Engendering Gender Representation in Liberia for Sustainable Peace

International Conference on Recent Innovations in Science, Agriculture, Engineering and Management held in University College of Computer Applications Guru Kashi University, Punjab (India) 20th November, 2017., 2017

According to the World Bank, gender equality enhances economic development, improves prospects for future generations and strengthens political and social systems. Though women now comprise more than 40 percent of the world's labor force, they still lag behind men in terms of possessing power, earnings and productivity. Women also face greater obstacles when it comes to participation in social and political institutions. Particularly in developing nations, the gender gap hinders economic and social development and destabilizes the political environment (World Development Report 2013). Women have the right to participate in political processes that affect them, their families, and their societies. Countries with increased women's participation and leadership in civil society and political parties tend to be more inclusive, responsive, egalitarian, and democratic. When women meaningfully participate in peace processes, they can help to expand the scope of agreements and improve the prospects for durable peace.

Journal of Women's Entrepreneurship and Education (2014, No. 1-2, 153-172)

Without formally enacted methodologies, it is increasingly clear that meeting Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that stipulate gender equality and promote women’s empowerment would be extremely very difficult. Specifically, MDG 3 underlines the fact that women need to be politically empowered by far greater participation if greater equality has to be achieved. Under this goal, countries are expected to formulate deliberate policies that ensure equal representation between men and women in all decision-making levels including politics. It is on this note therefore, that countries in the East African region have enacted constitutional, legislative and electoral requirements providing for the principle of gender quotas as a policy measure for boosting women’s access to their legislatures. Based on a critical analysis of official reports, related literature and data provided by national parliaments, this investigation examines the gender composition of five legislatures in the East African region namely, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, and Kenya. The study underlines the power of gender quotas in expediting and equalizing significant gender imbalances, and also captures the types and nature of quotas used by individual countries. While appreciating the challenges involved in underwriting the affirmative action mechanisms, the analyses notes that affirmative action is not a slogan for politics but a strategy for development; it is a gigantic plan of action for achieving the desired social change.

2019

Exclusion of women in decision making and politics is an old narrative which has its roots in ancient human history. In fact, even at a time when democracy was practised in ancient Athens back in the 5th century, women never had a say in politics and decision making. Even worse, Athenian women never had the voting right and other rights to enable them to take part in the democratic process. Moreover, European nations had denied women the right to participate in politics, decision making, and public affairs for so long until the 20th century when the issue of gender equality in politics started gaining popularity.

U. Md. LJ Race, Religion, Gender & Class, 2006

There is an increasing amount of work on whether a higher level of women's representation in parliament leads to a different style of parliamentary politics. To date, most studies have focused on Western cases, and the results have been mixed. Women add new dimensions to the policy agenda, but there is little evidence that increased women's representation changes policy outputs. The little work that has been conducted outside the Western context confirms the mixed nature of these findings. In sub-Saharan Africa, women have added issues such as HIV/AIDS and property rights to the policy agenda, but there is little evidence to suggest that increased women's representation has altered policy outcomes. In this article, we examine the case of Rwanda, which now has the highest level of women's representation in parliament in the world at 48.75 per cent. Based on face-to-face interviews with women representatives in the Rwandan parliament, we confirm that the Western-based work has validity in a developing world context. In Rwanda, women representatives considered themselves to have a greater concern with grassroots politics, although there was also some divergence of views on the matter; there has been no change in the working hours or calendar of parliament. In terms of the policy agenda, women's issues are now raised more easily and more often than before, and there has been a strong advocacy of 'international feminism' by many deputies. However, increased women's representation has had little effect on policy outputs. ON average, women constitute only 17.0 per cent of representatives in parliaments across the world. 1 This unequal gender balance has been the subject of much feminist criticism and the focus of many campaigns for change. Increasing the number of women in parliament is often justified on the basis that it is simply more just to have equal proportions of men and women in a representative body. However, this is not the only basis for the promotion of women in politics. It has been claimed that women have a different approach to or 'style' of politics, that their election to parliament in greater numbers will change the nature of the parliament itself, and that their influence will be seen in changed policy priorities and legislation.

2014

Gender equality is an important goal in itself and a means for achieving development .Development policies and institutions must ensure that all segments of society –both women and men –have a voice in decision making, either directly, or through institutions that legitimately represent their interests and needs. Yet persistent and pervasive gender disparities in opportunities, rights Vis-a –Vis the state and public institutions ,and voice ,particularly limit women‟s ability to participate as full citizens in social, economic ,and political life .The exclusion of women from full participation constrains the ability of public sector policies and institutions to manage economic and social resources‟ effectively. Such gender-biased exclusion compromises the prospects for high-quality service delivery.

2017

Women empowerment is a multidimensional and emerging proposition that is frequently elaborated diversely. Gender parity and equality are important components for reducing the under-representation of women. Politics has always been taken as a masculine realm, excluding women’s role from it. Since the ancient times, women have been marginalized in this male-occupied domain, who applied different tactics to keep them away from it. Observing these disparities, the United Nations made continuous efforts to improve the situation as it was not a political issue, but equally hurdling social and economic development. However, from 1975-1995, female representation increased only 0.7 percent, whereas a slight downward trend was observed in upper houses of the parliaments. Currently, more than 130 countries have introduced gender quotas in their national parliaments. Owing to the great expansion of gender quotas during the last fifteen years, quota policies caused huge electoral reforms in rece...