STATUS OF WOMEN COMMISSION FOCUS ON `WOMEN IN POWER AND DECISION-MAKING'
Press Release
WOM/961
STATUS OF WOMEN COMMISSION FOCUS ON `WOMEN IN POWER AND DECISION-MAKING'
19970312 Stereotypes, tradition and strong competition within political parties represented some of the main barriers to women's participation in decision- making, the Commission on the Status of Women was told this morning as it heard a panel discussion on the theme of "women in power and decision-making".Zofia Kuratowska, Deputy Speaker of the Senate in Poland said a legal procedure was necessary to surmount such barriers. She stressed the need for the adoption of an equal gender status law as well as a parity threshold. Such a threshold would mandate that there be no less than 30 to 40 per cent and no more than 70 to 60 per cent of each sex in elected positions. That rule should be recommended for every democratic country irrespective of its religious and cultural status, she added.
Today's panel was part of a series of discussions that the Commission will hold on four critical areas of concern of the Platform for Action adopted by the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing. Those areas include: education and training of women; women and the economy; women in power and decision-making; and women and the environment.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Tourism and International Transport of Barbados, Billie Miller, told the Commission that unemployment and underemployment remained the two basic impediments to women's role in decision-making. As long as women had to be concerned with survival, it stood to reason that they found it difficult to fulfil their aspirations to positions of leadership and political power.
In that context, Paloma Duran y Lalaguna, Professor of Legal Science at the University of Jaume in Spain, stressed the need for re-examining the traditional roles of men and women within the family. In order to integrate women in the political process their basic needs of training and education had to be met, she stressed.
Women's Commission - 1a - Press Release WOM/961 5th Meeting (AM) 12 March 1997
Eugenia Piza Lopez, Policy and Advocacy Manager, International Alert of Mexico, warned of the dangers of sweeping generalizations on women and peace, but added that because of women's experience of war, their contribution to peace might lead to very different outcomes. To encourage women leaders to enter the processes of good offices, mediation and decision-making, donor governments should allocate and target resources for working with women politicians and civil society leaders. Moreover, efforts should be made to enhance women's role in early-warning initiatives.
The importance of the media in bringing women's concerns to the public was stressed by Faiza Kefi, Member of the Tunisian National Assembly. Governments should change their communications policies to focus on a positive image of women in politics, she said.
In a question and answer session following statements by panellists, questions were asked about the validity of putting in place quotas for women. Participants also expressed concern that laws on equality had failed to deliver the anticipated results. They wondered as to what other measures were required. In that regard, panellists responded by stressing the importance of retraining and "untraining" men in equality.
The Commission will meet again at 3 p.m. today to hear a panel discussion on "women and the economy".
Commission Work Programme
The Commission on the Status of Women met this morning to hear a panel discussion on the theme of "women in power and decision-making". That theme is one of the four critical areas of concern of the Beijing Platform for Action, adopted by the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, that the Commission will focus on during its current session. The other three areas of concern are: women and the environment; education and training of women; and women and the economy.
Panel Discussion
LJUDMILA BOSKOVA (Bulgaria), Vice-Chairperson of the Commission and moderator of the panel discussion, said the purpose of the panel was to go beyond Beijing to define what specific measures should be undertaken to accelerate the implementation of the strategic objectives and actions outlined in the Platform for Action.
She hoped that the panel discussion would focus on identifying specific targets as well as the ways and means for achieving gender balance in decision-making bodies at all levels in governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, political parties and trade unions; in negotiations at the peace table; and in conflict-resolution and diplomacy.
The panellists should focus on "how to" mechanisms for achieving gender balance in political decision-making and conflict resolution, she said. In that regard, they should bear in mind the recommendations which emerged from the expert group meeting on "Political decision-making and conflict resolution: the impact of gender difference" convened by the Division for the Advancement of Women and the International Peace Research Institute of Oslo in Santo Domingo last year.
BILLIE MILLER, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Tourism and International Transport of Barbados, said the twenty-first century would be the century of the mainstreaming of women. The present generation of women were duty-bound to lead and serve as role models to the next generation of women. "Women must take the time to train one, two or three other women", she said.
The absence of women as key decision-makers in the political process continued to be an issue of critical concern both in developed and developing countries, she said. By excluding women from decision-making, countries were depriving themselves of talent and wisdom, as well as a different style of decision-making.
Women of the present generation, especially between the ages of 25 and 55, might be finding themselves more marginalized than before as new technologies come to dominate the economy, she said. Unemployment and underemployment remained the two basic impediments to the ability of women to have greater control over their lives and choices. Women must begin to penetrate those professions that remained closed to them. The recent shifts
from industrialization to the information industries had favoured more technologically savvy males. There was a dearth of skills in that new information area among many women, she added.
If women had to be concerned with survival, it stood to reason that there was not enough left over for fulfilment of their aspirations to positions of leadership and political power, she said, adding that women remained underrepresented on the national boards that were the training grounds for local and national government. Also, women in political parties were relegated to a supportive role.
ZOFIA KURATOWSKA, Deputy Speaker of the Senate in Poland, said gender proportions in the United Nations at the high levels did not present an optimistic picture for women. Equality between men and women was one of the basic principles of universal human rights and as such was one of the most important foundations for democracy. There could be no exceptions to that rule. Sometimes one heard that such equality or equal participation of sexes in political life was a luxury for advanced societies that the developing countries could not afford. The dangerous thesis that such inequality was inappropriate for certain regions of the world that shared different religious or cultural traditions was also heard. That was a great mistake. The basic principles of human rights of men and women were universal and should be respected everywhere.
She said the main barriers to women's participation in decision-making were: stereotypes and tradition; and games played within political parties where there was strong competition. So far as stereotyping was concerned, the longstanding traditional model of the Polish family created a clear division of roles into truly masculine and feminine ones. The primary role of women in that tradition was to be homemakers, guardian angels of the home. That was the model that most textbooks depicted. However, such a depiction ignored the fact that in Poland women had higher education than men and 45 per cent of them worked professionally.
Therefore, changing stereotypes was crucial to political activity of women and the equality of sexes, she said. So far as the second barrier was concerned, political parties dominated by men were often unwilling to accept women as leaders. To avoid that kind of discrimination a legal procedure was necessary. An equal gender status law should be adopted. There should be a parity threshold which should indicate that there should be no less than 30 to 40 per cent and no more than 70 to 60 per cent of each sex in elected positions. That rule should be recommended for every democratic country irrespective of its religious and cultural status.
PALOMA DURAN Y LALAGUNA, Professor of Legal Science at the University of Jaume, Spain, said there had been progress in Spain on women's involvement in the political process, but that progress had been slow. There had been an increase of women's representation in parliament, for example. However, the political authorities must show the political will to include more women in decision-making.
Practical measures needed to be considered to integrate women in the political process, she said. There were two root causes for the fact that women had not yet achieved true equality in society. One of them was poverty
and the related general lack of basic resources, low salaries, and overall discriminatory practices in the modern work place. The second was the lack of training provided to women, especially technological training that denied their access to leadership positions.
Those root causes also explained the areas where women needed to be active, she said. Women had low participation in the economy, in the media, politics and even cultural affairs, and were characterized by a disadvantaged status. The top priority for countries around the world should be to meet women's most basic needs. Training and education would empower women. It was also important to enhance women's skills after they had gained access to the workplace.
The obstacles blocking women from full participation in the political process must be identified, she said. There needed to be consciousness- raising especially concerning the sharing of family responsibilities. Traditional roles of both men and women in the family needed to be re-examined. There must be an effort to stop the dissemination of images that turn women into objects. She called for a more positive assessment of unpaid work performed by women to be developed.
EUGENIA PIZA LOPEZ, Policy and Advocacy Manager, International Alert, Mexico, said today civil unrest, genocide and blatant abuses of human rights, including women's human rights were widespread. Wars were different and civilians represented the majority of casualties, of whom a large number were women. Resources for development were being directed towards crisis management. Between 1980 and 1993 the amount of overseas aid allocated to relief rose from $500 million to $3.5 billion. Therefore one wondered about the fate of sustainable development.
Strategies to address the root causes of conflicts were required, she said. Women should play a central role in developing a culture for peace because they brought a different dimension to the treatment of war and peace processes. If represented in significant numbers in relevant areas of decision-making, they could contribute to conflict prevention and to peace by means other than containment and enforcement. That was not because they were inherently different biologically but because of their ascribed roles in the household and community and their commitment to the survival of humanity.
The links between women and peace were complex and far-reaching, she said. Sweeping generalizations which asserted that women had a tendency to pacifism were being contested by women's movement in many forums. However, because of women's experience of war, their contribution to peace might lead to very different outcomes. A major priority in that area was the development of women's leadership capacity to enter the processes of good offices, mediation, consultation and decision-making at all political levels. Budgets should be earmarked for a women's leadership fund to develop leadership programmes which took into account the furthering of skills through formal education, confidence building and development of exchange networks.
Also, efforts should be made to increase the critical mass of women in leadership positions by creating a conducive legal and political environment, she said. Priority must be placed on transforming the political and judiciary systems to enable greater participation of women. Women's role in early- warning initiatives should be enhanced as well.
FAIZA KEFI, Member of the National Assembly of Tunisia and President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Coordinating Committee of Women Parliamentarians, said progress had been made by the Union in promoting the participation of women in parliaments, which she called "cradles of democracy". Success had derived from two points. The first was procedural, as it created a space for expression for women and was not seen as an end in itself but a way to focus the attention of parliaments. The second was conceptual. The organization had a more pragmatic approach and drew on the potential of both men and women to work to achieve goals together.
Parliamentary life continued to be governed by men, she said. There were very few women in management positions, and there were countries that had created quota systems, but they were often seen by governments as temporary measures. The role of media formed a central part of the debate. Media could be a tool to bring women's issue to the public. Governments should change their communications policies to focus a positive image of women in politics. Men and women candidates were on difficult footing as election costs had risen. Parties needed to be encouraged to elect women and to fund their elections.
Question and Answer Session
In a question and answer session following the presentation by panellists, representatives of Member States asked questions about the validity of putting in place quotas for women. The representative of the United States said her country did not support quotas, but recognized the importance of empowering women. In that context, questions were asked about the ways of empowering women. Could voter education empower women? Participants also wondered as to how they should go about providing space for women to meet and to plan together along national lines.
Some participants expressed concern that laws on equality had failed to deliver the anticipated results. They wondered as to what other measures were required. The necessity of a programme of cooperation for parliamentary women of various countries was also stressed. Such a programme would provide women parliamentarians with training and guidelines. The need to have more women represented in the economic sector was voiced as well.
Responding to questions posed by participants, Ms. MILLER said attitudes to quotas varied. She herself was in favour of legislation in that regard. However, women themselves should be consulted on whether or not they wanted quotas. It was important that political parties commit themselves to representing women. They should make room for women at the top.
Elaborating on her definition of mainstreaming, she said, to her it meant a graduation from women's bureaus. Women had to be mainstreamed
throughout the system. Training and education was important in that regard. She also stressed the importance of retraining and "untraining" men in equality.
Ms. KURATOWSKA also emphasized the importance of education and elaborated on the role of the media in changing the attitude of society to women in decision-making roles.
Ms. LALAGUNA said the lack of women's involvement in decision-making structures did not just represent a dearth of resources. In that regard, she too stressed training and education and institutional commitment to women in leadership roles.
Ms. LOPEZ said a major challenge was to redefine social relationships in gender sensitive ways. In the matter of quotas, the example of the Nordic countries, some of which had established quotas for women more than 20 years back, was of value. Quotas were a mediating machinery to get rid of discrimination and were a short-term measure. She reaffirmed the importance of networking in increasing women's representation at decision-making levels.
Ms. KEFI said national mechanisms were necessary but not sufficient. Their results should be studied by the Commission. She also stressed the need to find financing for institutions to train women in political life.
Other Statements
A representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said she participated in the recently organized conference by the IPU in New Delhi. That conference had focused on the necessity of attitude change at the earliest stages of the lives of children so that girls would be more inclined to take on decision-making roles. Such a change would have to come about at the family, school and media levels. She stressed that UNESCO would cooperate with the IPU in developing the skills of women to enter political life and it looked forward to cooperating with governments on that.
A representative of the Task Force of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, speaking on behalf of the NGO Committees in New York, Geneva, and Vienna, said that a stronger commitment to the world-wide literacy campaign was needed. Literacy empowered women to manage their lives. Attitudinal change needed more attention. Empowerment of women developed under conditions which fostered self-valuing, recognition and support. The empowerment was essential to building prosperous communities.
She said mentoring of women was a powerful agent for change. Mentoring at all levels from local to national to international needed to be encouraged. The International Year of Older Persons (1999) offered an opportunity to raise the awareness of the valuable resources offered by older persons for mentoring. Nothing would change for women without institutional mechanisms. Governments needed to create machineries to insure the equal participation of women in all facets of decision-making with sufficient funding and adequate staffing. Data bases that keep track of women in decision-making also needed to be established.
A representative of the African NGO Caucus urged that more African women be included in the United Nations and related bodies. The same needed to be
encouraged in the private sector. Women also needed to be trained in leadership and management skills so as to be included in decision-making at all levels, local, national and international.
CHRISTINE PINTAT, Chief of the programme on the status of women of the IPU, said a new social contract must be created to include women as equal partners. There was a solid political framework at hand for including women in power and decision-making but what was missing was political will. Women needed access to political parties. Female candidates needed to be promoted.
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