Parliaments & Representatives

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Democracy and the equal participation of men and women in the political arena are closely intertwined. No parliament or any decision-making body can claim to be representative without the participation of both men and women. As stated in the Universal Declaration on Democracy adopted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Member Parliaments in 1997, "The achievement of democracy presupposes a genuine partnership between men and women in the conduct of the affairs of society in which they work in equality and complementarity, drawing mutual enrichment from their differences."

Recent years have seen a steady increase in the number of women in parliament, though the world average of less than 17 percent remains far from the goal of parity between women and men. The election of women to the highest positions of state and government in several countries has also contributed to the changing face of politics.

While the road to election is a difficult one, the challenges for women do not stop there. Once women enter parliament or other bodies, they are faced with many new challenges. Parliament is traditionally a male-oriented domain where the rules and practices have been written by men. It is, therefore, an ongoing challenge to transform parliament into a gender-sensitive environment, to ensure that actions are gender-sensitive and to guarantee that gender is mainstreamed throughout the legislature.

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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
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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.


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Ghana: Official appeals to women to participate in politics

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Thu, 2010-03-18 12:54
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Mrs. Melonin Asibi, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Director of the Department of Women, has appealed to women to get actively involved in district assembly elections. She said since women were in the majority, there was the need for them to get active in politics especially at the grassroots level.

She expressed concern about the low participation of women in the region in district assembly elections and said only 234 women contested in the 2006 district assembly election and 58 were elected.

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To read the complete story please visit The Ghanaian Journal.


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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.

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To read the complete news piece please visit SFGate.


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Election: Sudan

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Wed, 2010-03-17 11:05
2010-04-11 00:00
2010-04-11 18:00
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Country: 
Sudan
Description: 

Sudan

Sudan elects on national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature. The president is elected for a five year term by the people. Elections for the unicameral, 3SDG.gif60-member National Assembly were last held in December 2000. To read further on the politics in Sudan please visit ACE Electoral Knowledge Network.

The first round of Presidential elections will take place on April 11, 2010. The Sudan National Election Commission released the following manuals to assist citizens understand the voting process:
- Polling and Counting Guide
- An Election Reporting Handbook
- Civic and Voter Education Guidebook.

We invite individuals and other organizations from Sudan working in the area of promoting women in politics to share their views, agenda for the political parties and campaigns on iKNOW Politics.


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India:DMK to train women cadres in governance

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Mon, 2010-03-15 15:06
Summary: 

As the bill reserving one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies awaits to be passed by parliament, Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK party is planning to hold camps across the state to empower its women cadres in governance.

"We plan to train DMK party women in various aspects of governance. We want to groom our party women so that they are ready as and when the 33 percent reservation for women comes into effect," Kanimozhi, party Rajya Sabha member and daughter of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi, said.

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To read the complete news story please visit Sify News.


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Iraq: Foreign Policy: Iraq's Forgotten Women

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

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To read the complete news story please visit NPR.


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Myanmar: Amid Threats, Women Dissidents Stick to Political Beliefs

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Thu, 2010-03-11 22:08
Summary: 

While Aung San Suu Kyi remains the most widely-known woman suppressed for her political views in Burma, the jails in that military-ruled country continue to be filled by lesser-known women dissidents being held on a range of questionable charges.

Mid-February saw the latest group of female political activists thrown into jail with a two-year prison term, including hard labour, for a "crime" they committed four months ago – donating religious literature to a Buddhist monastery, an act that the junta deemed as "disturbing the peace."

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To read the complete story please visit IPS News.


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United Nations: RP Senator Presides Over UN Session for Women Parliamentarians

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Thu, 2010-03-11 20:24
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Senator Pia Cayetano left the campaign trail in the Philippines momentarily to preside a special meeting of parliamentarians at the United Nations and to take part in another meeting with American legislators in Washington, DC.

Cayetano was elected President of the Coordinating Committee of Women Parliamentarians of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the highest position ever achieved by a Filipino in the 119-year-old IPU, considered as the United Nations of parliamentarians around the world.

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To read the complete story please visit Asian Journal.


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India: India's Upper House Passes Bill Reserving a Third of Legislative Seats for Women

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Wed, 2010-03-10 00:19
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Indian lawmakers approved a historic bill Tuesday that would set aside one-third of all legislative seats for women, a move aimed at overturning six decades of male-dominated decision-making in this country.

The bill, which drew fierce opposition before its passage in the upper house of parliament, would guarantee seats for women in the national legislature and all state assemblies in the world's largest democracy, where women have been largely kept on the sidelines of the legislative process.

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To read the complete news piece please visit The Washington Post.


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China: Chinese Women Lag Only in Politics

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Tue, 2010-03-09 20:40
Summary: 

Despite remarkable progress in improving the status of women in social and economic terms, China lags the rest of Asia in empowering women politically, a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) study has found.

But some six decades after Mao Zedong famously declared “women hold up half the sky”, women in China fare far better overall than their counterparts in India and the rest of the Asia-Pacific on almost every economic indicator, according to the report.

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To read the complete news piece please visit
The Hindu.


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