Political Parties
Malta leads the EU in disagreeing that measures such as the gender quota system can solve the underrepresentation of women in politics, despite having a gender quota system itself.
This emerged from a Eurobarometer survey on gender stereotypes, which asked if “temporary measures (eg quotas) are necessary to overcome the existing underrepresentation of women in politics”.
At 62 per cent, Maltese respondents registered the highest disagreement with the statement, significantly above the EU average of 36 per cent.
Just over a third of Maltese respondents agreed with this statement, below the EU average of 55 per cent.
Malta is one of 13 countries in the EU with systems to try to ensure gender balance within national elections. The results of the study could suggest Maltese citizens are unsatisfied with its system, which has been in place since 2021.
Read here the full article published by the Times of Malta on 18 December 2024.
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In a dramatic shift in India’s electoral landscape, political leaders are increasingly vying for women’s votes through financial aid and empowerment schemes, sidelining the caste and religious agendas that typically dominate campaigns in an effort to woo a growing voter bloc seen as crucial for election success.
On Thursday, Arvind Kejriwal, embattled leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (Common Man’s Party) which governs Delhi state, became the latest to join the trend by announcing a Mahila Samman Yojana (Respect for Women Programme) that would give 1,000 Indian rupees (US$12) each month to all women over 18. He has also promised to double this amount if reelected.
Observers view this initiative as a strategic effort to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has not governed Delhi since 1998.
Kejriwal’s new initiative seems to borrow from the BJP’s own playbook, that contributed to their unexpected electoral success last month in Maharashtra, the state that houses Mumbai, India’s financial capital. The BJP’s approach included a programme that promised monthly payments of 1,500 rupees to women from families earning less than 250,000 rupees a year.
Read here the full article published by the South China Morning Post on 13 December 2024.
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How do you boost women’s representation in government, ask Jay Euijung Lee and Martina Zanella? Simple gender quotas risk being gamed, for instance by parties fielding women in unwinnable constituencies. The key, they suggest, involves distinguishing between two different kinds of discrimination faced by women in political careers.
In the pursuit of women’s representation in government, gender quotas of various kinds have been adopted by over 130 countries. However, simply implementing quotas is not enough to guarantee meaningful change. Political parties and voters may resist quotas, especially when biases against women’s competence in politics are deeply entrenched. Our recent study shows that even in such settings, however, quotas can gradually reduce these biases if they are designed appropriately.
Our case study is municipal council elections in South Korea. Since their inception in the 1990s, these councils have been overwhelmingly male-dominated, with women making up a mere 2% of elected officials. On top of this, 60% of Korean respondents in the World Values Survey of 2005 agreed that men make better political leaders than women. To combat this gender imbalance, a quota was introduced in 2006 along with wider reforms to the electoral rules for these elections…
Read here the full article published by LSE Inequalities on 27 November 2024.
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Malawi’s political landscape continues to be marked by a stark gender imbalance in its leadership structures, with men still occupying the majority of top positions across the country’s major political parties. Despite the growing calls for gender equality and the promises of progressive policies, women remain woefully underrepresented in political decision-making roles, with men dominating the ranks of party executives, national governing councils, and key leadership positions ahead of the 2025 general elections.
A recent analysis of political party conventions and executive committee compositions reveals a stagnant gender representation, with women holding only an average of 27 percent of seats in the National Executive Committees (NECs) of Malawi’s largest political parties. This troubling statistic underscores a persistent patriarchal hold over political power and raises serious concerns about the country’s commitment to achieving gender equality in the political sphere.
Read here the full article published by the Nyasa Times on 24 November 2024.
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Newly inaugurated President Prabowo Subianto unveiled Indonesia's new and enlarged Cabinet last month, naming ministers, deputy ministers and heads of various national agencies.
In total, he appointed 109 members, including a mix of professional and political appointees, with some ministers remaining on the job after serving for Prabowo's predecessor, Joko Widodo.
But only 14 of the appointees are women, and in the 48-member Cabinet, there are only five female ministers.
The low figure has drawn criticism from gender equality campaigners, who have expressed concerns over inadequate representation of women at the top of government.
Widodo, for his part, began his 10-year presidency with nine women in the Cabinet and ended it with four.
According to critics, this imbalance between male and female leaders shows the long road ahead to achieve gender equality in the world's biggest Muslim-majority country.
Read here the full article published by DW News on 17 November 2024.
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WOMEN and youths are an integral part of political parties and must be supported in the country, says political parties registrar Emmanuel Pok.
“In the awareness programmes, emphasis must be given to women, youth and people with disabilities as they can get more information out to people who must know the importance of political parties, their roles and functions in a democracy, why it is important to vote for endorsed candidates and to vote for policies of political parties,” he said.
In the launch of its third cooperate plan, the Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates Commission (IPPCC), through the Registry of Political Parties and Candidates aims to continue on the work of strengthening and promoting political parties.
“The key is to identify relevant and practical forms of awareness and the main message is that women are capable as men to encourage and support women in politics,” Pok said.
“They will also be encouraged to be financial members of political parties to allow them to be active members.”
Read here the full article published by The National on 31 October 2024.
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This report, published in 2015 by the International Institute for Electoral Assistance and Democracy presents findings from a study on political party financing and equal participation of women in Kenyan electoral politics. It was conducted with the objective to assess the formal and informal barriers that women face in relation to exercising their political rights. The study specifically looks into the role and extent to which access to financial resources determines the success of women running for elective positions in Kenya. It discusses the main findings on financial barriers for women politicians in Kenya, and makes recommendations to facilitate reforms in this area.
This e-book with the title “The Success and the Barriers to Women’s Representation in Southeast Asia: Between State Policies, Political Parties and Women’s Movement” is a result of analysis of four regional researches conducted in a USAID Program called IKAT US Component 1 (“Building Sustainable Partnerships to Promote Women’s Political Representation in SEA”). The goal of the program is to strengthen women’s political rights and democracy, by advocating the promotion of better women’s political representation through regional partnership initiatives. To achieve this goal, the program has been working toward the following objectives: (1) to increase the capacity to conduct and collaborate on activities for the promotion of democracy in Southeast Asia; (2) to advocate policy frameworks towards the progress of achieving a minimum target of 30 percent women’s political representation in Southeast Asia.
This e-publication highlights the significance of women’s representation in the parliament, state’s political system and women’s representation, patriarchal system and barriers to women political participation, women’s movement for political affirmation and challenges to women’s representation.