Submitted 1 April 2012 in response to the question
"What are the modalities and preexisting conditions (socioeconomic and legal) that facilitate setting up an all-women political party? What are the advantages and disadvantages of initiating an all-women party? Can you share experiences of countries/regions that have had all-women political party?"
I am here in Libya working with NDI and have just spent the entire morning working with a woman who has started a woman's party: Al-Umma. Her name is Wasilla and she is fabulous. Though the history and successes of women's parties have been spotty and basically unsuccessful, this new party has me hopeful. As someone who witnessed the National Organization of Women try to put together a woman's party thirty years ago, I have been very skeptical of ever venturing into such an effort again.
However, in helping this party in Libya, I am quite enthusiastic for it as well as other Middle East countries or those in merging Democracies such as the Middle Eastm Vietnam, Cambodia, etc.
The key here is not to have the party only one catering to women. On the contrary, it must emulate the characteristics that make women more viable and better for these times. In consulting the Al-Umma, we speak of "the party for the rest of us"; for those who value honesty and transparancy; those unwilling to let corruption be the rule of the day; those who value listening, inclusion and demanding answers to the tough questions of emerging new governments.
We have tried to talk of issues that are especially important to women, such as equal pay/equal work opportunities, a voice at the table when issues that affect us are discussed, education opportunities, etc. What we say, however, is that democracy means more than freedom of speech, it means the freedom to seek opportunities with a fair chance of competing for them regardless of your status, who you know or your gender.
What has been happening here is that we are using both women and men models of unfair action that is not based on equal opportunity -- say in the Universities where insiders are promoted and the people with the most talent and hard work seldom considered whether it is a man or a woman.
In these countries over here especially, there is a great deal of lip service to women: the parties all want them around but they are not giving them a chance to be heard. When you are not heard then it is your right --even your responsibility -- to create a place where your voice can be heard -- and as such creating a new party makes sense.
However, there are disadvantage: people will see this as "only for women and children's issues" and among the most critical will be women. Some of the women think: "who are these women to set themselves up ahead of anyone; what do they have that is so special that makes them ahead of us?" And there are still other women who will say that the point of equality is not to make things separate but equal, but to integrate and have us as part of the whole where talent will rise eventally that will allow women to be represented at the same rate as men.
Women have more opportunity to rally support not from women (which is typically thought to be their base of support) but rather from young adults under the age of 35. This group of better educated who are more familiar with working moms more equal at home than a generation ago also sees women as more of a natural partner in power circles. After all neither is the status quo -- and right now we have more men who are considering women as "at least they could be no worse than the men we have now."
Submitted 1 April 2012 in response to the question
"What are the modalities and preexisting conditions (socioeconomic and legal) that facilitate setting up an all-women political party? What are the advantages and disadvantages of initiating an all-women party? Can you share experiences of countries/regions that have had all-women political party?"
I am here in Libya working with NDI and have just spent the entire morning working with a woman who has started a woman's party: Al-Umma. Her name is Wasilla and she is fabulous. Though the history and successes of women's parties have been spotty and basically unsuccessful, this new party has me hopeful. As someone who witnessed the National Organization of Women try to put together a woman's party thirty years ago, I have been very skeptical of ever venturing into such an effort again.
However, in helping this party in Libya, I am quite enthusiastic for it as well as other Middle East countries or those in merging Democracies such as the Middle Eastm Vietnam, Cambodia, etc.
The key here is not to have the party only one catering to women. On the contrary, it must emulate the characteristics that make women more viable and better for these times. In consulting the Al-Umma, we speak of "the party for the rest of us"; for those who value honesty and transparancy; those unwilling to let corruption be the rule of the day; those who value listening, inclusion and demanding answers to the tough questions of emerging new governments.
We have tried to talk of issues that are especially important to women, such as equal pay/equal work opportunities, a voice at the table when issues that affect us are discussed, education opportunities, etc. What we say, however, is that democracy means more than freedom of speech, it means the freedom to seek opportunities with a fair chance of competing for them regardless of your status, who you know or your gender.
What has been happening here is that we are using both women and men models of unfair action that is not based on equal opportunity -- say in the Universities where insiders are promoted and the people with the most talent and hard work seldom considered whether it is a man or a woman.
In these countries over here especially, there is a great deal of lip service to women: the parties all want them around but they are not giving them a chance to be heard. When you are not heard then it is your right --even your responsibility -- to create a place where your voice can be heard -- and as such creating a new party makes sense.
However, there are disadvantage: people will see this as "only for women and children's issues" and among the most critical will be women. Some of the women think: "who are these women to set themselves up ahead of anyone; what do they have that is so special that makes them ahead of us?" And there are still other women who will say that the point of equality is not to make things separate but equal, but to integrate and have us as part of the whole where talent will rise eventally that will allow women to be represented at the same rate as men.
Women have more opportunity to rally support not from women (which is typically thought to be their base of support) but rather from young adults under the age of 35. This group of better educated who are more familiar with working moms more equal at home than a generation ago also sees women as more of a natural partner in power circles. After all neither is the status quo -- and right now we have more men who are considering women as "at least they could be no worse than the men we have now."