Elections
Indonesia’s election lineup next month will be dominated by men, but a number of women are trying to break into a political scene long overshadowed by patriarchal elites.
More than 200 million people are eligible to vote in the February 14 election, with slightly more than half of them women, according to the country’s election commission, yet only a handful of women represent them in parliament.
“We have a lot of dedicated and capable female politicians, but there are still many who consider women weak and lacking leadership qualities,” legislative candidate Lingga Permesti told AFP from the town of Klaten, where she is running for a seat.
Click here to read the full article published by the Digital Journal on 24 January 2024.
Image source: Digital Journal
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Since the restoration of democracy in 1991, the reins of the government have always been in the hands of a woman (except during the state of emergency in 2007-08). Yet, women's participation in politics has been frustrating and often largely ceremonial, as highlighted by the extremely low number of women who have contested national or even local elections over the last three decades. That trend, as things currently stand, is likely to continue in the upcoming 12th parliamentary election as well. As a report by this daily shows, only 128 female candidates are set to contest the election from 99 seats—for a 300-seat parliament—making up a measly 4.71 percent of the total 2,713 candidates approved by the Election Commission.
Click here to read the full article published by The Daily Star on 25 January 2024.
Image by The Daily Star
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In Venezuela, the opposition presidential primaries of October 22, 2023, unleashed a new wave of disinformation, propaganda and hoaxes on social media long before the process even took place: from the combination of the TV program “Con el Mazo dando” and artificial intelligence, to the use of coordinated “anonymous networks;” even old disinformation actors that have remained present in the Venezuelan digital ecosystem got involved in the conversation about the campaign process of opposition candidates.
Gender also played a role in the matter. Coalición Informativa Venezuela (C-Informa) conducted a study focused on the then candidates María Corina Machado, Delsa Solórzano and Tamara Adrián, as well as Henrique Capriles, Freddy Superlano and Carlos Prosperi, to identify and compare the disinformation, propaganda and narratives around these six opposition leaders.
For this study, ProBox conducted a social listening analysis on the social media profiles of the candidates until September 28. Click here to read more about the report's fact-finding methodology, which also referenced a previous ANOVA study on gender-based violence in Venezuelan politics in social media.
Read here the full article published by Global Voices on 24 January 2024.
Image source: Global Voices
East Java, home to 31 million voters and a traditional electoral bellwether, voted for Jokowi, as the outgoing leader is popularly known, in the last two elections.
The three contenders for the top job – Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto and former regional governors Ganjar Pranowo and Anies Baswedan – had all sought her endorsement. After weeks of deliberations, on January 10, Khofifah threw her support behind Prabowo, the former military general, who leads in polls and rose through the powerful military under the patronage of the late dictator Suharto.
Click here to read the full article published by South China Morning Post on 22 January 2024.
Image by South China Morning Post
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The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Ghana) has expressed their bitter feelings over the neglect of women in leading political roles in Ghana.
The women lawyers, speaking in an interview on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" show, advocated the need and significance of having a female as Running Mate to the presidential candidates of the political parties, particularly the New Patriotic Party and National Democratic Congress.
They believe it is about time a female was considered for such position, stressing women in leadership roles contribute largely to national development.
Click here to read the full article published by Peace FM Online on 22 January 2024.
Image by Peace FM Online
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NASHUA, New Hampshire — Nikki Haley has already gone further than any Republican woman before her who ran for president.
For months, she has joked about the high heels she wears, and, without fail, blasts a post-rally soundtrack of “American Girl” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Sheryl Crow’s “Woman in the White House.” In every early nominating and Super Tuesday state, Haley has established a “Women for Nikki” chapter — groups of female volunteers who urge their friends and neighbors, including those who are not ordinarily politically active, to get behind the former South Carolina governor.
But with Haley running behind Donald Trump by double digits in New Hampshire, and only polling about even with him among women — she is also testing the limits of how much voters care.
Click here to read the full article published by Politico on 22 January 2024.
In the 2014 elections in Malawi, the incumbent female president Joyce Banda lost the presidency, and the number of women MPs was reduced from 43 to 33. This decline in women representation came despite opinion polls showing strong support for women’s political rights and for equal gender representation in politics. Why has women’s representation gone down when public attitude surveys indicate strong support for women? Click here for the answer.
By Tiyesere Mercy Chikapa, Lecturer of Public Administration and Human Resource Management, Department of Political and Administrative Studies (PAS), Chancellor College, University of Malawi.
Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) Brief, vol. 15 no. 6, 4 p.
Abstract: Though more than 100 countries have adopted gender quotas, the effects of these reforms on women's political leadership are largely unknown. We exploit a natural experiment—a 50–50 quota imposed by the national board of the Swedish Social Democratic Party on 290 municipal branches—to examine quotas’ influence on women's selection to, and survival in, top political posts. We find that those municipalities where the quota had a larger impact became more likely to select (but not reappoint) female leaders. Extending this analysis, we show that the quota increased the number of women perceived as qualified for these positions. Our findings support the notion that quotas can have an acceleration effect on women's representation in leadership positions, particularly when they augment the pool of female candidates for these posts. These results help dispel the myth that quotas trade short-term gains in women's descriptive representation for long-term exclusion from political power.
Click here to access the article.
The authors:
Diana Z. O’Brien is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Indiana University.
Johanna Rickne is Research Fellow at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics and Affiliated Researcher at the Uppsala Center for Labor Studies.
Conventional knowledge on the effectiveness of gender quotas for enhancing women’s political participation has, to date, been unanimous on the superiority of quotas in proportional representation (PR) systems. Yet this view overlooks the many possible alternatives to implementing gender quotas in single-member district (SMD) systems. This paper studies gender quotas (or temporary special measures, TSMs) in SMD electoral systems. Drawing on case examples from Uganda, France, India and elsewhere, we refute the myth of the incompatibility of quotas in SMDs. Our research investigates and presents multiple ways in which quotas can be successfully implemented in SMDs.