Sexual harassment hits women in politics
Women in politics continue to suffer violence at the hands of their male counterparts, a matter which has been identified as a barrier to their political journey. Sexual harassment against women in politics has attracted attention of feminists and gender
Quizzed on how sexual harassment affects women in politics, women veterans who have fought all kinds of sexual harassment and Gender Based Violence (GBV) said even though women have made significant inroads into politics in recent years, their involvement has spurred attacks.
They are steadfast that gender violence is a barrier that is used to silence women’s voices in politics as women’s political participation remains low in Botswana.
A staunch advocate for women and girls’ rights and also former Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Botlogile Tshireletso said sexual harassment against women in politics remains a hidden problem because women have normalised it as part of the political game. Tshireletso also said many women remain quiet fearing that speaking out may harm their political careers. She stated that usually women are violated during political party conferences and elections campaigns in an effort to degrade their personal dignity.
The former Assistant Minister further stated that despite negative consequences, women rarely report sexual harassment to party leadership or publicly accuse a perpetrator because publicising traumatic experiences is often a major challenge for victims. She added that the victims would rather disclose the violence years after a harassment occurred just sharing with friends not reporting the matter.
“Usually, these men target young aspiring women in politics and publicise what transpired in order to harm public perceptions of their suitability for political office. The majority of young women in politics have received unwanted sexual advances or have been sexually abused but
they remain silent because of fear of victimisation because usually perpetrators are men holding position of power,” she said.
Tshireletso further said a lot of young aspiring women have in the past decided to quit politics after suffering harassment hence the decline in
women’s political participation.
“Aspiring women in politics have lost dignity, confidence and interest in politics due to this abuse something that calls for immediate attention. Concerned by this scourge, I have been encouraging women in politics to voice out and report sexual harassment,” she said. Asked what could be done to curb this scourge, Tshireletso said at party level parties should try to caution men in politics to respect women and stop viewing them as sex objects but the violence persists because it mostly depends on one’s character. Moreover, Tshireletso said even political parties’ women’s wing committees have documented the problem by drafting manifestos and new codes of conduct forbidding bullying and harassment to enhance women’s security in the political space.
For her part, retired Gender Links country manager and the councilor for Taung ward, Keabonye Ntsabane said culturally sexual harassment matters are not issues which are easy to speak about.
“Really, I have never heard women in politics talking about it. I have conducted workshops for Gender Links on GBV survivors and mostly were youth and adults. Through this programme, women were able to speak out on which a book was published titled, I Stories. In those three workshops there were no women in politics.
I think it’s time to engage them as a group,” she said. Ntsabane said it is a taboo for people to talk about this issue. Even when they talk, in most cases they don’t want their names to be disclosed. “In a nutshell, the majority of women are affected in general that is why we read a lot in newspapers or social media but the majority of them remain silent.
If sexual harassment affect people in different ways like mentally and emotionally, now imagine as women in politics, who interact with people at council and at Parliament because they need a fresh mind everyday to be productive,” Ntsabane said.