women's role in society

Heated debate erupted on the floor in the Senate on Thursday after some Senators strongly opposed a provision in the election reform law that requires political parties to ensure thirty percent gender equality during candidates' registration.

Some of the Senators, who opposed with the thirty percent gender equality provision, said the committee on the election reform law should not legalize what is not part of the Constitution of Liberia.

Government should support women participation in politics as they can contribute immensely to the development of the country, a senior official with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has said.

ZEC deputy chairperson Mrs Joyce Kazembe said the participation of women in politics had remained low because of several bottlenecks, a development that is likely to hamper the country's quest to have men and women share 50 percent representation in the political landscape by 2015 in line with the Sadc protocol on gender and development.

A former PDP Women Leader, Dr Kema Chikwe, on Friday in Abuja advised women to work hard to secure positions in the party as the special convention gets underway.

She explained that the purpose for the special convention was to elect new National Working Committee (NWC) members to fill vacancies created by the resignation of 16 national officers and their deputies.

“Each position of the NWC is specialised. You must have the prerequisite and be sufficiently prepared to hold these positions.

Candidates aspiring to join parliament on the women ticket have since Monday campaigned in different districts upcountry. A total of women have hit the campaign trail in the race for the 24 slots reserved for women, in a college vote that will take place on September 18.

The constituency in the election for women representative is at the provincial level.

We invite you to read the full article published August 30, 2013

Women rights organizations have urged the political parties and election commission to take care "not to undermine the already won battle" regarding women empowerment by failing to ensure 33 representation of women in the upcoming Constituent Assembly (CA) election. 

Nepal had become one among the few countries in the world with high women participation in the parliament by inducting 33 percent of women through the last CA election held in 2008.

Women across Afghanistan risk being unable to vote in next year's presidential elections because of a severe shortage of women in the security forces, the country's election monitor said on Wednesday.

Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) said that there were just 2,000 of the required 12,000 women needed to carry out body searches required for voters entering polling stations set aside specially for women.

International donors and state authorities need to stop merely supporting charitable activities for Malayu Muslim women in the deep South and start properly engaging them in the peace dialogue, it has been claimed.

Panellists at the launch of the "Strengthening the Role of Women Peacemakers" report argued that women's voices are being overlooked amid attempts to tackle insurgency in the region.

A Solomon Islands politician says women in her country are fed up with not benefitting from any of the money that passes through the hands of her male counterparts.

Rhoda Sikilabu is a former deputy premier of Isabel province and now a provincial assembly member who is standing in next year’s general election.

She has just completed an exchange to Melbourne under the Pacific Women’s Parliamentary Partnerships scheme - something she says is proving vital in helping her to improve the lives of her constituents.