woman and political status
Woman and Political status
According to UN women executive Michelle Bachelet (2012), ‘’Democracy grows stronger with the full and equal participation of women”. Today, as women form half of the world population, their voices are still lacking in politics. According to UN women (2011), worldwide, less than one in five members of most parliaments is a woman. And women make up less than 10 percent of world leaders. Simply turn on the television and one will find that most world leaders are men. Whereas women in almost every country can participate in politics; they can vote, create a political party, they are still underrepresented in the political decision-making process. Claims that women are not interested or know nothing about politics are wrong. For a well-functioning democracy, female participation is healthy and necessary. The UN has already stressed the equal participation of women in decision-making positions. In fact, women need to be equally represented in politics like men for several reasons.
The first reason for this is that women would be able to represent their interests better which are healthy for a society. Since men and women have different interests which can even be conflicting, it is important that women can represent their issues. For example, while the agenda of women consists of issues such as health, education, safe drinking which have long-term benefits, the men’s agenda primarily focuses on issues like infrastructure that have immediate returns. According to a study by the centre for the American Women and Politics (2012), the impact of women as legislation makers is profound and distinct. The results of this study showed that women public officials are strongly committed to woman rights policies. Woman are very committed to address socio-economic and political challenges facing woman, children and other disadvantaged groups. In relation to this, evidence has shown that with higher female political participation, issues such
According to UN women executive Michelle Bachelet (2012), ‘’Democracy grows stronger with the full and equal participation of women”. Today, as women form half of the world population, their voices are still lacking in politics. According to UN women (2011), worldwide, less than one in five members of most parliaments is a woman. And women make up less than 10 percent of world leaders. Simply turn on the television and one will find that most world leaders are men. Whereas women in almost every country can participate in politics; they can vote, create a political party, they are still underrepresented in the political decision-making process. Claims that women are not interested or know nothing about politics are wrong. For a well-functioning democracy, female participation is healthy and necessary. The UN has already stressed the equal participation of women in decision-making positions. In fact, women need to be equally represented in politics like men for several reasons.
The first reason for this is that women would be able to represent their interests better which are healthy for a society. Since men and women have different interests which can even be conflicting, it is important that women can represent their issues. For example, while the agenda of women consists of issues such as health, education, safe drinking which have long-term benefits, the men’s agenda primarily focuses on issues like infrastructure that have immediate returns. According to a study by the centre for the American Women and Politics (2012), the impact of women as legislation makers is profound and distinct. The results of this study showed that women public officials are strongly committed to woman rights policies. Woman are very committed to address socio-economic and political challenges facing woman, children and other disadvantaged groups. In relation to this, evidence has shown that with higher female political participation, issues such
References: Boosting women’s political participation vital for democracy, UN forum stresses. (September 2011). UN news center. Retrieved on 7 September, 2013, from the UN website: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39607#.UizRY39cNL4 Chemal, S Retrieved on 3 September, 2013, from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/18035512 Fernanda Rivas, M Handelman, H. (2012). The challenge of third world development. Pearson. Looking At Female Role Models May Make Women Better Leaders, Says Study Nawaz. F (2011). Are woman less corrupt than men? And other gender/corruption questions. Transparency International Nawaz. F. (n.d.) Gender and Corruption. Anti-corruption research network. Retrieved on 5 September, 2013, from: http://corruptionresearchnetwork.org/resources/frontpage-articles/gender-and-corruption