The literature on gender, women, and politics has examined both the gendered nature of political processes and women's participation patterns. Whether cast in terms of a variable or as an integral element of the social structure, gender is seen as pervading the realm of politics in that it reflects the distribution of power and reinforces notions of masculinity and femininity, and it influences the patterns of political participation by women and by men. Thus it is the social relations of gender — and the ways in which gender dynamics operate in the family, the labor market, and the polity — that explain why women have been historically marginalized from the corridors of political power, why feminists refer to “manly states” and “patriarchal politics” (Enloe 1990, 2007; Tickner 1992; Peterson and Runyan 1993), and why an essential policy prescription for enhancing women's political participation at both national and local levels is the electoral quota. By the same token, the operations of gender help us recognize the strategies for women's political empowerment, such as the formation of women's movements and organizations that have become prominent in civil society.
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Notes
- 1.
Other domains include civil society (including professional associations and trade unions), the judiciary, academia, the media, and corporate boards.
- 2.
The global women's rights agenda is found in a number of international instruments sponsored by the United Nations. The key ones are the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (adopted in 1979, in force in 1981); the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (September 1995), which calls for women's empowerment and human rights in the family, economy, and polity; and Security Council Resolution 1325, on women, peace and security (October 2000). Goal 3 of the eight Millennium Development Goals, adopted by the international community in the year 2000, pertains to ending gender inequalities in literacy, employment, and decision-making.
- 3.
This has been true of the major contributions on the subject, including of Machiavelli, Clauswitz, Max Weber, C. Wright Mills, and Steven Lukes. Michel Foucault viewed power largely pessimistically as almost totalitarian, while Karl Marx recognized power as a class phenomenon that was subject to change (e.g., the power of the bourgeoisie over the proletariat, and the capacity of the proletariat to empower itself through revolution).
- 4.
Here power is understood not as an individual trait but in structural terms as deriving from and inhering in social relationships. See Mackinnon (1989); Connell (1987); Lorber (1994).
- 5.
- 6.
For the prospects of democratization in the Middle East — but without attention to gender issues — see Diamond et al (2003); Brumberg (2002a); Carothers and Ottaway (2005).
- 7.
See also http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/
- 8.
Since 1995, international datasets have sought to capture women's participation in decision-making, including involvement in formal political structures. The UNDP's annual Human Development Report contains such measures. In addition to its thematic discussion, each report includes statistical tables that rank countries according to levels of human development (HDI): high, medium, and low. In turn, these rankings are corrected for gender equality/inequality (GDI). The GEM is an index that measures women's empowerment in the economy and the polity.
- 9.
See also www.wedo.org and www.learningpartnership.org
- 10.
See: http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm; http://hdr.undp.org/en/; http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/ products/indwm/wwpub2005.htm
- 11.
Some Moroccan parties have introduced a quota. Iraq introduced a 25% quota, which Iraqi women activists welcomed (though they had asked for 30%), but the continuing conflict and lack of security prevent women from fully participating in the political process.
- 12.
See http://www.cities-localgovernments.org/uclg/index.asp?pag=wldmstatistics.asp&type=&L=EN&pon=1
- 13.
The UN regional commissions are: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), and Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA). CEDAW reports are submitted periodically to the committee charged with monitoring compliance, and may be obtained through the UN website.
- 14.
CEDAW Report for Korea, C/KOR/6, 5 March 2007, p. 21.
- 15.
CEDAW Report for Tanzania, C/TZA/6, 16 April 2007, p. 17
- 16.
http://www.accessdemocracy.org
- 17.
http://www.cities-localgovernments.org/uclg/index.asp?pag=wldmstatistics.asp&type=&L=EN&pon=1
- 18.
These amendments also have provisions for representation of Scheduled Castes and Tribes in local assemblies; the 1/3 reservation for women also applies for these reserved seats.
- 19.
CEDAW Report for India, C/IND/2–3, 19 October 2005, pp. 52–55. http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/572/16/PDF/N0557216.pdf?OpenElement, See also Government of India (2006).
- 20.
CEDAW Report for India (ibid.)
- 21.
See also Al-Raida, special issue on Women's Centers in the Arab World (vol. XVII–XVIII, no. 90–91, Summer/Fall 2000), published by the Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World, Lebanese American University, Beirut.
- 22.
A khul divorce allows a woman to obtain a divorce but forfeit her mahr (the dower given by the groom).
- 23.
According the 2004 CEDAW Report, 8 of the 22 national officers (36%) in the Philippine Medical Association are women, although the ratio is much lower at the provincial level. But in the Philippine Dental Association, only 9% of the officers are women, even if 68% of the total membership is female. CEDAW/C/PHI/5–6 (2004).
- 24.
http://www.peacewomen.org
- 25.
Recent history suggests that elections operate differently in mature democracies than in immature ones. For example, women lost out politically in the first set of “democratic” elections in post-communist Eastern Europe. In Algeria, an overly quick transition from “Arab socialism” to free elections in 1990 led to the victory of the Front Islamique du Salut, which promised to institute Sharia law, enforce veiling, and end competitive elections. In Iraq and Afghanistan, elections under conditions of conflict, occupation, and weak state capacity have hardly changed the “facts on the ground”, including Shia domination in Iraq, high illiteracy in Afghanistan, and women's insecurity in both countries. This also has rendered the gender quotas ineffectual in both countries.
- 26.
The minister of women and family affairs in the Yousefi cabinet, Mohammad Said Saadi, a communist, was an ardent supporter of women's rights and of the reform of the family law that the feminist organizations were promoting.
- 27.
See, for example, El-Braizat (2002); Tessler (2002); Inglehart and Norris (2003); Rizzo (2005); Jamal (2005). The Arab Human Development Report 2005 reported more encouraging findings, on the basis of its own survey — which, however, has been called methodologically flawed (Mark Tessler, personal communication, Washington D.C., 26 October 2008).
- 28.
Bochra Ben Hmida of Femmes Democrates, in a conversation with the author, Helsinki, Finland, 9 September 2004.
- 29.
AFTURD, Declaration: Fighting Against Attempts at Regression, issued on the occasion of Tunisian Women's Day, 26 September 2008. (Received by the author from the organization.)
- 30.
See UNDP 2004, 2006. Sec also http://www.arab-hdr.org/about.asp
- 31.
AHDR, 2004: Towards Freedom in the Arab World, p. 8.
- 32.
Middle East Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, conference on “Strategizing Women's Role in Influencing Legislation”, Amman, Jordan, 2–5 December 2005.
- 33.
For a listing of the relevant laws in Latin America and the Caribbean, see http://www.oas.org/cim/English/ LawsViolence.htm
- 34.
In-depth study on all forms of violence against women: Report of the Secretary-General, A/61/122/Add.1 (6 July 2006), paragraphs 308–309.
- 35.
Shelley MacDermid, director of the Center for the Study of Families at Purdue University, cited in Jugglezine, “The State of the Workplace: How much ‘family friendly’ ground have we gained?,” January 5, 2001 http://www. hermanmiller.com/CDA/juggle/0,1516,64,00.html
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Moghadam, V.M. (2010). Gender, Politics, and Women's Empowerment. In: Leicht, K.T., Jenkins, J.C. (eds) Handbook of Politics. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-68930-2_16
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