gisw13_chapters

women entering politics. Women are expected toperform like superwomen, juggling their responsibilitiesto their electorates as well as to their families.Any deficiencies result in destructive criticisms.Malaysia is one of the most developed countriesin the Asia Pacific region, but is second to last withregard to women’s political participation. 14 Theirbarriers are both political and cultural and are heavilyinfluenced by their religion, education and themedia. Women entering politics in some countriesin Africa are seen as a serious challenge to chauvinism.Women suffer public ridicule and name calling,and even physical threats. 15 Ireland recently legislated16 that parties must ensure that at least 30%of candidates at general elections are women. Thequota system is seen as a temporary measure toenable women to get to the starting post in termsof major decision making. Although the quota providesan opportunity for women to have a voiceat the table, they are aware that “token” femalescould be selected to run in constituencies wherethey have no chance of winning. Quotas can be away of accelerating women’s political participation 17but they should only be seen as one step towardsthe balance of leadership. 18In 1994, the world organisation of national parliaments,the Inter-Parliamentary Union, developeda plan of action to correct the present imbalancesin the participation of men and women in politicallife. 19 A working group consisting of an equalnumber of male and female parliamentarians wasformed to address the fact that “forty years after theadoption of the Convention on the Political Rights ofWomen, and despite undeniable progress, politicaland parliamentary life remains dominated by menin all countries.” The IPU Plan of Action addressedthe conditions needed for women to participate activelyin political life, the legal basis for equality ofmen and women, and women’s participation in politicsat national level, including such issues as actionto promote women’s “political awareness”, respectfor the principle of equality in political parties,measures for affirmative action, the participationof women in elections and the sharing of politicalresponsibilities by men and women. The Plan of14 www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/womenspolitical-participation-in-malaysia-what-are-the-barriers-nazreennizam15 www.pri.org/stories/world/africa/women-in-sierra-leone-facehigh-barriers-to-participation-in-politics-12120.html16 www.thejournal.ie/gender-quotas/news17 www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?newsid=41445&cr=un#.Ub2kB_nVDng18 www.thejournal.ie/readme/column-there-are-barriers-to-womenparticipating-in-politics-332330-Jan201219 www.ipu.org/wmn-e/planactn.htmAction was conceived as guidelines to inspire andstimulate national action for women’s participationin politics, and it is expected that governments,parliaments, political parties and organisations,as well as non-governmental organisations and themedia will all contribute to this learning process.In 2012, Asia Pacific parliamentarians predictedthat it would take 50 years for gender balance tobe achieved in the region if women’s participationin parliaments remains at its current pace. 20 Theyproposed a six-step action plan to fast track womeninto politics – including constitutional reform whichwould expand women’s rights to vote and to holdpublic office; electoral, campaign finance and partylaws to regulate the nomination, campaigning andelection process for entering parliaments; reservedseats and legal gender quotas; party selection rulesand nomination procedures; capacity developmentpolicies and programmes, including candidatetraining, induction and mentoring programmes, aswell as awareness campaigns that counter stereotypingof candidates according to their gender; andgender-sensitive rules and procedures in electedbodies to help women candidates to do their jobsonce in office.Tracking quotas onlineWhile electoral quotas are meant to allow morewomen to be involved in parliamentary representation,their use raises issues about whether quotasactually do contribute to the political empowermentof women, or whether they violate the principles ofliberal democracy. 21 The idea is to recruit womeninto politics, via reserved or legal candidate seatswhich are legislated, or they could be includedwithin political party quotas and therefore be voluntary.The latter is considered the more desirableoutcome.A total of 116 countries have joined the QuotaProject, 22 an online initiative which records and explainshow quotas are contributing to the increaseof women’s participation, and the representationof women in decision-making bodies at executiveand legislative levels over the past decade. Themost successful countries in terms of the number ofwomen in parliament among those whose politicalparties have opted for voluntary quotas (31 out of116 quota countries) include Sweden (45%), Nicaragua(40.2%), Ghana (39.7%), Mozambique (39.2%)20 www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2012/09/20/undp-offers-six-point-plan-to-fasttrack-women-in-politics-in-asia-pacific/21 www.quotaproject.org/aboutQuotas.cfm22 www.quotaproject.org/country.cfm108 / Global Information Society Watch