Elections and Quotas

Home > Elections and Quotas

The right to vote and the right to stand for election are two fundamental tenets of democracy. Notably, many countries did not afford women the right to vote until the 20th Century. Even today, universal suffrage is not a given right in all countries, and women often face obstacles that undermine their participation in political and electoral processes.

Such obstacles can be political in nature, specific to the electoral system in use or a lack of a given political party’s support for female candidates. Obstacles can also be socio-economic, such as poverty, unemployment and lack of education, all of which result in an inferior social standing and affect women’s financial ability to engage in politics. Other obstacles can be of an ideological nature: Cultural norms, fixed gender roles, the lack of confidence among women to engage in politics and media portrayal of women in politics all have an influence on women’s participation.

There are various ways to support women in overcoming these obstacles. Such methods include revising the electoral system used, applying affirmative action mechanisms such as quotas, improving voter education for women and training political candidates. These are a few of the modes available to strengthen women’s political participation.

Sub-topics:

From the Library

E-Learning Course: Getting to the Gate

Equal Voices present 'Getting to the Gate', our online campaign school for women interested in getting into politics. This course is free of charge; however, all users must register to access the course.

This online course aims to increase the number of elected women by providing practical tools for women of all ages, backgrounds and walks of life interested in running for public office.

Tags:

UNESCO & IGNOU - Gender Training Kit

This gender training kit brings you resources on gender and development drawn from the World Wide Web and audio/video/print materials. There are seven gender training modules in the kit. They are designed in self-instructional format and include lessons, self assessment and tests for evaluation. The content areas include:

Module 1: Dimensions of Empowerment and Gender Training
Module 2: Gender-sensitive Policies, Interventions and Institutions
Module 3: Media, Methods and Approaches in Gender Training
Module 4: Education and Research
Module 5: Leadership
Module 6: Governance
Module 7: Entrepreneurship

To find out details about the training kit please visit the URL below.

Tags:

BRIDGE Civic Education Development Project

The BRIDGE Civic Education Development Project (CEDP) is a professional development project to build capacity in people working in areas of democracy and governance.

This project developed from the concept of establishing a civics and governance component within the umbrella of BRIDGE. BRIDGE stands for Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections and the CEDP aims to expand the current BRIDGE elections (E) curriculum to include the Democracy and Governance (D and G) of BRIDGE.

To find out details about the program please click on the URL below.

Tags:

Gender Training Wiki

The UN INSTRAW Gender Training Wiki is intended to provide a centralized resource centre for gender trainers, academics, gender mainstreaming, knowledge management & development experts and practitioners , as well as individuals and organizations in general looking for gender training opportunities and resources and funding for their activities.

UN INSTRAW staff regularly updates the information in the Gender Training Wiki. However, the Wiki is a participatory resource centre and the intention is that this site will be self sustaining and the community of registered users will upload and comment on content as well as benefiting from content uploaded by others.

Tags:

eLearning Course on Effective Electoral Assistance

The European Commission (EC), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and International Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) are pleased to announce the arrival of the pioneer eLearning Course on Effective Electoral Assistance. The Course has been developed within the Train4Dev initiative and in collaboration with International Organization for Migration (IOM), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Organization for American States (OAS) and the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affiars.

The overarching objective of the eLearning Course on Effective Electoral Assistance is to make the electoral assistance community to deliver more effective assistance in line with the main principles informing the Paris Declaration (2005) and the Accra Agenda for Action (2008) regards ownership, alignment, harmonization, results and accountability. Development of the capacities of electoral assistance providers (multilateral and bilateral agencies and international organizations) as well those receiving assistance (national electoral management bodies and other electoral stakeholders) is vital in improving assistance effectiveness.

The eLearning Course is developed on the basis of the face-to-face Joint EC-UNDP-IDEA Joint Training on Effective Electoral Assistance. The first training of this type was organized in September 2006 in Brussels and since then the training has developed tremendously in terms of the audience, the experts contributing and the curriculum.

To find further details please visit E-Learning Portal.

Tags:

Gender, cities and local governance in the Arab world

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Thu, 2010-03-18 13:05
2010-04-14 00:00
2010-04-15 18:00
Etc/GMT
Click here
City & Province/State: 
Cairo
Country: 
Egypt
Description: 

The symposium « Gender, cities and local governance in the Arab world and in the Mediterranean region» aims to study urban development by focusing on gender issues and the role of women in this process because social norms related to gender are linked to the internal transformations within any given society. The symposium will discuss the role of women in urban planning and management. Women’s daily experience and activities within the public space are different from men’s own perceptions about the city: social activities, social interactions, employment or the daily schedule for example vary greatly and also depend on norms and social values. We contend that studying urban spaces through the lens of gender is a relevant approach to enrich the existing literature focusing on social, cultural, economic and political issues inside the city. While there is a growing body of research focusing on gender in the field of urban studies it is important to broaden and deepen the scope of the research on these issues.

To find more details please contact Safaa Monqid and visit conference website.


Tags:

World: Open Forum: Will the U.S. follow India's example?

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Thu, 2010-03-18 04:07
Summary: 

The leadership of women in politics took a new turn in 1993 when India put into place a 50 percent quota for women at the level of local governance. From 1993 onward, more than 1 million women have served on Indian village, block and district-level councils.

On March 8, the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, a bill was proposed in the Indian parliament -- and successfully passed the next day -- imposing a 33 percent quota for women in India's federal and state assemblies.

Body: 

To read the complete news piece please visit SFGate.


Tags:

Iraq: Foreign Policy: Iraq's Forgotten Women

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Mon, 2010-03-15 14:07
Summary: 

Economically, women are vastly underrepresented in the work force as employment is still limited to mostly the army and the police. The Women's Ministry barely has any budget allocations, which has led to the resignation of ministers (most notably, Nawal al-Samaraie, minister for women's affairs, tendered her resignation in February 2009). Girls have a high rate of illiteracy and often drop out of schools due to economic and security reasons. Domestic violence is increasing, as is trafficking in women, and the Iraqi government estimates there are up to 3 million widows in Iraq today.

Body: 

To read the complete news story please visit NPR.


Tags:

Angola: Percentage of women in Angolan parliament meets international standard

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Fri, 2010-03-05 09:23
Summary: 

The number of women in the Angolan National Assembly repre sents 39 per cent of the total number of parliamentarians in the country and the figure meets the world's established quota, according to a report from the Angolan News Agency (ANGOP).

The was revealed Thursday in New York, US, by the Angolan MP, Faustina Fernandes Inglês de Almeida Alves, while addressing the 1-12 March Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting, as part of the 54th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women which began Monday at UN headquarters.

Body: 

To read the complete news story please visit Afrique En Ligne.


Tags:

Mauritius: The Women in the Shadows

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Fri, 2010-03-05 09:07
Summary: 

The paltry participation of women in politics is but an extension of their limited bearing on meaningful decision- making in general. To improve that, the condition of the ordinary woman has to be improved first. Also, empowering women means giving them the opportunity to take their lives into their own hands. This is not possible for as long as our archaic mentalities, fuelled by the intervention of religious and socio-cultural groups, keep pushing them down.

Body: 

To read the complete story please visit AllAfrica.com.


Tags:
Advanced Search