PRESS CONFERENCE BY INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION

At a Headquarters press conference this morning, held to launch the Inter-Parliamentary Union survey entitled “Politics: Women's Insight”, United Nations Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, Angela King, told correspondents that the survey left no doubt that the world of politics was still broadly unwelcoming to women.

Joining her in launching the survey were Anders B. Johnsson, Secretary- General of the Union and Sheila Finestone, Senator from Canada and Chairperson of the Union's Coordinating Committee of Women Parliamentarians.

Ms. King said the publication revealed, for the first time, what it was really like to be a woman in the world of politics. About 200 women, from 65 countries, in their own words, had opened up about how they were bringing gender parity and partnership to the functioning and strengthening of the democratic process all over the world. The study substantiated the belief that there was a specific identity that women held, which complemented that of men, and a specific contribution that women made to politics. The achievements of true democracy had to be grounded in a genuine partnership between women and men, she said.

The United Nations had devoted much time and energy in promoting conferences and treaties, with a view to ending the inequitable situation, she continued. Five decades and four world conferences on women later, women were still not receiving their share of the benefits of economic and political change. The survey demonstrated that women were slowly, but surely taking their place at the top all over the world. It confirmed that where women were present in sufficient numbers, they were beginning to work for change in the political environment and influence, not only the outcome of political activity, but also the international agenda.

Ms. Finestone said that there was a tremendous commonality of issues and problems that faced women. No world parliament today had gender parity. Sweden was the closest with 40 per cent and the global average was between 10 and 15 per cent. Common concerns among women in politics were: responsibilities to children and older parents; guilt due to being away from home for long periods; financial resources required to get a nomination, let alone an election; the culture of the country you were in; and the role media played in allowing women to have visibility.

She went on to say that it was important to mentor and guide. The message was that it took women and men, and their different life experiences, to work together, create synergy and tackle community problems. The survey also had a lot to say about quotas versus targets.

Over the last 25 years, noted Mr. Johnsson, the Union had done much to increase women’s political participation, including by providing current statistical information on women in politics. As of Friday evening, the

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percentage of women participating in national parliaments was 13.1, which was dismal when compared to the fact that the figure was higher 12 years ago.

Regardless of where the respondents came from, they were basically sending the same message, he said. The great contribution of women to politics was that they brought a human dimension to it. Women were closer to people, to their needs and to their social development. They also brought a different way of doing things; a less confrontational way of doing politics. They had also been instrumental in bringing about a change in language. Today, there was much less verbal abuse and sexist language in, for example, parliaments and cabinet meetings.

A fundamental tenet of the Union was that one could not pretend to speak of democracy if 50 per cent or more of the population was excluded from the democratic process. From that point of view, hopefully 189 of the 189 countries in the world today were working towards achieving that parity and partnership in politics, because none of them had done so yet. The Union could honestly say that it had absolute parity and partnership between men and women at all levels of the organization.

Asked about the worsening trend of women parliamentarians, Ms. King noted that in 1988, the figure had been the highest ever, at 14.8 per cent. That figure, after declining, mainly due to the transition process that took place in eastern Europe, went up to 11 per cent last year and was now back up to 13 per cent.

As to why the names of the women parliamentarians, who gave their personal testimonies, were withheld in the survey, Mr. Johnsson said that the decision not to reveal their identities was based on the extraordinary frankness with which they had responded. At the same time, in some cases, it was quite obvious who they were.

Ms. Finestone added that the question of anonymity had been raised at the meetings following the 1985 World Conference on Women held in Nairobi, Kenya. Many of the countries that the respondents wrote from were still not open to allowing women to expose their personal family life, for religious and cultural reasons.

Touching on the subject of quotas and targets, he said that both men and women believed that such measures were not desirable. While they were unavoidable, since change took a long time to come about, they were temporary. What was needed was a permanent change in attitudes, so that women could be elected, just like men, to political office.

Ms. Finestone added that it also took the commitment of the top leadership. In her country, in order to make up the deficit in the Senate, 55 per cent of all nominations in the past year had been women. The same was true for the Canadian Lieutenant-General, Governor-General and Head of the Supreme Court. The nominations came because the country had a leader who was committed to equity.

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With regard to the geographical breakdown in the survey, Mr. Johnsson said that in the five Nordic countries, which occupied first, second, third, fourth and sixth place in the world rankings, 38.9 per cent of parliamentarians, on average, were women. Other examples include the Americas with 15 per cent, Asia with 14 per cent and the Arab States with 3.4 per cent. The first seven countries in the ranking were located in Europe. In addition, many emerging democracies ranked fairly high up, while some of the traditional democracies, such as the United Kingdom, France and the United States, were no where near the first twenty.

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