Written by Nevada Yachouchi
Reading time 5 minutes
The Importance of Women participating in Politics
Women’s participation in politics has been a topic of growing importance and interest in recent decades. Historically, women have been underrepresented in political leadership roles worldwide, facing various barriers and obstacles such as gender stereotypes, discrimination, and cultural norms. However, today things are changing, but that wasn’t the case a few decades ago..
There have been significant strides towards greater gender equality in politics in many countries. Here are some key points regarding women in politics:
- Historical Context: For much of history, political power has been predominantly held by men. Women’s suffrage movements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries paved the way for women to participate in political processes through voting rights.
- Representation: Despite progress, women, especially in undeveloped countries, continue to be underrepresented in political leadership roles globally. This underrepresentation is evident in parliaments, cabinets, and other decision-making bodies. However, change is already coming in many Western societies for sure.
- Barriers to Entry: Women often face various barriers to entry into politics, including societal attitudes, lack of support networks, limited access to resources, and gender-based discrimination.
- Quotas and Affirmative Action: Some countries have implemented measures such as gender quotas or affirmative action policies to increase women’s representation in politics. These measures have been effective in boosting the number of women in elected positions.
- Research indicates that increasing the number of women in political leadership roles can result in more effective policy outcomes, heightened focus on social welfare issues, and a stronger emphasis on collaboration and consensus-building.
- Role Models and Inspiration: Women in politics serve as role models and inspire future generations of women to engage in political activism and leadership.
- Challenges and Progress: While progress has been made, challenges persist in achieving gender equality in politics. Continued efforts to address issues such as gender-based violence, workplace discrimination, and unequal access to opportunities are crucial for
advancing women’s participation in politics.
Achieving an Inclusive and Represetative Governance
Overall, women’s participation in politics is essential for achieving inclusive and representative governance. By promoting gender equality, empowering women leaders, and dismantling barriers to entry, societies can benefit from the diverse perspectives and talents that women bring to the political arena.
There were several young women in European politics who were making significant contributions and gaining prominence in their respective countries. Here are a few examples:
1. Sanna Marin (Finland): Sanna Marin became the Prime Minister of Finland in December 2019 at the age of 34, making her the world’s youngest serving prime minister at that time.
2. Kaja Kallas (Estonia): Kaja Kallas became the Prime Minister of Estonia in January 2021, becoming the first female prime minister of Estonia.
3. Irene Montero (Spain): Irene Montero is a Spanish politician who served as the Minister of Equality in the Spanish government. She is a prominent figure in left-wing politics in Spain.
4. Laura Kövesi (Romania): Laura Kövesi is a Romanian prosecutor who has been leading the fight against corruption in Romania and was appointed as the first European Chief Prosecutor of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in 2020.
5. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (United States): Though not in Europe, Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, known as AOC, became the youngest woman ever to serve in the United States Congress when she was elected to the House of Representatives in 2018 at the age of 29.
These are just a few examples, and there are many other young women who are actively involved in European politics, advocating for various issues and making their mark in the political landscape. Recognizing the Centrality of Women’s Political Empowerment. When the transition paradigm first emerged during the global wave of democratization in the 1980s and early 1990s, the focus on women’s political empowerment was relatively weak. Although it was included in the framework, it was neither clearly defined nor strongly prioritized by mainstream development organizations.
Over time, however, the significance of women’s political equality has become more recognized, and there has been growing acceptance of the idea that it is essential to the quality and legitimacy of democratic governance. The understanding that women’s political empowerment is crucial for sustainable development has also gained traction. As a result, efforts to enhance women’s political participation have become a key aspect of democracy promotion and development aid, partly due to the positive progress seen in established democracies, which has encouraged similar efforts in other regions.
This shift also highlights the increasing awareness since the early 1990s that the inclusion of women and other historically marginalized groups does not automatically happen in democratizing societies. For progress to be made, both local activists in these transitioning countries and the external aid providers supporting them must focus consistently and deliberately on promoting inclusiveness. Efforts to empower women politically have thus become a vital and evolving component of broader democracy support and development assistance initiatives.
Achieving an Inclusive and Represetative Governance
Aid providers have made limited efforts to clearly define and formalize the different strategies being implemented in various contexts. In the critical area of international democracy support, initiatives aimed at promoting women’s political empowerment face the challenge of adapting to the increasingly diverse transitional environments of recent years, which requires a more strategically differentiated approach. However, similar to other key areas of democracy support, a brief review of aid programs focused on women’s political empowerment suggests an initial appearance of strategic uniformity, with a standard set of activities implemented across different regions.
These activities are designed in response to what are seen as common challenges related to gender inequality in the political spheres of transitional countries worldwide. These challenges include the systemic underrepresentation of women at all levels of political life, the inadequate responsiveness of major political institutions to women’s basic needs and interests, and various formal and informal barriers to women’s political participation, such as discriminatory laws and negative cultural norms.
The primary components of these programs include the following:
1. Strengthening the role of women within political parties with particular emphasis on bolstering the presence of women within party leadership structures and increasing the number of women candidates for local and national offices (through leadership training for women party activists and advocacy with party leaders).
2. Increasing the chances of women candidates to win elections in local and/or national legislative bodies through training women candidates, helping women candidates address the challenge of campaign funding, and supporting civil society groups that carry out genderfocused voter education.
3. Advocating the adoption of gender quotas in political institutions through working with civil society groups pushing for quotas, legislators, and other politicians who may support quotas, and once quotas are in place, supporting strong implementation and the refinement of quotas through both civil society monitoring and political action.
4. Increasing the effectiveness and capacity of women elected officials through training newly elected women officials; assisting in the formation of networks of women politicians, including women’s political caucuses; and connecting women officials and politicians to women civil society leaders and activists.
Additionally, the programming for women’s political empowerment is often framed around a presumed sequence of transitional stages. For instance, a recent study by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) titled Women’s Leadership as a Route to Greater Empowerment presents a framework organized into four phases: transition, preelection, election, and postelection/governance.
The study specifies which standard interventions are appropriate for each phase. For example, during the initial transition phase, aid providers may assist women in actively participating in constitution drafting. In the preelection phase, the focus might shift to collaborating with political parties to support the nomination of women candidates. During the election phase, efforts may concentrate on training the candidates themselves, while the postelection phase may prioritize capacity building for newly elected women and the formation of women’s caucuses.
Nevada Yahchouchi Content Creator: International Business
Nevada is a young professional passionate about Enterpreneurship, women empowerment and human rights. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s degree in International Economics and finance at the Lebanese University. In her organisation role she contributes to Enterpreneurship, business and youth empowerment, in particular to the achievement of the UN sustainable development goals. She joined CoSE in 2022 as a content creator to write articles about these topics in order to raise awareness and bring her generation closer to the idea of creating the life they want, make them part of active change and pushing them to embark on the journey to feel passionate about.
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