By Ameena Mohyuddin Zia
The 1995 Beijing Platform For Action recognized
that women faced barriers to full equality and advancements in society due to
factors of race, age, language, ethnicity, culture, religion or disability,
indigenous status and obstacles of family status, socio economics, living
conditions, environmental disasters, diseases and violence. These barriers
translated into lack of women’s capacity to participate in political discourse,
decision-making and leadership. As a result, strategic objectives of the
Beijing Platform outlined measures to ensure women’s equal access and full
participation in power structures and decision making (Strategic Objective
G.1., UN 4th Conference of Women, 1995).
Fast forward 21 years and in 2016 the world
witnessed women leaders working towards shattering the glass ceiling with the
United Nations Secretary General Selection and the United States Presidential
Election. These events served as global reminders that women are still
sidelined and excluded from key discussions, policy and politics are still
perceived as a male dominated spaces and half of the world’s population
continues to be marginalized by the lack of access and participatory avenues.
Women’s
representation is just one of the many factors that measure gender quality and strong
female participation in politics is viewed as a transformative change. Although
it is difficult to measure the quality and nature of women’s political
participation, researchers have resorted to understanding part of the puzzle by
investigating the number of women in office to serve as a reflection of
participation and indicator of empowerment. A critical mass of 30% is identified as a
facilitator of representation.
Today, as we celebrate International Women’s Day
2017, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) data (http://www.ipu.org/pdf/publications/WIP2016-e.pdf) identifies a
worldwide increase of women in national parliaments by 6.5 percentage point
gain over the last decade
as 23.3 percent women now serve as parliamentarians. Similarly,
progress is witnessed in the number of women Speakers of Parliaments with a 3
percent increase as now 19.1 percent of parliamentary chambers are headed by
women. Although these increases signify positive steps towards inclusive
representation, these percentages remain much lower than the established
critical mass required for balanced gendered representation.
It is an observed phenomenon that impactful
participation of women in parliaments brings new perspectives on political
issues and modifies the stereotypical role of women in society. Therefore,
institutional structures must continue to make space for women to not only
receive an invitation to the decision-making table, but rather have a seat at
the decision-making table so they have access to discussions on poverty; education
and training; health; violence against women; armed conflicts; economy; human
rights; media; environment and the girl child.
Hillary Clinton stated at the 2011 High Level UN
Women Event on “Women and Political Participation” in New York City that
women’s political participation “begins by the universally valuing the girl
child, and providing support for families to fulfill the promises and dreams of
education for the young girl and then make sure that the doors are open” (UN
WebTV, 19/09/2011). Governments must continue to ensure institutional reforms
allowing women space to participate and to change the historic imbalance of
power structures if we as a global community are to value the girl child, the
young girl and the woman.
Ameena
Mohyuddin Zia serves as the UN ECOSOC Civil Society Representative and an
Adjunct Lecturer. Her PhD coursework included political economy & gender
politics and her work examines social constructs through both research and
visual documentation. She is also involved in community development advocacy
and philanthropy education.
