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

Locating Gender in the Governance Discourse
power in the Communist Party hierarchy (Wolchik, 1994:4). Because
they were less represented in the party hierarchy, they enjoyed little
access to the policy-making process. In post-Communist societies,
quotas are regarded with suspicion, as they are reminiscent of the
politics of the communist past. Sometimes, political parties are also
criticised for fragmenting the putative unity of women qua women,
by their prior claims on the loyalty of their women candidates (as
in Morocco).
On the whole, quotas appear to be more efficacious at the local
level than the national. The Indian experience of 33% reservation
for women in the new panchayati raj institutions is not
unambiguously positive, but there are undoubtedly signs of a slow,
but on the whole cheering, process of empowerment taking place.
A cynical caveat is inserted by those who argue that men do not
oppose women’s representation in local-level institutions so long
as women are kept out of national level institutions where real
power is concentrated (Rai, 1999:96). However, the greater success
that attends women’s involvement in local politics may, in some
social contexts, be unrelated to quotas. Thus, till 1980, the municipal
councils in Turkey showed an increasing percentage of women
because the routines of municipal politics fitted in better with their
domestic duties, and because the women’s sections of political
parties (especially the ruling RPP) started becoming influential in
election primaries. In 1980, when the activities of the women’s
sections of the political parties were closed down, the participation
of women in even this limited sphere of institutional politics
diminished, as women could henceforth participate only by directly
competing with men (Gunes-Ayata, 1995:243). However, though
fewer in number, those who entered politics by competing with
men rather than as symbols, have tended to behave more
independently and are often more sympathetic to women’s issues
(ibid.:248). In Israel, without quotas, the number of women
participating in local politics has been steadily rising, even as the
number of those taking part in national politics has remained stable.
This is apparently because the parties believe that the inclusion of
at least one woman on every local council is a political necessity
(Chazan, 1997).
The phenomenon of under-representation in legislative bodies
tends to be replicated in international and national bureaucracies.
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