Category: Gender in Caucasus 
2010-05-07
Kvinna till Kvinna foundation has organized a seminar Women in Policy in Akhaltsikhe 27-28 of April. Drude Dahlerup, professor of the department of political science of Stockholm University in Sweden has been invited to hold the seminar. The participants of the seminar were representatives of women’s NGOs from different regions in Georgia and women who are involved in politics. The main themes of the seminar were Gender quotas and How to empower women? Annika Karlsson, field representative for Kvinna till Kvinna in Georgia was one of the organizers.
- We invited Drude Dahlerup here because she is one of the most prominent political scientist in Sweden when it comes to women’s representation in politics. It was our idea and wish to give some academic input to the organizations and to the active women here. Drude has been to many countries and she knows pretty much situation in the whole world when it comes to women’s representation in politics. I hope it will give something to participants and also for us to meet to share experiences and some thoughts.
Statistics of women representation in the parliament around the world shows that Georgia is number 120 in the world with only 6,9% women in the parliament. That is less then in any other former Soviet countries. Rwanda is number one with 56 %, Sweden number two with 47% and South Africa number three with 44%. Drude compares Georgia with countries in Arab world, where the female representation is lowest in the world.
- I think it is embarrassing in fact that Georgia is number 120 on the world rang order with Rwanda number one, Sweden number two and then number 120 is Georgia. Georgia needs to do something in order not just to have as low representation as in Arab countries. This is where Georgia is now.
The question is why there are so few women in Georgian politics? Some of the most common explanations one can hear is that women are less political active then men or women are less qualified then men, also that the political parties are controlled by men who give the best positions to other men. According to Drude Dahlerup the last possible explanation is in fact true; she calls it for “old boy’s network”. What concerns other explanations Drude disagrees that women are less active in political issues than men and that they are less qualified then men, often it is contrary and women are more educated.
- Why don’t we ever talk about male’s qualifications? Don’t men also need civic education if women do?
Women are under – represented world – wide. In average women’s parliamentary representation is 19% while men’s is 81%. There is a new global trend with gender quota systems which are being introduced in many countries. Currently there are 50 countries in the world with gender quota systems and the number of countries is increasing. Gender quotas are an equally policy measure and imply setting a fixed goal for the recruitment of women or other underrepresented groups in order to rapidly change an unwanted inequality. Drude Dahlerup explains that quotas do not as such solve the problems with campaign financing, electoral violence and prejudice against women but under certain conditions quotas can result in amazing historical jumps in women’s political representation with a fast track policy. Furthermore Drude argues that there is no democracy without gender balance and in a country where there is low women representation there is democratic deficit. Quotas are not good only for women, but for democracy.
- I think quotas might be a very good idea for Georgia in order to increase women’s representation in politics. But you can never have just quotas. You have to have a lot of campaigns, you have to have very active women’s organizations, and you have to have women very active in political parties. The good thing about gender quotas is you say the problem is not that the women are not qualified; the problem is that political parties are dominated by men who tend to nominate other men. And quotas are the fact really going to this and saying we want to change the nominations. The political parties are gate keepers here. We want the political parties to more seriously recruit women. And if you have a quota saying at least 40 % of the candidates and also ones on the top have to be women, then of course parties have to seriously try and work hard to recruit more women. Because of course there are many qualified women out there. It is just a question of looking seriously for them. If you have a quota, you have too.
Source: Portal GINSC |
