Putting women off in politics at what cost?

Faced with escalating violence, a lack of funding, and locked out of maledominated networks, many women are reluctant to enter politics with growing concerns that a drive to get women into power globally is moving far too slowly, experts said. Only about one in four parliamentarians worldwide is a woman, less than one in five government ministers is female, and the number of female heads of state or government is set to decline this year to 15 from 17, studies show.

Yet it has become widely accepted that when women rule, in local or national politics, it can make a difference, with women putting often over-looked issues like violence against women or women’s empowerment on the agenda.

With the United Nations’ global goals — the Sustainable Development Goals — aiming for women’s equal participation in politics by 2030, female lawmakers and experts on women in politics said it was time to change how politics work.

They said this included ensuring political parties take the lead in recruiting women, women politicians are given support, and parliaments lose their macho image and “old boys’ clubs”.

Silvana Koch-Mehrin, founder of the Women In Parliaments a Global Forum (WIP), a network of women lawmakers, said the number of women in parliaments may have increased but this has not translated into policy change or decisionmaking powers.

“In some countries the real power circle remains untouched,” Koch-Mehrin told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“You find many women active in NGOs and other organisations involved in policy but when it comes to going into a political party they refuse because so much time is spent back stabbing and building friendships and less working on policy... They can earn more in business.

“But on the positive side the view women are crucial, for equal opportunity and development for all of society, in both developing and developed countries, is now a mainstream view.”

Data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the international organisation of parliaments, shows women held 23.6 per cent of seats in 193 parliaments on September 1 this year, up from 17.7 per cent a decade ago and 11.8 per cent in 1997.

There are no global figures on the number of women in local governments which is seen as a significant gap in knowledge. But the IPU acknowledges it is disappointing to see women’s participation in parliaments increasing by less than one percentage point a year — more than 120 years since New Zealand became the first country to give women the vote.

“It is moving ahead but too slowly,” said Kareen Jabre, Director of the division of programmes at the IPU.

“For women’s presence will often bring to the table issues that were not considered a priority. The first one that comes up is violence against women and particularly domestic violence. The mere fact that women have a voice changes the agenda.”

There is no global study to show the link between women’s political presence and policy changes but some national and thematic studies have indicated positive impact. For example, research showed when peace processes included women as witnesses, mediators, or negotiators, there was a 20 per cent increase in the probability of a peace agreement lasting at least two years. Individual examples also abound. Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet was key this year in getting a new law to legalise abortions when the mother is at risk, the foetus is unviable or the pregnancy results from abuse. Previously Chile banned abortions in all instances.

While the women’s caucus of Malawi’s parliament played a major role in a constitutional amendment this year to outlaw child marriage.

Previously children as young as 15 could marry with parental consent but marriage is now illegal under age 18.

Jordanian parliamentarian Wafa Bani Mustafa, one of 20 women in the 130 seat lower house, said her greatest achievements in her three terms had been fighting for issues that impacted women.