Background Document - Danish Institute for Parties and Democracy

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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
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Page 7 and 8: CONTENTS 9 Young women in politics
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Page 13 and 14: ing able to keep up with and ‘bei
Page 15 and 16: youth population. Overall, it could
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Page 21 and 22: BIBLIOGRAPHY Ann, Teo Sue and Shuib
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Page 31 and 32: WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS AT TH
Page 33 and 34: amidst a scenario where only 0.6% w
Page 35 and 36: Jaipur: Rawat Publications, 2006. M
Page 37 and 38: WOMEN IN TRANSITION COUNTRIES Strug
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Page 45 and 46: GENDER AND DEMOCRACY Danish democra
Page 47 and 48: ulation were now able to read about
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Page 57 and 58: NETWORKS AND TOOLKITS Some resource
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Page 64: CHRISTIANSBORG SEMINAR The ’Chris

Background Document - Danish Institute for Parties and Democracy

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