas practicas para la participacion de mujeres en los partidos politícos latinoamericanos
Spanish, 64 pages
Free of charge

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Translating Commitments into Action:

Realities for Women to Access Positions of Power and Decision Making

Different Voices

peru

Nepal

Nepal

sierra leone

Latin America

Nepal

Sierra Leone

Getting the numbers right!

Latin America

Africa

Asia

New publication on electoral gender quotas in Europe

Executive summary:

IDEA gender resources

iKNOW Politics

Quotas for Women

IDEA women in politics publications

International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA)

Strömsborg, SE-103 34 Stockholm, Sweden | Tel: +46 8 698 37 00 | Fax: +46 8 20 24 22

E-mail: info@idea.int | Website: www.idea.int | © 2009, International IDEA. All rights reserved.

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