Governance

Quotas as a 'Fast Track' to Equal Representation for Women

Citation:

Dahlerup, Drude, and Lenita Freidenvall. 2005. "Quotas as a ‘Fast Track’ to Equal Representation for Women." International Feminist Journal of Politics 7 (1): 26-48.

Authors: Drude Dahlerup, Lenita Freidenvall

Abstract:

Recent years have witnessed the rapid diffusion of electoral gender quotas. Today, about fourty countries around the world have introduced gender quotas for parliamentary elections, either by constitutional amendment or electoral law. Also, quotas for public election have been laid down in major political parties’ statutes in more than fifty countries. This article, which is based on the first worldwide overview of the use of quotas, presents general trends in quota adoption. It identifies two discourses: the incremental track versus the fast track to women’s parliamentary representation, and argues that the Scandinavian countries – which represent the incremental track – may no longer be a valid model for ways to improve women’s representation. The article also analyses the implementation process, and concludes that, without specifica- tions of quota provisions that match the electoral system in question, and rules about the rank order of candidates as well as sanctions for non-compliance, quota provisions may be merely symbolic.

Keywords: elections, parliament, quotas, political representation, incremental track

Topics: Gender, Women, Governance, Quotas, Political Participation

Year: 2005

Strategies for Change: Women & Politics in Eritrea & South Africa

Citation:

Connell, Dan. 1998. "Strategies for Change: Women & Politics in Eritrea & South Africa." Review of African Political Economy 25: 189-206.

Author: Dan Connell

Abstract:

This article examines the position of women in the process of democratisation in Eritrea and South Africa. It examines the difficulties in translating declared government and policy document support for gender issues into implemented strategy. It does so by tracing the position of women in the different movements, the problems which women have confronted in political and economic reconstruction and the political struggles which women have engaged in to ensure that gender issues remain at the core of democratic politics.

Keywords: autonomy, democracy, nation-building, post-conflict, reconstruction, women's organizations

Topics: Democracy / Democratization, Gender, Women, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Political Participation, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Eritrea, South Africa

Year: 1998

The Rise of Gender Quota Laws: Expanding the Spectrum of Determinants for Electoral Reform

Citation:

Celis, Karen, Mona Lena Krook, and Petra Meier. 2011. "The Rise of Gender Quota Laws: Expanding the Spectrum of Determinants for Electoral Reform." West European Politics 34 (3): 514-30.

Authors: Karen Celis, Mona Lena Krook, Petra Meier

Abstract:

The seminal work of Arend Lijphart, Electoral Systems and Party Systems (1994), limits the definition of electoral reforms to those affecting electoral formulas, district magnitudes, assembly size, or electoral thresholds. Following this definition, studies on electoral reform have put political parties and their motivations at centre stage. Expanding the definition of electoral reform, however, requires a move beyond parties to explore the multiple possible sources of change. This article examines the most common reforms of recent years, electoral gender quota policies, and points to at least four explanations for the adoption of gender quota laws. Based on extensive data from gender quota campaigns, the article suggests that the literature on this topic would benefit from efforts to broaden the analytical focus to include the role of agency, group interests, and discursive struggles, and to call attention to the possibility of causal diversity by revealing different routes to electoral reform.

Keywords: governance, elections, affirmative action, gender quotas

Topics: Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Quotas, Elections, Political Participation

Year: 2011

Women's Organizations During and After War: From Service Delivery to Policy Advocacy

Citation:

McNulty, Susan. 1998. Women's Organizations During and After War: From Service Delivery to Policy Advocacy. Washington, DC: Center for Development Information and Evaluation, US Agency for International Aid.

Author: Susan McNulty

Abstract:

The recent increase in the number of conflicts and their changing nature has led more women to suffer from and participate in war. Women take up arms to combat oppressive regimes, suffer from rape used as a weapon of war, and adopt new responsibilities due to the absence of men in their homes and communities. Many women form organizations to address their needs, thereby revitalizing civil society. USAID, in an effort to promote post-war reconstruction through service delivery, a politically active civil society, and sustainable democratic reforms, frequently works with women’s organizations that seek to empower and serve those citizens who are among the most vulnerable.

Support for women’s organizations during and after war is derived from two USAID strategic goals: humanitarian assistance and democracy and governance. Support for women’s organizations also relates to USAID’s policy of promoting women in development (WID). According to a 1984 USAID WID policy paper, USAID affirms that “gender roles constitute a key variable in the socio-economic condition of any country and can be decisive in the success or failure of development plans” (Internet WID Policy Paper 1984, 1).

This paper provides background information for a USAID evaluation series assessing the role of women in post-conflict situations. Two central research questions drive this paper. First, what role do women’s organizations play in war-torn societies? Second, how does support for women’s organizations during and after war contribute to USAID’s goals? While more research is needed in order to answer both questions, academic and donor literatures provide some preliminary observations and conclusions.

The paper is organized as follows: 1) a discussion of recent trends of war; 2) a conceptual framework drawn from findings in developing countries and war-torn societies; 3) examples of organizational efforts to address women’s needs during and after conflict; and 4) a discussion of how support for women’s organizations fits into USAID’s Strategic Framework. A bibliography and an annex of terms that are frequently used in this paper follow the conclusion.

Annotation:

  • Four groups of war-affected women most vulnerable during post-conflict discussions: refugees, internally displaced persons, female heads of households, and ex-combatants. The role of women’s organizations in developing countries: self-help or service provision, empowerment, democratization.

  • Women’s organizations serve several functions in democratization processes: strengthening grassroots organizational capacity and the democratic culture at the microlevel during war or after the war, instigating a transition to peaceful democracy, providing a means of collective action to advocate for women’s rights during and after war, increasing women’s participation in political process.

  • However, women’s organizations face a number of challenges in conflictive societies...women have little time for political activism due to their double and triple duties; women suffer from the lack of financial and political experiences; premier democratic institutions are predominately male dominated; women’s organizations tend to seek distance from the state thereby limiting their involvement; and differences among women make it hard to set a broad agenda.

  • Women’s involvement in peace efforts tends to be located at the grassroots. Women’s peace activism does not always translate into involvement in peace negotiations or women’s formal inclusion in the transition process.

 

Topics: Civil Society, Combatants, Female Combatants, Development, Displacement & Migration, Economies, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Humanitarian Assistance, International Organizations, NGOs, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Women's Rights

Year: 1998

Aftermath: Women's Organizations in Post-conflict El Salvador

Citation:

Luciak, Ilja A., Stephen Lynn, Serena Cosgrove, and Kelly Ready. 2000. "Aftermath: Women's Organizations in Post-conflict El Salvador." Working Paper 309, Center for Development Information and Evaluation, U.S. Agency for International Development, Washington, DC.

Authors: IIja A. Luciak, Stephen Lynn, Serena Cosgrove, Kelly Ready

Keywords: post-conflict, women's organizations, recovery, reconstruction, governance

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Governance, NGOs, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Americas, Central America Countries: El Salvador

Year: 2000

Healing their Wounds: Guatemalan Refugee Women as Political Activists

Citation:

Light, Deborah. 1992. "Healing their Wounds: Guatemalan Refugee Women as Political Activists." Women & Therapy 13 (3): 297-308.

Author: Deborah Light

Abstract:

Guatemalan refugee women living in the camps of southern Mexico for the past decade have become a remarkable example of self-empowerment despite the severe psychological trauma of the experiences which led to their exile. The successful organization of these women (the majority of whom are of Mayan ethnic identity) into a productive force for social advancement raises interesting questions about the roles of physical, social, and cultural environment in post-traumatic recovery. This article seeks to explore these issues by looking at the activism of Guatemalan refugee women and examining it in the context of their refugee experience.

Keywords: activism, internally displaced, female refugees

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Ethnicity, Gender, Women, Governance, Health, Mental Health, PTSD, Trauma, Political Participation, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Americas, Central America Countries: Guatemala

Year: 1992

Gender and Post-Conflict Statebuilding

Citation:

Jennings, Kathleen M. 2010. Gender and Post-Conflict Statebuilding. New York: Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies.

Author: Kathleen M. Jennings

Abstract:

This synthesis focuses on one of the missing links in the theory and practice of post-conflict statebuilding: gender. After this introduction, it is divided into four parts. The first section briefly introduces the interaction (or lack thereof) between the theory and practice of post-conflict statebuilding and gender. The following section outlines two arguments, one instrumentalist and the other normative, for why gender should matter to statebuilding. The final sections consist of a short conclusion and some implications for policy.

Keywords: post-conflict, statebuilding

Annotation:

Quotes:

“Post-conflict statebuilding concentrates on the goals of the multilateral actors leading state reconstruction, mainly oriented towards economic liberalization and growth.” (1)

“Studies of statebuilding tend to either ignore or seriously under-conceptualize gender, by failing to integrate a gendered approach or even...to acknowledge that gender is a viable issue for analytical consideration.” (2)

“Statebuilding practice related to gender encompasses such things as: institutional reform, including establishing a gender ministry or creating quotas for women’s representation in political parties, government, and the police and armed forces; targeting women in voter registration drives; supporting civil society groups run by or focused on women and their needs; funding health interventions targeted to women...drafting laws against gender-based and domestic violence....” (2)

“Statebuilding activities relating to gender may be based less on a normative agenda for gender equality, and more on the assumption that women’s inclusion in social and political life will help consolidate peace and/or improve representation and the quality of governance in preformed state institutions.” (3)

Topics: Economies, Gender, Women, Governance, Health, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction

Year: 2010

Protagonists and Victims: Women Leading the Fight for a Democratic Colombia

Citation:

Herman, Melissa. 2008. "Protagonists and Victims: Women Leading the Fight for a Democratic Colombia." Feminist Review 88: 122-127.

Author: Melissa Herman

Keywords: democracy, woman's organizations, intersectionality, autonomy, governance

Topics: Civil Society, Democracy / Democratization, Gender, Women, Governance, Political Participation, Rights Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2008

Feminist-Nation Building in Afghanistan: An Examination of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)

Citation:

Fluri, Jennifer. 2008. "Feminist-Nation Building in Afghanistan: An Examination of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)." Feminist Review 89 (1): 34-54.

Author: Jennifer L. Fluri

Abstract:

Women-led political organizations that employ feminist and nationalist ideologies and operate as separate from, rather than associated with, male-dominated or patriarchal nationalist groups are both significant and under-explored areas of gender, feminist, and nationalism studies. This article investigates the feminist and nationalist vision of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). RAWA exemplifies an effective political movement that intersects feminist and nationalist politics, where women are active, rather than symbolic, participants within the organization, and help to shape an ideological construction of the Afghan nation. RAWA subsequently links its struggle for women's rights (through feminism) with its nationalist goals for democracy and secularism. This article also analyses RAWA's use of conservative nationalist methods to reproduce the future of the organization and to develop ‘citizens’ for its idealized nation, while countering existing patriarchal social and familial structures through a re-configuration of women's roles in the family, community, and nation. This inquiry is based on geographic and feminist examinations of RAWA's organizational structure, literature, and political goals obtained through content analyses of RAWA's political literature and through interviews with RAWA members and supporters living as refugees in Pakistan in the summer of 2003 and winter of 2004/05. RAWA is an instructive example of counter-patriarchal and nationalist feminist politics that questions patriarchal definitions of the nation and its citizenry by reconfiguring gender norms and redefining gender relations in the family as a mirror of the nation.

Keywords: feminist, nation-building, reconstruction, governance

Topics: Citizenship, Civil Society, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Governance, Nationalism, Political Participation, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan

Year: 2008

The Wrong Race, Committing Crime, Doing Drugs, and Maladjusted for Motherhood: The Nation's Fury over "Crack Babies"

Citation:

Logan, Enid. 1999. "The Wrong Race, Committing Crime, Doing Drugs, and Maladjusted for Motherhood: The Nation's Fury over 'Crack Babies.'" Social Justice 26 (1): 115-38.

Author: Enid Logan

Abstract:

Women who use illegal drugs during pregnancy attracted intense public scrutiny and social condemnation during the 1990s. These women targeted by the courts and media are generally black, poor and addicted to crack cocaine. It is argued that the phenomenon of crack babies or children of crack cocaine-using women came about not because of a simple tragic interaction between illicit substances and a growing fetus but because of a broader conjunction of practices and ideologies linked with race, gender and class oppression, including the war on drugs and the debate on fetal rights.

Keywords: war on drugs, abortion rights, race, class oppression

Topics: Class, Gender, Women, Governance, Health, Reproductive Health, Race, Rights Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 1999

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