More than 200 women legislators from 116 countries are attending the Meeting of Women Parliamentarians being held today in tandem with the 118th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Cape Town (South Africa). A new IPU survey presented at the Meeting reveals that women are making their presence felt in the world's parliaments and are beginning to redefine political priorities and agendas. It also stresses that gender equality and the full participation of women in decision-making are key indicators of democracy.
In her opening address, the Speaker of the National Assembly of South Africa, Ms. Baleka Mbete, said that “pushing back the frontiers of poverty is particularly relevant for women”, and that “poverty wears a feminine face”.
The Acting Vice-President of the IPU Executive Committee, Ms. Katri Komi, declared that, significantly, more women parliamentarians were expected at the 118th Assembly than any other. “Even though in some countries, more than 30 per cent of parliamentarians are women, progress is slow”. The next goal is 40 per cent women parliamentarians - a challenge it will take many years to meet.
The South African Minister of Home Affairs, Ms. Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, spoke on the importance of protecting the rights of migrant workers and their families, and on women and cross-border migration. “Another migration-related plight faced by women is the increase in trafficking. Although South Africa does not yet have comprehensive legislation in place to deal with trafficking, the Sexual Offences Act, which came into effect a year ago, criminalizes trafficking for purpose of the sex trade. Last week, the President signed the Children's Act, which deals - among other issues - with trafficking of children. Importantly, this act also criminalizes child labour in all its forms. Legislation is but one mechanism for fighting trafficking. Training of police officers and prosecutors in what is often a complex environment must be coupled with public awareness”.
Commenting the new IPU survey, Equality in Politics, IPU Secretary General Anders B. Johnsson noted that “the inclusion of women in political decision-making is not just about women's right to equality, it is also about using women's resources and potential to determine political and development priorities. In other words, it is not just a matter of right but of getting it right”.
Conducted between 2006 and 2008, the survey collates the views of nearly 300 men and women parliamentarians from 110 countries on gender equality in politics. It highlights that it is women and not men who have been instrumental in placing issues such as gender-based violence, trafficking of women and children, equal pay, child care and parental leave on the political agenda, and points out that greater participation by women in parliament would ensure that their concerns, and many others that men might overlook or give low priority to, are addressed.
Women making their presence felt
More than 90 percent of the parliamentarians surveyed believe that women bring different views, talents and perspectives to politics. Within parliaments, women are seeking to redefine legislative priorities to include their concerns and perspectives. Women in all regions of the world are at the forefront of efforts to combat gender-based violence, which is endemic in many societies, and are instrumental in ensuring that issues such as parental leave and child care, pensions and gender-equality laws appear on the legislative agenda.
While most women parliamentarians identify themselves as being most active on women's issues, gender equality and social and community matters, their male counterparts see themselves as being most active on foreign affairs, economic and trade matters and justice and constitutional issues. Because of factors such as the low number of women in parliaments, which limits their availability to participate in committee work, women parliamentarians feel that their influence makes itself felt least on legislation concerning finance, foreign affairs, national security and defence. They remain concentrated in committees that deal with social issues, education, health and family affairs. While these committees are important, and oversee a large share of public expenditure, women are often absent from the debate on other issues, such as finance and foreign affairs. This means they have a lesser say in determining financial priorities and shaping national agendas.
Women tend to concentrate on the same issues at the executive level. They held 1,022 ministerial portfolios in January 2008, but only 17 of those were in finance.
The survey cautions that “although it is women who are predominantly responsible for highlighting women's concerns, this does not mean that these are their only concerns.“ Some women emphasized that they are making important contributions to a broad range of political issues and that they feel a responsibility to represent the interests of the wider community in addition to those of women.
The survey finds that progress in terms of mainstreaming gender in parliaments has been patchy. Indeed, more than half the survey respondents believe that gender equality is only occasionally or rarely mainstreamed in parliament. Just one third think that gender equality is regularly mainstreamed.
Half the women respondents made it clear that they do not think men can adequately represent the interests of women in politics and that this task should fall to women. However, more needs to be done to forge a partnership between women and men to develop common and shared priorities for gender equality.
Barriers to equal participation persist
The research results confirm that while women are making important inroads, equality in parliaments remains a long way off. Women parliamentarians continue to face obstacles in their work - perhaps none greater than seeking change in political structures developed, and still dominated, by men. In most parliaments, the report finds, the mainstream is the “male-stream”.
Does the number of women in parliament matter? Parliamentarians believe that numbers do matter because, at the very least, the more women there are in parliament, the easier it is to address women's issues and to change the gender dynamics in the chamber.
Eighty-six percent of respondents agreed that greater numbers of women in parliament would increase women's influence on political policies and priorities. However, the latest IPU data reveals that women hold less than 18 percent of parliamentary seats worldwide, and one third of parliaments have fewer than 10 percent women members. Efforts to improve women's presence in parliament need to be stepped up.
Women parliamentarians mentioned other constraints in their work, including the fact that the gender-based policies they wish to pursue are at odds with the policies of their political parties. Political parties are important arenas for policy development and for setting political priorities. The research found the support of the ruling party to be the most important factor in introducing and enacting gender-related legislation, making change vital at this level.
Lastly, parliamentarians identified several structural changes that could help to promote women's access to and full participation in parliament. These range from strengthening parliamentary committees on gender equality or caucuses of women parliamentarians to changing parliamentary processes and facilities to make them more family-friendly. More than half the women respondents and more than 40 percent of the men find it difficult to juggle family and political obligations.
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