Political Parties
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu made headlines in April after coasting to a second term in office by nearly 12 percentage points. Imamoglu, who has served at the city’s helm since 2019, is seen as a major political threat to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP). The latest win in Istanbul cemented Imamoglu’s continued popularity among the Turkish public.
But Imamoglu is only the most prominent face of a broader opposition, led by the Republican People’s Party (CHP). In March’s municipal elections, the CHP secured its most crushing victory over the AKP in decades. Possibly more notable than Imamoglu’s reelection was the newly elected class of women executives of provinces and districts across the country.
One of these women—Sinem Dedetas—may hold the keys to the future of Turkey’s opposition. Imamoglu is currently battling slander charges in the country’s high court, in addition to a slew of other cases that could eventually ban him from politics, even as he is the favorite to run for the CHP in Turkey’s 2028 presidential election. No matter how those fortunes play out, Dedetas promises to be central to the party’s strategy in a post-Erdogan Turkey.
Read here the full article published by Foreign Policy on 23 September 2024.
Image credits: Foreign Policy
This publication explains gender equality in political life in terms of access, voice and transformation and provides guidance on how to conduct a national assessment of gender equality in political life and on how to develop a national action plan based on the findings of the assessment.
The Gender-responsive Governance Toolkit is a series of targeted tools, each with a distinct practical and thematic focus. They introduce or advance institutional and policy solutions and practices for gender-responsive governance. The toolkit is aimed at participating States’ political parties, other democratic institutions and civil society organizations, and complements ODIHR’s existing gender-equality publications.
Read here the full publication posted by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe on 12 September 2024.
Image credits: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
This publication, intended for gender equality and party development experts from political parties across the OSCE region and beyond, complements ODIHR's online gender audit tool and provides practical guidance on how to conduct gender audits and implement gender action plans.
The Gender-responsive Governance Toolkit is a series of targeted tools, each with a distinct practical and thematic focus. They introduce or advance institutional and policy solutions and practices for gender-responsive governance. The toolkit is aimed at participating States’ political parties, other democratic institutions and civil society organizations, and complements ODIHR’s existing gender-equality publications.
Read here the full article published by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe on 8 August 2024.
Image credits: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
As we navigate the complexities of the 21st century, women’s political participation and representation remain pivotal to building robust democracies and inclusive decision-making processes. In 2024, a historic milestone will be reached as 1.3 billion women across more than 60 countries exercise their right to vote. This unprecedented participation underscores the critical importance of addressing the barriers that still hinder women's full engagement in political life.
A pressing issue in the development space, particularly in women's development, is the often-missing dialogue between scholars and practitioners. Farida Jalalzai, PhD, in her role at Virginia Tech, has frequently highlighted this gap, emphasizing the need for a more integrated approach. Similarly, Farhat Haq, PhD, in her role at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) continues to emphasize the need for further inquiry and data in contextualizing women’s role in public spaces. As someone who straddles both worlds, I have witnessed firsthand the challenges and opportunities that arise when theory meets practice.
My career has afforded me unique insights into these dynamics. I have served as one of the youngest women in an executive cabinet in St. Louis County, been a board member for national organizations, and participated in local decision-making as an advisory committee member. These roles have exposed me to the systemic barriers, power dynamics, and patriarchal structures that women must navigate. As we rebuild from the failures of old systems, it is imperative to reimagine "inclusion"—not merely as a buzzword but as a fundamental principle guiding leadership, engagement, and participation.
Read here the full article published by The Friday Times on 30 July 2024.
Image by The Friday Times
Women comprise most of South Africa’s population and almost 55% of registered voters for next week’s watershed general elections. Historically they have been discriminated against and remain at the bottom of society’s food chain.
TimesLIVE asked a few political parties why women should vote for them. [...]
'You can't see women in this election'
According to Nomboniso Gasa, a feminist researcher, one of the important things in judging where a party stands is where women feature in leadership positions.
“That’s more like a mechanical thing, and I think a lot of specially new political parties are not having women headlining, not just the ballot but a lot of issues.
“We are not seeing a lot of young women in particular who are articulating party positions.”
Read here the full article published by Times Live on 24 May 2024.
Image by Times Live
What you need to know:
While political parties have met the legal requirements for nominating women for special seats, concerns linger about the parties’ internal commitment to advancing women’s political participation.
Tanzania, in keeping with global political trends, reserves 30 percent of seats in parliament for women.
These so-called special seats were introduced with multiparty politics in 1992, in response to the low numbers of women elected to positions of power.
There were only eight elected female parliamentarians after the first multiparty elections in 1995.
Ten years later, 17 women were elected to parliament, representing 7 percent of legislative seats. Fast forward to the 2020 general elections: women make up 37.4 percent of parliament.
However, only 27 women (10.2 percent) were elected directly from the 264 constituencies.
Special seats are credited for increasing women’s representation. This has enabled the passing of a couple of “gender sensitive” laws.
Read here the full article published by The Citizen on 14 May 2024.
Image by The Citizen
‘Leave no one behind’ (LNOB) is the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Hence, SDG 5—‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’—is an intrinsic enabler for sustainable development and representative democracy for each country and the world at large. The SDG 5 stipulates the requisite collective action for transformation and creating conducive environments towards substantive equality for all women and girls. In order to take on the challenge of translating SDG 5 into reality for women and girls across the world, it is fundamental to address the key areas of gender inequality, such as gender-based discrimination in law and in practice, violence against women and girls, the lack of and unequal access to and ownership of economic resources, and women’s unequal participation and representation in both private and public decision-making positions.
This Technical Paper focuses on political parties’ responsibilities on achieving gender equality in politics and women’s political empowerment, particularly women’s participation and representation in positions of power and decision making at all levels.
Click here to access the paper published by International IDEA on 4 November 2021.
Abstract
Throughout history and across countries, women appear more likely than men to enter politics on the heels of a close family relative or spouse. To explain this dynastic bias in women’s representation, we introduce a theory that integrates political selection decisions with informational inequalities across social groups. Candidates with dynastic ties benefit from the established reputations of their predecessors, but these signals of quality are more important to political newcomers such as women. Legislator-level data from twelve democracies and candidate-level data from Ireland and Sweden support the idea that dynastic ties are differentially more helpful to women, and that the quality of predecessors may be more relevant for the entry and evaluation of female successors than their male counterparts. The role of informational inequalities is also reflected in the declining dynastic bias over time (as more women enter politics), and in the differential effect of a gender quota across Swedish municipalities.
Click here to read the full article published by Sage Journal on 3 July 2020.
The Win With Women Political Party Assessment (WWW Assessment) is an initiative designed to help political parties become more inclusive and representative through an assessment that gauges men and women's perceptions of women in leadership, the types of social norms held by members of parties, and the individual, institutional and socio-cultural barriers to gender equality.
Click here to see the report.
The Women's Network of the Union of Latin American Parties (UPLA) is a political platform that seeks to promote and strengthen the participation and positioning of women in public decision-making roles in Latin America and the Caribbean.
UPLA prepared a report for the electronic discussion on the role of political parties in the promotion of women in politics.
Click here to see the report.
Political parties are a cornerstone of democracy, providing critical pathways for citizens’ political participation and engagement. They mobilise citizens behind ideologies and policies, select candidates for representative posts, lead electoral campaigns, form legislative blocs in parliaments and, if elected, implement a program of government. Their role in defining key political institutions - policy formation, elections and parliaments - mean political parties have traditionally been important springboards for women's political participation. However, because of history, tradition and gender norms, many have found it difficult to provide women with meaningful and equal access to leadership positions or party platforms. Political parties also tend to be ‘protected’1 public spaces, allowing and enabling violence against women within their ranks to take place.
NDI has revised its long-standing Win With Women political party assessment tool, including by adding guidance on measuring levels of and dealing with the violence that women members face within their parties. The No Party to Violence: Political Party Assessment includes survey, focus group and in-depth interview tools to be used with women and men in the leadership and membership of parties in order to develop action plans to root out the violence targeting women within their own political party
Over the last year, this new approach has been piloted with a number of the larger political parties and civil society in Côte d’Ivoire, Honduras, Tanzania and Tunisia. The outcomes from this piloting represent the first assessment of women party members’ experiences of violence within political parties, thus providing important new insights on the phenomenon, which has never been systematically studied previously. It offers a unique cross-country analysis of the current understandings and perceptions of men and women party members around the types, levels, and impact of violence against women within these institutions. This important information is being used to create party- and country-specific recommendations to improve awareness, action and accountability to end violence against women within political parties, thereby strengthening women’s membership and their roles on a basis of enhanced equality. The piloting process has also created a safe space for multi-party dialogue in ways which have not exposed any party to the political risk of negative commentary from the issue being aired in public and/or used by their competitors.
Click here to see the report.
Taking the opportunity provided by its 2017 review of political party strengthening, "Reflect, Reform, Re-engage: A Blueprint for 21st Century Parties," NDI has revised its long-standing Win With Women political party assessment tool, including by adding guidance on measuring levels of and dealing with the violence that women members face within their parties. The No Party to Violence: Political Party Assessment includes survey, focus group and in-depth interview tools to be used with women and men in the leadership and membership of parties in order to develop action plans to root out the violence targeting women within their own political party.
Over the last year, this new approach has been piloted with a number of the larger political parties and civil society in Côte d’Ivoire, Honduras, Tanzania and Tunisia. The outcomes from this piloting represent the first assessment of women party members’ experiences of violence within political parties, thus providing important new insights on the phenomenon, which has never been systematically studied previously. It offers a unique cross-country analysis of the current understandings and perceptions of men and women party members around the types, levels, and impact of violence against women within these institutions. This important information is being used to create party- and country-specific recommendations to improve awareness, action and accountability to end violence against women within political parties, thereby strengthening women’s membership and their roles on a basis of enhanced equality. The piloting process has also created a safe space for multi-party dialogue in ways which have not exposed any party to the political risk of negative commentary from the issue being aired in public and/or used by their competitors.
This report provides a preliminary analysis of the topline findings from the surveys of men and women party members in the four countries. This briefing will be followed by an analysis of the accompanying focus group and in-depth interviews that were carried out as part of the No Party to Violence: Political Party Assessment pilots.
Click here to read the report.