Elections
Constitutional, political, and legal arrangements have increased representation of women in various levels of governance in Nepal. Despite these improvements, there is still a significant gender disparity, with men overwhelmingly dominating leadership positions, especially at the local level. Almost 98 percent of the heads, presidents and ward presidents of the local level are men.
In this context, UN Women in collaboration with Election Commission of Nepal organized a dialogue entitled “2024 Elections and Women: Nepal’s Efforts, Achievements and Future Directions” in Kathmandu. The dialogue delved into the intersection of elections and women’s representation and highlighted the need to make electoral processes more inclusive for women. Timed with the 114th International Women's Day celebration in Nepal, the event echoed the call to "invest in women to accelerate progress."
Over 100 participants took part in the event, including parliamentarians, elected local and provincial leaders, political party representatives, government officials, development partners, civil society organizations (CSOs), and members of the media.
Organized as a part of concerted efforts to overcome legal, practical, and societal barriers hindering women's participation in politics and leadership, the dialogue was also aimed at fostering gender equality in electoral policies, plans, and strategies.
“In spite of a notable female voter base, women's candidacy remains disproportionately low. The Election Commission of Nepal is actively collaborating with political parties to foster dialogues on essential reforms, including amendments to laws governing party structures,” said Honorable Chief Election Commissioner, Mr. Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, during the event.
Read here the full article published by UN Women on 21 May 2024.
On June 2, 2024, presidential elections will be held in Mexico, and, for the first time in Mexico’s history, there are tangible conditions to have its first female president. Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo and Berta Xochitl Galvez Ruiz are vying for the top spot in the polls, leaving third candidate Jorge Álvarez Maynez at a comfortable distance. For example, the survey conducted by the Mitofsky poll for the magazine El Economista places Sheinbaum at 56 percent, Galvez at 32.2 percent, and Maynez at 11.8 percent.
The elections are taking place in a tense scenario in which the executive and legislative powers are clashing with the judiciary, as the bills being passed in Congress are being blocked in the Supreme Court. Violence against local politicians at the hand of organized crime is also on the rise.
Read here the full article published by Global Voices on 22 May 2024.
Image by Global Voices
For every additional 100 male voters, 110 additional female voters voted in the first four phases of the general elections, the study says
For every 100 incremental male voters, there were 110 incremental female voters voting at any point of time in the first four phases of the 2024 General Elections, cementing their position as the new centre of gravity in Indian politics, according to State Bank of India’s economic research department (ERD).
This comes in the backdrop of women-centric schemes extending a host of benefits for women, ensuring their vocal participation in the elections, it added.
“There are three women-centric schemes, namely, Ujjwala Yojana, Matru Vandana Yojana, and PM Awas Yojana, which have significant ground-level impact in rural areas, which may be resulting in increased women’s participation,” said Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Adviser, SBI.
The ERD assessed that the first four phases of the 2024 General Elections saw close to 45.1 crore voters casting their votes (as compared to 42.6 crore voters in the same Parliamentary Constituencies/PCs in 2019), aggregating to a voter turnout of 66.95 per cent.
Read here the full article published by The Hindu Business Line on 20 May 2024.
Image by The Hindu Business Line
Bollywood actress and BJP candidate from Mandi Lok Sabha constituency Kangana Ranaut says she was given the ticket as her whole carrier was dedicated to women empowerment. In an interview with Harpreet Bajwa, she said politics should not be a personal ambition and that one will make a difference through politics when something tangible could be done to the lives of people.
Excerpts:
Why did you choose to join electoral politics?
We say we have come to serve the people. Politics should not be a personal ambition. I will not say I have joined politics, but I will say people called me and gave this chance. It is not that I wanted to be a candidate, but the BJP wanted me to be their candidate. I was their choice. I think I was chosen a candidate due to my nationalist thinking and for the work I have done in field of women empowerment in my movies, be it Queen, Manikarnika, Panga or Thalaivi.
What difference do you find between acting in movies and politics. Is politics attractive for you?
See, honestly till now nothing attractive. You know, to make a movie is very creative but when you do its marketing, that is the most difficult and boring phase of filmmaking. Now after my entry into the political field, it is time for campaign, going from village to village, travelling 400 kilometres daily. In movies also marketing is done like this. When we will be able to do something tangible to the lives of people, then one will make a difference.
You say you are Himachal Ki Beti; how do you resonate with the locals?
I am a very local person. I have always been a hill person. I am identified by my roots. Where ever I go, people welcome me. I am very rooted and grounded. I am not connecting with people as a film star but as a Himachal Ki Beti.
Read here the full article published by The New Indian Express on 20 May 2024.
Image by The New Indian Express
A record number of women candidates are expected to run in June's local elections.
So far, 649 women have been selected or declared for the contests.
Although nominations do not close until midday on Saturday, this would mean around a third of candidates would be women.
The figures were provided by Women for Election based on analysis by the NUI Maynooth lecturer, Adrian Kavanagh.
Women for Election said the record numbers have been achieved, despite fears of a "chilling effect" from social media abuse which it says could act as a deterrent to women running for public office.
Claire McGing - a social scientist who has done extensive research on women in Irish politics - said that as well as the traditional challenges facing women running for office "an emerging and quite concerning trend is women who are very vocal on women’s equality issues being targeted most for online abuse".
Read here the full article published by RTE on 19 May 2024.
Image by RTE
‘Even Lord Krishna was dark’: PM Modi slams Congress over Sam Pitroda’s racist remarks, asks if skin colour is the reason they opposed President Murmu
'Congress Equates Prez Murmu With Africans': PM Modi Slams Pitroda's 'Racist' Remark
These headlines dominated newspapers and online websites on May 8.
President Droupadi Murmu is the first tribal woman who was chosen by the BJP Central leadership as the presidential candidate in presidential elections in 2022. The saffron party has often boasted of appointing the first women tribal president. Even during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, political parties on either end of ideologies have been trying to one-up the other. However, the aforementioned remarks, made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing an election rally in Warangal in Telangana on May 8, solely relied on the President’s skin colour to attack the opposition parties.
Even if a woman reaches the highest position in a government, as in Murmu’s case – that of a President – she is still often judged for her appearance, instead of competence. Such an emphasis on women’s physical traits and personal life choices is often perpetuated into the public discourse by the media as well.
Read here the full article published by Outlook India on 14 May 2024.
Image by Outlook India
.
Electoral management bodies (EMBs) are responsible for ensuring a level playing field for political representation and meaningful participation across the entire electoral cycle. Yet, International IDEA data shows that only 22% of EMBs themselves are chaired by women.
When disaggregated by regions (Figure 1.), data from 242 EMBs in 208 countries and territories shows that the percentages indicating the number of women chairing EMBs are below the global average on three continents, with Asia recording the lowest numbers (10%), followed by Oceania (11%) and Africa (19%).
Click here to read the full article published by International IDEA on 7 November 2021.
Although the landscape for female candidates in U.S. politics has improved, research continues to find that many voters possess sexist attitudes. We rely on a standard political communication framework to help reconcile sexism in the electorate with increasingly favorable outcomes for women in primary elections. Based on two national survey experiments, we first demonstrate that in the absence of gendered campaign rhetoric, sexism is a weak predictor of support for female candidates on both sides of the political aisle. We then show, however, that when a male candidate attempts to activate sexism among voters by attacking a female opponent, gender attitudes become more salient—but not to the woman’s disadvantage. In a Democratic primary, gendered attacks backfire and lead to a significant boost in support for the female candidate. On the Republican side, a male candidate does not face the same backlash, but the attacks do very little to depress his female opponent’s support. While the persistence of hostile attitudes toward women has slowed the march toward gender equality in society, our experimental results suggest that sexism exerts only contingent effects in primary elections and not systematically to female candidates’ detriment.
Click here to download the paper published by Sage Journals on 23 September 2021.
By Roudabeh Kishi
Attacks on women in politics are on the rise around the world. New data and research from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) reveal how physical violence targeting women in politics is creating dangerous – and at times lethal – obstacles to women’s participation in political processes. Even as women are engaging in elections in record numbers around the world – both by seeking office and by voting – they are being met with an increasingly violent backlash.
Over the course of 2020 and 2021, Mexico, Colombia, China, India, Brazil, Burundi, Myanmar, Afghanistan, the Philippines, and Cuba top the list of the most violent countries in the world for women in politics. With rapidly evolving political situations as well as upcoming elections in many of these countries, the threat of violence targeting women in politics may only grow in the new year. Examining key trends from the latest political violence data for these countries will provide a glimpse of what to watch for in 2022 when it comes to the risks facing women in politics.
Click here to read the full article published by GIWPS on 28 January 2022.
According to Palestinian Central Elections Commission data, the first phase of the 2021 local council elections showed the extent of women candidates in competing lists. Results indicated that the percentage of women who won through voting in lists was 20.5% and the overall percentage in all local councils (voting and acclamation) was 21.8%, which reflects a slight increase in the percentage of the women’s quota. This points to the importance of the quota, which maintained the presence of women in local councils, especially since there are many councils in Bethlehem for example, which refused to present a list on the premise of their rejection of women’s participation.
As for youth participation, according to CEC data, the percentage of youth between the ages of 25-35 was 21.7%; between 36-45 the percentage was 27.4%, between 46-55 it was 28.6% and those above 55 was 22.3%. It should be noted that the age of youth, according to the UN, is between 18-29 while the candidacy age in Palestine is still at 25 for local councils. The closest percentage to this was 21.7% up to 35 years of age, which drops to 19.4% in councils where elections were held, followed by 24.5% for the 36-45 age bracket.
Click here to read the full report published by Miftah on 5 January 2022.
Abstract
Although female political representation in the Arab world has nearly doubled in the last decade, little is known about how voters in the region view female politicians and their political platforms, particularly in a new democracy like Tunisia. We conduct original conjoint and vignette survey experiments to examine the effects of candidate gender and gender- and leadership-congruent political platforms on voter support. Building on role congruity theory, we find evidence of bias against female candidates among voters, particularly among respondents who hold patriarchal gender norms. Additionally, we find that all respondents are more likely to prefer candidates who emphasize security issues rather than women’s rights. Overall, our study suggests that female candidates who emphasize issues congruent with stereotypes of political leadership, such as security, can increase voter support, though respondents also reward male candidates who appeal to leadership congruent issues.
Click here to access the paper published by Springer.
Abstract
Research on election violence often does not capture its psychological and gendered dimensions. Gender differences on the continuum of violence, as acknowledged in other fields, are applied here to election violence. Specifically, this article explores ways to unveil the forms of election violence that are hidden from the view of an external observer because they are either not carried out in public or not recognized as violence. Survey data and interview material was collected from men and women political candidates participating in the 2014 national elections in the Maldives. The study concludes that the continuum of violence is relevant for adequately assessing the full range of illegitimate acts used against men and women candidates to affect electoral races. Women candidates in the Maldives were more exposed than men candidates to threats and to verbal and figurative sexualized aggression.
Click here to read the full article published by Sage Journals on 12 March 2021.