Women in Local Politics (2012)
The growing discourse on deepening democracy around the world is increasingly being anchored around democratic decentralisation and meaningful local governance which is also being linked to greater social accountability and public participation. Governance is not just about government but is now seen as a much wider process that involves how the idea of “public good” is both framed and contested which involves both private sector actors as well as ordinary citizens and civil society besides the government. The idea of local politics rather than local government provides space to examine how multiple actors – among them political parties - connect and contest for power in the formal and informal local spaces in a scenario where local governments have to increasingly live up to the expectation that they can indeed be responsive, accountable and participatory.
If being participatory is one of the principles informing the call to decentralize it follows that inclusion of women in local politics has to be ensured and actively encouraged – through political parties, organisations, movements, etc. Involvement of women in local politics is critical for their political and economic empowerment. Yet across the world there are several impediments to this process. Patriarchies cut across cultures and institutions across the world, sometimes in more open forms, at other times in a more subtle hidden manner even as it may differ in the degree in which it can affect women’s participation in politics.
Through this discussion iKNOW Politics invites participation from women and men in local government structures and civil society actors working with women in local politics and communities to share their insights and experiences on the following questions:
- Insights on local politics: what constitutes the arena of local politics, what roles do women play not just in the formal but also informal spaces within local politics and what is the impact of the latter?
- Participation: What are the factors that enable women to participate in local politics (including political parties) and what factors inhibit their participation? Are these different for the factors that enable/hinder their participation at the national level politics?
- Change Stories: Have there been studies to assess the quality of women’s participation in local politics in terms of the change they have made and the kind of difference they are making (or not making) in terms of their leadership roles, their contribution to development work, their hold over decision making, their empowerment within households and at the community level?
- Advocacy Strategies and best practices: what are some of the best practices at the level of advocacy strategies that promote the role of women in local politics, including political parties?
We look forward to hearing your views on some/all of these questions and sharing your experiences on this important issue with our users worldwide. To submit your contributions on one or several discussion questions mentioned above, please visit our website at www.iknowpolitics.org and register for the E-Discussion at http://iknowpolitics.org/en/node/40161.
iKNOW Politics Team
5308
The growing discourse on deepening democracy around the world is increasingly being anchored around democratic decentralisation and meaningful local governance which is also being linked to greater social accountability and public participation. Governance is not just about government but is now seen as a much wider process that involves how the idea of “public good” is both framed and contested which involves both private sector actors as well as ordinary citizens and civil society besides the government. The idea of local politics rather than local government provides space to examine how multiple actors – among them political parties - connect and contest for power in the formal and informal local spaces in a scenario where local governments have to increasingly live up to the expectation that they can indeed be responsive, accountable and participatory.
If being participatory is one of the principles informing the call to decentralize it follows that inclusion of women in local politics has to be ensured and actively encouraged – through political parties, organisations, movements, etc. Involvement of women in local politics is critical for their political and economic empowerment. Yet across the world there are several impediments to this process. Patriarchies cut across cultures and institutions across the world, sometimes in more open forms, at other times in a more subtle hidden manner even as it may differ in the degree in which it can affect women’s participation in politics.
Through this discussion iKNOW Politics invites participation from women and men in local government structures and civil society actors working with women in local politics and communities to share their insights and experiences on the following questions:
- Insights on local politics: what constitutes the arena of local politics, what roles do women play not just in the formal but also informal spaces within local politics and what is the impact of the latter?
- Participation: What are the factors that enable women to participate in local politics (including political parties) and what factors inhibit their participation? Are these different for the factors that enable/hinder their participation at the national level politics?
- Change Stories: Have there been studies to assess the quality of women’s participation in local politics in terms of the change they have made and the kind of difference they are making (or not making) in terms of their leadership roles, their contribution to development work, their hold over decision making, their empowerment within households and at the community level?
- Advocacy Strategies and best practices: what are some of the best practices at the level of advocacy strategies that promote the role of women in local politics, including political parties?
We look forward to hearing your views on some/all of these questions and sharing your experiences on this important issue with our users worldwide. To submit your contributions on one or several discussion questions mentioned above, please visit our website at www.iknowpolitics.org and register for the E-Discussion at http://iknowpolitics.org/en/node/40161.
iKNOW Politics Team
Getting more women in local politics
I would like to put forward several ideas linked to the different points you raise
1. When talking about local politics, politics to a wider extend and the future of democracy, it would be good to mention deliberative democracy. I do believe that deliberative democracy is crucial to local democratic activities.
While democracy can be in some ways summarise to the act of voting, deliberative democracy is conceptualise as a form of democracy in which deliberation is central to decision making. In other words it means that while democracy is to vote for a project, deliberative democracy is a way to involve citizens more closely in decision-making processes, or a way for the voters (or not) to participate in the implementation of the project they voted for (or not). And as you fairly mentioned, the cultural and institutional constraints women are facing in democracy could be (or are) be reproduced in the new form of democracy.
2. In the state of Victoria, in Australia, two years ago, a new initiative was implemented to increase women political involvement in local government. It is called Women’s Participation in Local Government Coalition. You can get in contact with Linda Bennett if you need more information than what is on the website: http://www.women.vlga.org.au/
3. Talking about difference women are making once in leadership position. I would advise you strongly to get into contact with Annie Junter (http://www.cairn.info/revue-informations-sociales-2009-3-page-88.htm). She is a professor at the University of Rennes II in France and has worked closely with the women of the local government of Rennes. I worked for few years with her on the local government. Following the Parity law in France in 2000, the municipal council of Rennes got around 30% of women in its parliament. It can be said that since then, huge amount of work have been done to make the local parliament more women’s friendly, but also to implement changes in the town. For instance, women in the parliament asked for the council meeting to finish at 11.00 PM. While this initiative seem to be minor, at the local level it is major. Usually, because meeting are held by men and with men, as they do not have home duties (or not as much), they can meet until 1.00 or even later in the night. They don’t have to get up early in the morning to put the kids at school, their wives do it (It is a caricature, but for some of them, it is reality). It is the reason women pushed for a strict closing hours for the council meetings. They also asked to have a room at the entrance of the parliament building for the pram.
To go further with this subject with is women and their duties, the town of Rennes started to implement what they call “le temps des villes” (http://www.resovilles.com/downloads/docs/Rapport%20Herv%E9.pdf). This concept associated public policy aimed at adapting the town’s schedule and activities to women’s schedules. It means for instance that the Crèche (public free kindergarten) opening hours were changed in order to adapt to women (and men) doing shift work. This adaptation can be further spread out to urban planning, professional equity, transport, and shop opening hours for instance. This initiative started in some towns in Italy because women had too much difficulty to combine their schedule as a mother, as a worker and as a politician.
Getting more women in local politics
Maryse, thanks for alerting me to work done by practitioners in Australia and France which I will follow up. You are right about deliberative democracy - I analysed it in my book titled Citizen Initiatives and Democratic Engagement - Experiences from India as part of a chapter on deepening democracy. Deepening democracy as John Gaventa points out insightfully, moves away from a pre occupation with institutions of representative democracy to also factor in methods of what he calls 'empowered citizen participation.'While the idea is not new it did acquire a special salience particularly in the 1990s. Within this deepening democracy strand the ideas of deliberative democracy stand out and Joshua Cohen's classic article of 1989 suggests the idea of democractic association built on public arguement and reasoning. This is the strand you rightly highlight. It certainly opens up new spaces in politics and a new way of doing politics and I am left wondering if women are able to access this space and use it even without entering the formal space of politics. Any positive examples?
5308
Getting more women in local politics
I would like to put forward several ideas linked to the different points you raise
1. When talking about local politics, politics to a wider extend and the future of democracy, it would be good to mention deliberative democracy. I do believe that deliberative democracy is crucial to local democratic activities.
While democracy can be in some ways summarise to the act of voting, deliberative democracy is conceptualise as a form of democracy in which deliberation is central to decision making. In other words it means that while democracy is to vote for a project, deliberative democracy is a way to involve citizens more closely in decision-making processes, or a way for the voters (or not) to participate in the implementation of the project they voted for (or not). And as you fairly mentioned, the cultural and institutional constraints women are facing in democracy could be (or are) be reproduced in the new form of democracy.
2. In the state of Victoria, in Australia, two years ago, a new initiative was implemented to increase women political involvement in local government. It is called Women’s Participation in Local Government Coalition. You can get in contact with Linda Bennett if you need more information than what is on the website: http://www.women.vlga.org.au/
3. Talking about difference women are making once in leadership position. I would advise you strongly to get into contact with Annie Junter (http://www.cairn.info/revue-informations-sociales-2009-3-page-88.htm). She is a professor at the University of Rennes II in France and has worked closely with the women of the local government of Rennes. I worked for few years with her on the local government. Following the Parity law in France in 2000, the municipal council of Rennes got around 30% of women in its parliament. It can be said that since then, huge amount of work have been done to make the local parliament more women’s friendly, but also to implement changes in the town. For instance, women in the parliament asked for the council meeting to finish at 11.00 PM. While this initiative seem to be minor, at the local level it is major. Usually, because meeting are held by men and with men, as they do not have home duties (or not as much), they can meet until 1.00 or even later in the night. They don’t have to get up early in the morning to put the kids at school, their wives do it (It is a caricature, but for some of them, it is reality). It is the reason women pushed for a strict closing hours for the council meetings. They also asked to have a room at the entrance of the parliament building for the pram.
To go further with this subject with is women and their duties, the town of Rennes started to implement what they call “le temps des villes” (http://www.resovilles.com/downloads/docs/Rapport%20Herv%E9.pdf). This concept associated public policy aimed at adapting the town’s schedule and activities to women’s schedules. It means for instance that the Crèche (public free kindergarten) opening hours were changed in order to adapt to women (and men) doing shift work. This adaptation can be further spread out to urban planning, professional equity, transport, and shop opening hours for instance. This initiative started in some towns in Italy because women had too much difficulty to combine their schedule as a mother, as a worker and as a politician.
In reply to Getting more women in local politics by MaryseHelbert
Getting more women in local politics
Maryse, thanks for alerting me to work done by practitioners in Australia and France which I will follow up. You are right about deliberative democracy - I analysed it in my book titled Citizen Initiatives and Democratic Engagement - Experiences from India as part of a chapter on deepening democracy. Deepening democracy as John Gaventa points out insightfully, moves away from a pre occupation with institutions of representative democracy to also factor in methods of what he calls 'empowered citizen participation.'While the idea is not new it did acquire a special salience particularly in the 1990s. Within this deepening democracy strand the ideas of deliberative democracy stand out and Joshua Cohen's classic article of 1989 suggests the idea of democractic association built on public arguement and reasoning. This is the strand you rightly highlight. It certainly opens up new spaces in politics and a new way of doing politics and I am left wondering if women are able to access this space and use it even without entering the formal space of politics. Any positive examples?