Parliaments & Representatives
This week, the water cooler conversation in courts, chambers and newsrooms like ours has been all about representation, helped along by the headlines after Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud’s remarks during his appearance at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.
When CJI Chandrachud was asked about the representation of women and marginalised communities in the judiciary, he mentioned that he’d been reading the political philosopher Michael Sandel’s book The Tyranny of Merit, which details how merit-based societies fall short of addressing the structures that underpin inequality. In Tyranny, Sandel picks apart the founding myth of seemingly liberal, progressive societies across the globe: that social mobility is possible with true talent and hard work. (On a similar line, law students might find Sandel’s Harvard Law School lectures on justice particularly thought-provoking.)
Click here to read the full article published by the Supreme Court Observer on 15 November 2023.
Image by Supreme Court Observer
Despite being once heralded for becoming the first African country to elect a woman president, Liberia’s political landscape is sorely lacking in its representation of women.
Seventeen years ago, when Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won Liberia’s presidential election and became the first female president of the country, and on the continent itself, there were great hopes about what her feat would mean. In Liberia, people paraded the streets celebrating, while internationally, her victory was reported as a major shift for women’s political representation on the continent. However, over the years, Liberia has not built on this win, and the country continues to see a low number of women elected to public office. Since Johnson Sirleaf stepped down, only three women have run for president.
Click here to read the full article published by Okay Africa on 13 November 2023.
Image by Okay Africa
Justice Minister Helen McEntee has opened up about how it can be a “challenge” to raise two children as a cabinet minister and how she sometimes feels “guilty” when she struggles to find a work-life balance.
Speaking to The Baby Tribe podcast, Ms McEntee discussed life as a mother to two sons and being the first minister to take maternity leave.
She said her view “hasn’t changed” on whether women “can do everything and they should be allowed to do everything”, but she acknowledged that it is hard at times.
Click here to read the full article published by the Irish Independent on 14 November 2023.
Image by Irish Independent
AN ELECTED member of Cork County Council, who has announced her intention not to run again, has said she received a death threat and online abuse during her two terms as a councillor.
During an investigation by The Echo into the harassment of local female councillors and candidates, Midleton-based Fine Gael councillor Susan McCarthy said her decision not to run again was not because of the hand-written death threat she received or the online abuse, but to regain a proper work/life balance.
Click here to read the full article published by Echo Live on 14 November 2023.
Image by Echo Live
Australia still lags behind countries like Iceland, New Zealand and Rwanda when it comes to female representation in parliament — but a national program is hoping to change that. Sallee Shepherd has always been interested in pursing a career in politics, but she knows the road to get there can be challenging.
Click here to read the full article published by ABC News on 10 November 2023.
Move Forward Party MPs Wuttipong Thonglour and Chaiyamparwaan Manpianjit were expelled from the party after it was decided by the party’s disciplinary board that they had sexually harassed party volunteers.
Way before the final decision was made, however, no apology could be heard from the two embattled politicians. What is much more obvious is how they defended themselves with their side of the story, from accusing the victims for also sexually harassing them, exposing messages they exchanged with the victims and even blaming the accusers of being part of a smear campaign to damage the party’s reputation.
These two cases are evidence that sexual harassment is not uncommon in Thai political circles, but why?
Click here to read the full article published by Thai PBS on 9 November 2023.
Systemic and legal barriers to equal political participation persist at all levels and take different forms, including unfavourable electoral systems, lack of support from political parties, socio-economic, and cultural.
Women, people with disabilities, indigenous people, LGBT+ individuals, and young people face all of these barriers, particularly insufficient access to political finance. Campaigning has become an expensive affair, and political aspirants and candidates from these groups find it challenging to secure the substantial sums of money usually required to run a campaign and win an election. In order to address these barriers and level the playing field, several targeted political finance measures have been designed and adopted by some governments, political parties, and private initiatives, although they vary in their target and effectiveness.
This paper explores the challenges facing different groups in accessing political finance and it provides a set of recommendations to ensure that the quest for more accessible political finance includes consideration of other important aspects that are indispensable to more inclusive and representative politics.
Although significant progress has been made with regard to the participation of women in political and public decision-making in Europe, such progress is too slow and uneven. In addition, there is still a lack of participation and representation in political and public decision-making of women with disabilities, young women, LBTI women, Roma women, women of colour, women with an immigration background, women belonging to minorities and indigenous women, rural women and women with a lower socio-economic background.
Adopting a draft resolution based on the report prepared by Eglantina Gjermeni, (Albania, SOC), the Equality Committee called on member States to promote the participation of women from under-represented groups in political decision-making by acting at several levels, with particular emphasis on combating stereotypes, access to public decision-making and participation in political party structures. According to the committee, “an intersectional approach to decision-making as well as targeted measures can help to leaving no one behind”. Men are also called upon to further promote gender equality and the fight against violence against women, especially in politics.
Click here to read the full article published by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 15 March 2021.
African countries are still far from achieving women’s equal and effective participation in political decision-making.
Women constitute only 24 per cent of the 12,113 parliamentarians in Africa, 25 per cent in the lower houses, and 20 per cent in the upper houses of parliament. While local government is often hailed as a training ground for women in politics, women constitute a mere 21 per cent of councillors in the 19 countries for which complete data could be obtained.
The Barometer is a key resource of the consortium Enhancing the Inclusion of Women in Political Participation in Africa (WPP) which aims to provide legislators and policymakers with data to assess progress in women’s political participation over time.
Source: International IDEA
The IPU-UN Women map, which presents global rankings for women in executive and government positions as of 1 January 2021, shows all-time highs for women heads of state and heads of government, women Speakers of parliament and women MPs and ministers.
Source: IPU
Elections in 2020 were profoundly marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in delays and cancellations, logistical challenges for candidates and election administrators and often low turnout. Women’s leadership was frequently in the spotlight during the pandemic. The pandemic raised complex and deeply gendered challenges for citizens and created obstacles for MPs to communicate and engage directly with their constituents. It changed the ways parliaments operate, introducing flexibility and new technologies. A substantial number of MPs across the globe were infected, many lost their lives.
Click here to access the report.
Source: IPU
Abstract
The Canadian and British Houses of Commons have both recently adopted formal rules to address the problem of sexual misconduct in their parliaments. Using Feminist Institutionalism, we examine how these rules have been constrained or enabled by parliamentary privilege in both countries. As a result of their divergent historical approaches to privilege, we argue that the British House of Commons’ new rules are better suited to address this issue relative to its Canadian counterpart. This outcome has differential consequences for women and minorities who are the most vulnerable to abuse in each parliament.
Click here to read the paper published by Oxford University Press.