Myanmar

What Policies and Actions Are Needed To Encourage Women’s Leadership?

The administrative systems of the Arakan People’s Revolutionary Government (APRG) are taking over in Arakan State’s townships, free from the military junta’s control. Women participate in various sectors under this government, but observers note that women rarely hold decision-making or leadership roles.

Women make up over half of Myanmar’s population, yet significant obstacles remain for women to be able to participate in political processes and to achieve equal representation in Myanmar’s state institutions. Before the military coup on 1 February 2021, Myanmar’s 2020 general elections saw an increased number of women elected as members in legislatures (16 per cent) in comparison to the 2015 elections (13 per cent).

The issue of gender equality in Myanmar is in the spotlight again. Women are on the frontlines of the anti-coup protests taking place since the junta ousted the civilian government a year ago.

Since the Myanmar military brutally put down the mass protests that began following the February 1 coup last year, flash mobs have repeatedly gathered in major cities such as Yangon and Mandalay to protest against the military junta.

Some 60 percent of protesters against the military coup are women who fear their hard-won rights hang in the balance.

Every day at sunrise, Daisy* and her sisters set out to spend several hours in the heat cleaning debris from the previous day’s protests off the streets of Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city.

The International Women’s Day is observed worldwide on Monday 8th March.