POLITICAL WILL FOR EQUALITY, GENDER SENSITIVITY IN NATIONAL BUDGETS, WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS AMONG ISSUES ADDRESSED AT WOMEN'S COMMISSION
Press Release
WOM/1120
POLITICAL WILL FOR EQUALITY, GENDER SENSITIVITY IN NATIONAL BUDGETS, WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS AMONG ISSUES ADDRESSED AT WOMEN'S COMMISSION
19990316 Expert panellists discussed the political will for equality, gender sensitivity in national budgets, and women in leadership positions, as the Commission on the Status of Women met this morning to continue its session as the Preparatory Committee for the 2000 special session of the General Assembly to appraise the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.Today's panel was the last of two discussions on the topic of further actions and initiatives in preparation for the special session.
Nirmaladevi Nababsing, from the Ministry of Women, Family, Welfare and Child Development of Mauritius, said her country's campaigns to improve the status of women had been met with considerable resistance, which demonstrated the deep-rooted gender biases in her country. National efforts were impeded by a lack of gender sensitivity among policy-makers and leaders. Changing those attitudes had proven to be a difficult, if not impossible, task. In the next century, greater efforts should be given to changing those negative attitudes toward gender. Without such efforts, equality and women's empowerment would be stalled.
Diane Elson, Special Adviser to the Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), said that one of the problems in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action was that there was often a gap between policy development and budget appropriations. The two processes were different, and governments often had difficulties in bringing them together. A gender-sensitive budget analysis could bring the two processes together, helping governments to achieve the effective implementation of policy.
Despite major transformations to the status of European women, the lack of women's leadership at the institutional level had hardly changed, said Laura Balbo, Minister for Equal Opportunities of Italy. With the exception of the Nordic States, there were still low numbers of women in "every political institution in every European country". Even where women gained access and influence within political bodies, the distribution of power and leadership
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between women and men was disproportionate. Power was presently located elsewhere: in the international banking and financial system, multinational corporations, and the military.
Magalys Arocha Dominguez, member of the National Secretariat of the Federation of Cuban Women responsible for international affairs, said that, in spite of the expansion that had arisen from globalization, the gap between developed and underdeveloped countries grew wider. Those negative effects had hurt women, as well as men. Women were still the main victims of structural adjustment policies. And, women's unemployment was estimated to be 10 to 40 per cent greater than men's. However, Cuban women's participation in the economic, cultural, social and political life had increased despite economic hardships. There had been attempts to reorient the economy to make social programmes a priority.
The Commission will meet again at 3 p.m. on Thursday, 18 March, to hear the introduction of draft proposals.
Commission Work Programme
The Commission on the Status of Women met this morning to continue its five-day session as the Preparatory Committee for the special session of the General Assembly entitled "Women 2000: Gender, Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century". (For background information on the session, see Press Release WOM/1118 issued on 15 March.)
The Committee was scheduled to hold a panel discussion on further actions and initiatives in preparation for the special session.
Panel Discussion
LAURA BALBO, Minister for Equal Opportunities of Italy, said that despite major transformations to the status of women in Europe, the lack of women's leadership at the institutional level had hardly changed. There were low numbers of women in "every political institution in every European country", with the exception of the Nordic States. Even in situations where women gained access and influence within political bodies, the distribution of power and leadership between women and men remained utterly disproportionate. At present, power was located elsewhere: in the international financial and banking system, multinational corporations, and the military. Italy's experience with the Department for Equal Opportunities reflected the leadership potential that women had developed in Europe and worldwide. Yet the percentage of women in the Italian Parliament today was the lowest since the beginning the Italian Republic in the post-war years.
One of the key issues of the Italian political agenda was the crisis of its democratic institutions. They needed a reform that would lend them more participatory and diversified forms of social representation. Women's associations had created shelters for battered and trafficked women and tackled discrimination in the workplace. Women's movements had joined with other social solidarity organizations to work with immigrants, taking an approach that valorized gender and all difference in a multicultural perspective, However, such movements were complex, fragmented and lacked a common political platform. They had neither the power of mobilization that shook the societies in the 1970s, nor the codified systems of social and political representation developed by other more influential social actors, such as trade unions and political parties. Even in the practice of social dialogue, women were often marginalized, and gender difference often ignored.
She said that last week Italy suggested that some issues be given a prominent position in the special session of the General Assembly: a gendered critique of globalization and its impact on women; the global rise of multiple fundamentalisms; and women's contribution to the debate on democracy and on United Nations reform. Putting forward ideas for a future-oriented agenda, more specifically focused on women and leadership, she proposed three levels:
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the organizational agenda, the symbolic level and what had been called the "non-decision-making" process.
Regarding the organizational dimension, she said that women's leadership and political empowerment should be treated as a normative and organizational aspect of national and international organizations. At the symbolic level, the question of women in leadership affected symbolic and cultural messages and meanings about women's competence and authority. Women must respond to the challenge that in an information society, they had the unprecedented opportunity to convey the message to women and men that social and cultural innovations were both possible and necessary. In the area of agenda-setting, particularly "non-decision-making", she said "we must address how to develop effective procedures for agenda building" that were gendered and woman- friendly.
MAGALYS AROCHA DOMINGUEZ, member of the National Secretariat of the Federation of Cuban Women responsible for international affairs, said the majority of people living on the planet today faced increasing unemployment and poverty. A major contributor to poverty was external debt servicing. Government had to allocate an extremely high percentage of the state budget to debt servicing and that affected social programmes. States today spent 60 per cent less on social programmes than they did in 1970. That situation was closely related to the process of globalization.
In spite of the expansion that had arisen from globalization, the gap between developed and underdeveloped countries grew increasingly wider; there was an increase of unemployment, poverty and migration flows, as well as the exclusion of broad sectors of the population from productive processes. Despite the continuing scientific and technical boom, women were still the main victims of structural adjustment policies and they were the ones who lived in the most precarious conditions. Women's presence in the economically active population had increased by only 6 percentage points in the last 20 years. Unemployment for women was estimated to be 10 to 40 per cent greater than that for men. Women had also been the most damaged by unemployment. They were often forced to take the most primitive of jobs and they worked longer hours than men. Women carried 53 per cent of the total workload in developing countries and 51 per cent in industrialized countries.
Indicators showed that Cuban women's participation in economic, cultural, social and political life had increased. That was true despite the hardships that had been encountered by Cuba in the 1990s. Those hardships had resulted from, among other things, the collapse of the Soviet Union. The gross national product (GNP) of Cuba fell suddenly between 1990 and 1993, and so did the quality of life of the population. That began to be reversed in 1995, the same year as the Beijing Conference. There were attempts to reorient the economy to make social programmes a priority. A national seminar and other efforts had been held to address, specifically, the needs of Cuban
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women, and this year there would be an evaluation of Cuba's national plan for women's rights.
DIANE ELSON, Special Adviser to the Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), said that one of the problems in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action was that there was often a gap between policy development and budget appropriations. The two processes were different and governments often had difficulties in bringing them together. A gender-sensitive budget analysis could bring the two processes together, helping governments to achieve the effective implementation of policies. Gender-sensitive budget analysis could also be used to examine whether resources had been budgeted to implement a country's national plan of action and assess the adequacy of those resources.
She said that another reason for gender-sensitive budget analysis was that there could be losses to a nation as a whole for failing to consider the gender implications of public expenditure and revenue. One example of that was where cuts in public expenditure could create false economies if they were designed in ways that added to women's unpaid work. Another example was in the loss of output and inefficiency. In many countries, not taking account of gender in planning education expenditure meant that more of that expenditure went towards the schooling of boys rather than girls. She then gave specific country approaches and experiences in gender-sensitive budgeting, citing the cases of Australia, the Philippines and South Africa.
She said that through the Commonwealth Initiative, a number of tools had been identified as relevant to governments for gender-sensitive analysis of patterns of expenditure and taxation and their gendered impacts. Two of those tools were gender-aware policy appraisal and gender-aware budget statements. Parliamentarians and non-governmental organizations could also contribute to gender-sensitive budgets in a number of ways including mobilizing demand for gender-sensitive budgets analysis. They could also use gender-sensitive budget analysis to hold governments accountable for policy commitments with budgetary appropriations, and to advocate for adjustments in expenditure and taxation in order to support the implementation of the Platform for Action.
NIRMALADEVI NABABSING, from the Ministry of Women, Family, Welfare and Child Development of Mauritius, said her country was a small Indian Ocean island with a total population slightly exceeding one million. The population density was one of the highest in the world; however, with 560 persons per square kilometre. The population was multi-ethnic, with ancestral origins from Africa, China, Europe and India. Among her country's efforts to improve the status of women was a campaign to eliminate gender-based violence. The Government was providing 24 hour service to victims as well as psychological counselling. A study has been conducted to evaluate the problem of domestic violence. However, such policies had been met with considerable resistance, which demonstrated the deep-rooted gender biases in her country.
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Government programmes had succeeded in increasing the literacy rate among women, she said. However, unemployment was still higher for women than for men and women were absent from some economic sectors. A development index had identified certain regions that were most disadvantaged and there was some evidence to show that domestic violence and abuse was greater in those areas. A strategy for the economic empowerment of women was being implemented through the encouragement of women entrepreneurship. Last year a microcredit scheme was established to provide loans with little collateral. Also, a council was established to create a network of women entrepreneurs in the region.
Such projects had met with limited success, she added. They were impeded by a lack of gender sensitivity among policy-makers and leaders. Changing those attitudes had proven to be a difficult if not impossible task. In the next century greater efforts should be given to changing those negative attitudes toward gender. The question was how to change those attitudes imbedded in society. Without such efforts, equality and women's empowerment would be stalled.
Ms. BALBA, responding to a question on the proposal for constitutional reform in Italy, said that at this moment it was just that -- a proposal to change the status of women in Italian politics. It indicated that the State was interested in promoting equal opportunities for men and women in the electoral processes. The end result would ensure that more women got elected. Regarding the issue raised on agenda-setting, she agreed with the view that there should be more women in political institutions, and cited a critical mass of around 30 as against two or three. With such a mass, the strong male culture in political institutions might change since women would bring a new way of thinking.
The question of female genital mutilation which had been raised was relevant to Italy, she said, since her country had a growing population of women who came from countries where that practice was acceptable. In that regard, Italy had now established a committee that would establish guidelines for medical, education and social workers so that the issue would be taken into consideration when they had to deal with it in regard to cases, students and patients.
Ms. AROCHA, responding to the issue raised on poverty, said women continued to be the poorest among the poor. From the point of view of globalization, certainly technological developments had opened up new jobs for many women. What had happened in the third world, however, where women had less skills and access to technology, was that poverty was being recycled. Deregulation of economies was taking place, new methods of employment were precarious, trade union organizations were diminishing and there were often longer working hours with less pay.
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Ms. ELSON, responding to questions on resources and gender-sensitive budgets, said that some countries and institutions had adopted policies where they tried to get a certain percentage of resources allocated to women's or gender issues. The Philippines was an example of that. On the other hand, some countries preferred to focus with gender sensitivity on the budget as a whole. Sometimes such terminologies sought to hide from analyses to determine whether gender equality was indeed being promoted. It was up to each country, however, to decide which was the better strategy. Perhaps there was a need to share experiences to see which approach was the most effective.
Ms. BALBO, in response to a question on women in leadership, said there was a need to redefine what politics was about and increase critical thinking by women. Such critical thinking was prominent in the 1970s women's movement. Women's issues had, at the moment, a great international audience. Women get strength from the fact that they were part of an international network, and they should take advantage of that positive situation. On the impact of policies on women, there was a need to monitor the processes of change. That required effective studies and data on national programmes.
Ms. AROCHA, in response to a question related to globalization, said that there were common needs between countries and the Beijing Platform identified those commonalities. While she was emphasizing the obstacles to women's empowerment, that did not mean the situation was completely bleak. Women had progressed in Cuba, and, internationally, and there was greater interest and awareness of women's rights today.
Ms. ELSON, on the topic of implementation of budget analysis, said there had been increased data, however, there was a need for greater and improved data to evaluate national budgets in a gender sensitive way. Once that data was available, national priorities could be examined and changed. What should also be understood was how national budgets were affected by pressures of globalization and competitive pressures. All government departments should take on the responsibility of gender mainstreaming. To accomplish that, there was a need for greater political will. That could be created by initiatives of parliamentarians and non-governmental organizations.
Ms. NABABSING, on domestic violence, said political opposition to Mauritius' gender violence law was strong and it was only passed after strong lobbying, especially by non-governmental organizations. The police tended to treat cases of domestic violence as trivial, and there were many efforts to change their attitudes in that regard. However, enforcement of the law varied between different police departments.
In response to a question on rape, she said the domestic violence act did define rape as a crime, and there had been recorded cases in that regard. Domestic violence cases required very quick intervention and slow government procedures had often impeded prosecution, however.
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