This topic is very important for women’s political participation. It is true that women often hesitate to run in politics due to the heavy workload at home and at work, and sometimes they event face a triple workload. Many women feel torn between their family responsibilities and political careers. In the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Survey of Women and Men in Parliaments ( http://www.ipu.org/PDF/publications/equality08-e.pdf) , women mentioned “domestic responsibilities” as the number one factor that deters them from entering politics, while the same factor only ranked 11th among male respondents. A classic example is when women are forced to attend late night meetings in parliaments and political parties, which they often may not be able to do because they need to take care of their children and families at that time. It also may not be safe for them for them to travel at night to attend a meeting or a social gathering, which means that they need to find a male chaperon or an escort to be able to attend the meeting. In some cases, women also have to maintain work-load at their regular jobs on top of being involved in politics and having families. This is particularly relevant for women running and participating in local governments.

These and many other barriers require a consistent and step-by-step policy approach aimed at creating a favorable environment for women to participate in politics and public life. It is important that political parties and government institutions take a proactive approach in creating internal policies accounting for women’s needs. By establishing such procedures, these institutions can be champions in advancing women in politics and serve as catalysts or multipliers of good practice.

It is also key for women and women’s groups to lobby political institutions to adopt gender-sensitive and family-friendly internal rules and procedures. They can hold advocacy campaigns arguing that creating such policies would equally benefit both male and female politicians. For instance, if parliaments are banned from holding their meetings late at night, it means that both men and women members of parliament will get home earlier and will be able to spend adequate time with their families and friends.
It would be interesting to hear more ideas and strategies implemented around the world to promote women’s political participation.

Sincerely,

Bahar Salimova