Women in parliament: not enough progress
“At this rate, we will not achieve parity in parliament before 2050”, said IPU Secretary General, Mr. Anders B. Johnsson, presenting the statistics of women in parliaments and in governments to the press in New York and in Geneva, on 29 February and 4 March 2008. As of 1 January 2008, of all the legislators in parliament around the world, 17.7 per cent were women, an all-time high, but still very slow progress.Following renewals in 63 countries (78 chambers of parliament) during 2007, increases in the number of women were registered in 58 per cent of the cases, with women winning 16.9 percent of all parliamentary seats up for grabs in 2007. Of the women who won seats, 1,764 were directly elected, 116 were indirectly elected, and 133 were appointed.
In 20 per cent of the chambers renewed, women's representation remained the same as in the previous legislature. Worse still, in 22 per cent of the chambers renewed, fewer women members gained seats.
More parliaments exceeding the 30% critical mass
Women gained 30 per cent or more of the seats up for renewal in 13 chambers. Interestingly, four parliaments can boast today more than 40 per cent women membership. Joining Rwanda and Sweden, who have been in the lead for several years now, Argentina elected 40 per cent of women in its Lower House and Finland increased its numbers, reaching 41.2 per cent of women. Upper Houses have also made significant progress. In the Senate of the Bahamas, women hold 60 per cent of the seats – the highest number ever reached in a parliamentary chamber.The Americas and Nordic countries continue to climb
The Americas registered some impressive gains for women during 2007: an average of 28 per cent of the seats renewed in the 10 chambers went to women, boosting the regional average of women parliamentarians to over 20 per cent. This is owing to important gains in Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, Bahamas and Guatemala.The Nordic countries continued to elect the highest number of women to their parliaments. Their regional average increased to 41.4 per cent after Denmark, Finland and Iceland elected significant numbers of women to their parliaments. The Pacific Island States had the lowest return rate of women to parliament in 2007, at 1.8 per cent. No women were elected in the Federated States of Micronesia and in Nauru.
The most progress in 2007 was made by Kyrgyzstan, which went from no women in parliament to 25.6 per cent further to elections held in 2007. This was owing to the introduction of a proportional representation system, with political parties required to present at least 30 per cent of women candidates.
IPU exhibition at the Palais des Nations in Geneva
IPU Secretary General, Mr. Anders B. Johnsson, inaugurated on 4 March an exhibition entitled “Women in Politics” at the Palais des Nations. The exhibition, divided into several panels, evokes issues such as the main hurdles women encounter in accessing parliament, parliaments with the highest and lowest numbers of women MPs, figures for women Speakers of Parliament, the democratic approach from the gender equality perspective, and women at IPU. The exhibition was set up in the passageway between the old and new buildings of UNOG. Copies of the new Map of Women in Politics: 2008 - a joint IPU-UN project - with statistics on women in parliament and government throughout the world at 1 January 2008, were made available to the public.
Women Heads of State and heads of Parliament
Women remain a minority in the highest positions of the State. Of the 150 Heads of State at the start of 2008, only seven or 4.7 per cent were women. For heads of government, the proportion is lower still, at 4.2 per cent, accounting for eight women among the world's 192 heads of government. For women Speakers of Parliament, the total stands at roughly 10 per cent - 28 women Speakers of Parliament, almost half of which come from Latin American and Caribbean parliaments.Women in the Executive
For women in the executive, at the global level, 16.1 per cent of all ministerial portfolios were held by women, an overall increase of two percentage points on the proportion for 2005. These findings are based on the Map of Women in Politics: 2008 produced by IPU and the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women.
The number of countries with no women ministers has declined from 19 to 13. The under-representation of women in positions of government is featuring more frequently as a key political issue. Unlike in some parliaments, where different measures exist to secure seats for women legislators, in the executive branch of government it is often sheer political will that matters.
Two countries have surpassed the 50 per cent mark for women in ministerial positions: Finland with 58 per cent and Norway with 55.6 women ministers. Grenada comes in third place with 50 per cent. The three front runners are closely tailed by Sweden, France, South Africa, and Spain — countries in which the leadership has voiced a strong political commitment to gender equality. Twenty-two countries have over 30 per cent of women in cabinet posts: 12 of these countries are in Europe and six in the Latin America and Caribbean region. In 2005, only 17 countries - mostly in Europe - topped the 30 per cent mark. At the bottom end of the scale, 13 countries have no women at all heading ministries, and eight have a proportion of less than 5 per cent.
The regional picture for women ministers shows progress for the Americas and the Nordic States since 2005. The Americas have pushed their average up from 17 to 23 per cent, and the Nordics also boast a five percentage point increase, from 42.5 to 47.5 per cent. This trend, with the Nordic States and the Americas in the lead, mirrors the pattern in parliaments. Meanwhile, the Arab States have seen a one percentage point increase to 8 per cent, and Asia remains stagnant, also around the 8 per cent mark.
Most ministerial portfolios held by women are related to social affairs, family, children, youth and women's affairs. Next on the list come education and the environment. On a positive note, this year there are more women heading ministries for trade, employment, foreign affairs, and justice. Defence remains securely at the bottom, with only six out of the 1,022 defence portfolios held by women worldwide.
Members of United States Congress participate in launch of Map of Women in Politics 2008
At an event organized by the IPU in Washington on 5 March, in conjunction with the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, five members of Congress took to the podium to raise awareness of the issue and help launch the Map to the American public.The members were: Lois Capps, Jan Schakowsky, Diane Watson, Christopher Shays, and Donald Payne, and one of the points raised during the discussion was about the need for parliaments to constitute bipartisan caucuses devoted to women's issues. For example, the Congressional Women's Caucus, of which Ms. Capps is co-Chair, has proved to be an effective organizing tool and a forum for a broad range of women's issues to be discussed in the open.
However, change also needs to occur at the grass-roots levels. As Ms. Schakowsky noted, a recent study compared a group of women to an equally qualified (in terms of skills, age, and other criteria) group of men, and asked how prepared they felt to run for office. It turned out that for every male respondent who said he did not feel up to the job, there were two women who felt the same way.
The disparity between men and women parliamentarians originates deep down then, at the level of self-perception and self-confidence, and will require more education and pro-active training of women to enable them to find their voice as community leaders and would-be politicians. In developing countries these solutions are even more difficult to apply of course because of scarce resources. That will require more foreign aid to be spent on women's issues.
Other panellists were Ms. Marie Wilson, President of The White House Project, a US-based organization, and Mr. Anders Johnsson, IPU Secretary General.
IPU to continue sensitizing political leaders on female genital mutilation
To mark the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) on 6 February last, over 150 representatives of international organizations, civil society and the local authorities in Geneva gathered at The House of Parliaments to discuss ways of putting an end to the harmful practice.
IPU Secretary General, Mr. Anders B. Johnsson, called for synergy among international organizations, political and religious leaders, the media, civil society and the medical corps so that the goal to which we aspired at the African Parliamentary Conference held in Dakar, Senegal, in December 2005, “to abandon this practice within a generation” may become reality.
IPU is committed to continue its drive to sensitize political leaders and men and women in Africa and beyond to the need to continue this work and to form a network. “There is no question about the importance of framing laws, but information and awarenessraising are essential because if the laws are not passed, there is a high chance that they won't be implemented,” added Mr. Johnsson.
Ms. Fabienne Bugnon, of the Department of Institutions, state of Geneva, read out a message sent by Ms. Micheline Calmy-Rey, Federal Councillor and Swiss Minister for Foreign Affairs, in which she expressed her conviction that “only a strong and international alliance will enable us to convince people that such practices must be abandoned without delay”. Ms. Bugnon recalled that every 15 seconds, somewhere in the world a little girl is a victim of cutting. “Together we have to be able to put an end to this human tragedy”, she said. For international organizations such as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), WHO and UNICEF, female genital mutilation constitutes an act of violence against the physical, sexual and psychological integrity of women, and are an affront to fundamental human rights and the rights of the child. Two million girls are excised every year in the name of tradition.
Ms. Berhane Ras-Work, of the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices, recalled that female genital mutilation is not only practised in 28 African countries, but also in countries in the Arabian Peninsular, especially Yemen and Oman, as well as in Malaysia and Indonesia. Ms. Ndioro Ndiaye of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) added that although FGM has for long been considered taboo, nowadays, because of migratory flows, the problem is taking on an increasingly international scope.
The President of the State Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, Mr. Laurent Moutinot, concluded by saying that it was difficult to combat practices that were considered normal “because we first have to show that they are not”. Professor Abdoulaye Sow, an anthropologist and lecturer at the University of Nouakchott (Mauritania), made an appeal to dispel the myths surrounding the practice, stressing that FGM is not based on any religious, medical, social or aesthetic imperative.
Representatives of IOM, WHO, OHCHR, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Inter- African Committee, the Department of Institutions of Geneva, UNICEF Switzerland as well as representatives of civil society were in attendance to this panel, moderated by Euronews journalist Mohamed Abdel Azim.