Essays On Gender And Governance - United Nations Development ...

Locating Gender in the Governance Discourse
It is in these regions also that women comprise only a small
percentage of the membership of political parties. From Austria
and Canada to Japan and Korea, between 30 and 50 per cent of
members of political parties are reported to be women. In Pakistan,
by contrast, women account for less than 5 per cent of the
membership of any political party. Party leaderships reflect the
same pattern. The Nordic countries, Australia, and Green Parties
in Europe, have 40 to 50 per cent women in their governing bodies.
Even Zimbabwe and Nicaragua report 20 to 30 per cent women
party leaders. In India, women constitute only 9.1 per cent of the
membership of executive bodies in the main political parties. It is
hardly surprising then that the proportion of women candidates
sponsored by political parties should be low. Only 6.5 per cent of
the 4000 candidates who contested the 1999 parliamentary election
in India were women. Of the 78 women who stood as independent
candidates, only one was successful. This clearly suggests not only
that party support is critical, but also that political parties have on
the whole treated the issue of women’s representation in a cavalier
manner.
The main policy response to the under-representation of
women in the formal structures of politics has been the attempt to
enhance representation through quotas, whether in political parties
or in legislatures. The case for quotas is often justified by an appeal
to Anne Phillips’ well-known argument that a politics of ideas
(political choice between the policies and programmes of political
parties, rather than on the basis of group concerns and interests)
does not ensure adequate policy concern for groups which are
marginalised or excluded. This suggests the importance of a politics
of presence, in which women, ethnic minorities and other similarly
excluded groups are guaranteed fair representation (Phillips, 1995).
The issue of quotas is contentious for at least two sets of reasons:
the first relates to the lack of genuine commitment in the political
parties to increasing women’s representation. There are ways in
which political parties may effectively circumvent the quota by,
for instance, putting up candidates in constituencies where the
party is weak and unlikely to win anyway; or treating the quota as
a ceiling rather than a minimum to be improved upon; or
nominating women candidates who would be pliable because
dependent on the male party leadership. Of course there are
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