GENDER INEQUALITIES, 'DEFEMINIZATION' OF WOMEN, DIVERGENT VIEWS ON QUOTAS AMONG TOPICS DISCUSSED BY STATUS OF WOMEN COMMISSION

Press Release
WOM/963

GENDER INEQUALITIES, 'DEFEMINIZATION' OF WOMEN, DIVERGENT VIEWS ON QUOTAS AMONG TOPICS DISCUSSED BY STATUS OF WOMEN COMMISSION

The importance of a gender balance in decision-making in the private domain was stressed by several speakers, as the Commission on the Status of Women held an exchange of views on the theme of "women in power and decision- making" this morning.

Gender inequalities were produced and reproduced at home, the representative of Turkey said. For instance, a woman might be a government minister, but she could still require her husband's permission to travel. Other speakers agreed that the family was the first level of decision-making. In that context, the necessity of focusing on the girl child was noted. Girls had to be educated and provided with images that were not stereotypical. The toys that they played with, the books that they read and the films that they watched were thus significant.

Today's exchange of views was part of a series of discussions that the Commission will hold on four critical areas of concern included in the Platform for Action of 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.

During the exchange of views, where many speakers reacted to yesterday's panel discussion on the same theme, concern was expressed that little had trickled down to rural areas in terms of development and equality. That situation could be remedied, in part, by creating links between women in leadership positions and the women at grass-roots levels.

Expressing concern at the "defeminization" of women in positions of power, participants said that the mere presence of women in decision-making positions was not enough to bring about change. Change required that women with a gender perspective occupied decision-making positions. In that context, the pressure to confirm to male-dominated structures that women in leadership positions had to face was noted. To deal with such pressures, the presence of gender-sensitive groups and consciousness-raising efforts was emphasized.

Quotas were a necessary instrument to accelerate the integration of women, several participants said. In many countries, they were the only means of ensuring women's access to the judiciary and to politics and should, therefore, be seen as a crucial step towards equality. Some, however, noted the controversial nature of quotas and stressed that they should be used only in the short term as a temporary solution.

Saying that "men find it easier to give women a seat in the bus than in the parliament", the representative of France noted that a critical mass of women in parliaments would focus attention on social issues which were ignored by males. Others spoke of the need to study the correlation between electoral systems and gender balance in governments. It was also said that quotas for access to power must go hand in hand with relevant budgetary allocations.

In fact, women's access to adequate financial resources was crucial for their participation in political decision-making, speakers said. They also stressed that an increased participation of women in decision-making was in the interest of business, and of the society and economy as a whole. A downward trend in women's representation in parliaments had been noted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union. That trend needed to be reversed.

In that context, some speakers called upon governments to improve the publication of statistics to reveal the representation of men and women at all levels of decision-making. Also, the need for statistical data on women's involvement in peace efforts was noted, along with the importance of studying the results that had ensued from their participation in such efforts. It was suggested that networks of non-governmental organizations shared information in the area of maintaining peace and preventing conflict.

Speakers also noted the importance of confidence-building measures and training programmes to encourage women's involvement in politics. It was said that in order to be voted into office, women candidates should have attractive social agendas.

Responding to comments by the representatives of Member States, Zofia Kuratowska, Deputy Speaker of Poland's Senate, said she was optimistic that the goals discussed in this morning's meeting were achievable and that their achievement would contribute to the realization of true democracy. Paloma Duran y Lalaguna, Professor at the Law School of Spain's Jaume University, emphasized that an easy access to good quality education would eliminate the need for quotas.

Also, this morning, the representative of Syria drew attention to women who were deprived of basic human rights under foreign occupation. The representative of Lebanon said women continued to suffer from Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and had been denied basic human rights.

Women's Commission - 3 - Press Release WOM/963 7th Meeting (AM) 13 March 1997

The representative of Israel said the status of Arab women had improved significantly since the establishment of the State of Israel. That improvement could be attributed to legislation against polygamy and legislation on a minimum age of marriage. However, despite those improvements, their status still remained relatively low. The observer for Palestine said the ongoing peace process in the Middle East would help determine the struggle of women.

The Commission will meet again at 3 p.m. today to hold an exchange of views on "women and the economy".

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