Women's Leadership

Raising women’s political participation leads to faster maternal mortality decline. We estimate that the introduction of quotas for women in parliament results in a 9–12 per cent decline in maternal mortality. In terms of mechanisms, it also leads to an 8–11 per cent increase in skilled birth attendance and a 6–11 per cent increase in prenatal care utilization. We find reinforcing evidence from the period in which the United States experienced rapid declines in maternal mortality. The historical decline made feasible by the introduction of antibiotics was significantly greater in states that had longer exposure to women’s suffrage.

Click here to see the academic article.

By Elizabeth Renzetti,

Imagine, for a second, that you’re walking down the street with your kids or your dog and someone who doesn’t like the way you do your job decides to hurl abuse at you. This probably seems inconceivable, if you’re a teacher or a lawyer or a baker or a construction worker.

However, if you are a politician – a female politician, specifically – it could be part of your life. This week we learned that Catherine McKenna, the Liberal Environment Minister, is sometimes accompanied by security, after the constant abuse she suffers online spilled over into real life (while she was with her kids going to see a movie in Ottawa, a man hurled an expletive at her and called her “Climate Barbie.”) The incident made international headlines – not the kind we usually associate with our friendly country. It was, perhaps, the wake-up call people needed to understand the situation that many women in politics face.

I’m Elizabeth Renzetti, a columnist and feature writer with The Globe and Mail, and I’ve long been interested in the ways that women are discouraged from seeking a life in politics. Over the years I’ve interviewed politicians and aspiring politicians and academics who study politics, and one thing is clear – the abuse that women take, online and increasingly offline, is getting worse.

It’s not an issue that follows partisan lines, either: the abuse cuts across party politics. The former interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose wrote that she had been “mocked, dismissed, insulted, threatened (including with sexual violence), underestimated, cyber-bullied, sexually harassed, disrespected and ignored” because of her gender. Women in politics tend to have hides thicker than suitcase leather, but we cannot and should not become inured to threats that require them to have security guards by their sides, which happened with both Alberta MLA Sandra Jansen and former Alberta premier Rachel Notley.

Click here to read the full article published by The Globe and Mail on 13 September 2019.

Gender equality is fundamentally related to sustainable development, and globally accepted as a necessity for the promotion of human rights. Gender empowerment is determined by active participation of women and men in social, economic, and political spaces and activities taken in decision-making. In the context of local government, gender equality is critical as women and men face different challenges in full participation, representation and decent work opportunities. Though the constitution provides women the right to be elected in political and public representative institutions, such as parliament and local government bodies, gender inequality, as a collection of interlinked problems existed in the political arena too. Today the representation of women in politics has been increased considerably but due to their low participation, their issues and problems are generally unseen and unnoticed. Participation of women in the decision-making levels not only enhances their social, political and economic status, but also strengthens democratic institutions and even perhaps change the nature of the democratic process. Thus, the present study analyzed the gender challenges, gender influence in leadership styles, gender role and responsibilities of the elected panchayat leaders in Sivagangai district. The sample size of the study is 50 and the Harvard Analytical Framework has been used as a tool for data collection. Findings of the study assisted in the framing of strategies for the effective role performance of women in rural local governance and for the promotion of Gender Responsive Governance.

Click here to see the academic article.

There is a persistent gender gap in motivations to run for political office. While exposure to role models is widely believed to increase women’s political ambition, there is little field experimental evidence on whether exposure to female politicians in realistic settings can increase political ambition. We conducted a field experiment in which a sample of 612 female students was randomly assigned to receive emails inviting them to an event that included career workshops with female politicians, or no email. The treatment increased interest in the ongoing national election campaign, but, against expectations, did not have any positive effect on political ambition. Our results suggest that female politicians who discuss their experience bluntly, instead of following a motivational script, may fail to motivate other women to pursue a political career. These results highlight the need for more research into the type of events and messages that bring more women into politics.

Click here to see the study.

IMF examines the impact of gender equality on electoral violence in Africa using micro-level data from the sixth round of Afrobarometer surveys. The sample covers 30 countries. IMF finds that gender equality is associated with lower electoral violence. Quantitatively, their estimates show that an increase in female-to-male labor force participation ratio by 1 percentage point is correlated with a reduction of the probability of electoral violence across the continent by around 4.2 percentage points. Their results are robust to alternative ways to measure electoral violence and gender equality, as well as to alternative specifications. The findings of this paper support the long-standing view that women empowerment contributes to the reduction of violence and underscore the urgency of addressing gender inequality in Africa.

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The research had three main objectives: first, to obtain a more detailed picture of the situation regarding women’s political participation in the CARICOM countries; second, to identify contextual factors and analyse how they affect the presence of Caribbean women in politics; and third, to provide a list of necessary measures to increase women’s political participation and presence in decision-making positions. In light of these findings, this regional analysis will be an important resource for political parties, civil society, women’s organizations and governments to help identify the steps necessary to increase the presence and representation of women in politics. Moreover, we hope it will serve as a catalyst for strategic alliances amongst these diverse actors. In particular, we hope that the findings will prompt further research and inspire policy reform that accelerates equal political participation of women and men in decision-making structures and promotes it as an indispensable driver for more effective democratic governance, and ultimately, for sustainable human development.

Click here to see the report.