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Women's Political Representation in the Arab Region

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Women's Political Representation in the Arab Region Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia Women’s Political Representation in the Arab Region E/ESCWA/ECW/2017/3 Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) Women’s Political Representation in the Arab Region United Nations Beirut, 2017 © 2017 United Nations All rights reserved worldwide Photocopies and reproductions of excerpts are allowed with proper credits. All queries on rights and licenses, including subsidiary rights, should be addressed to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), e-mail: [email protected]. The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its officials or Member States. The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the status of any country, territory, city or area, its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Links contained in this publication are provided for the convenience of the reader and are correct at the time of issue. The United Nations takes no responsibility for the continued accuracy of that information or for the content of any external website. References have, wherever possible, been verified. Mention of company names and commercial products does not imply the endorsement of the United Nations Secretariat. References to dollars ($) are to United States dollars, unless otherwise stated. Symbols of the United Nations documents are composed of capital letters combined with figures. Mention of such a symbol indicates a reference to a United Nations document. United Nations publication issued by ESCWA, United Nations House, Riad El Solh Square, P.O. Box: 11-8575, Beirut, Lebanon. Website: www.unescwa.org. 17-00412 iii Acknowledgments This publication was prepared by the staff The study benefited from the invaluable of the United Nations Economic and Social contribution and constructive criticism of Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) Centre participants in an expert group meeting, for Women (ECW), namely Dr. Mehrinaz held at the United Nations House in Beirut El Awady, Director, Amal Basha, Chief of Section, in December 2016, to discuss its preliminary and David Krivanek, Associate Social Affairs findings, and from rounds of internal Officer. The present publication is based on a reviews by ESCWA staff members. The background paper written by Dr. Rola final version also benefited from the el-Husseini, an international expert and Research substantive review and input of Nada Associate Professor at the Graduate Center of the Darwazeh, Chief of Section at ECW, City University of New York, who has also and Karima El Kerri, Chief of the Population provided a critical review of the study in its final and Social Development Section drafts. Ayla Al Ghaziri and Fatima Mahmoud at ESCWA. provided extensive research support. v Executive Summary The objective of this study is to generate The political developments that began in evidence-based policy recommendations for December 2010 have provided new Arab States, in order to help them scale-up opportunities for strengthening and expanding efforts to meet their commitments as relates to women’s rights and their representation in goal 5 of the United Nations’ Sustainable political and public life. States that have Development Goals (SDGs), pertaining to witnessed regime change (such as Egypt and gender equality, in particular target 5.5, which Tunisia) have adopted new constitutional and aims to ensure women’s equal opportunities for legal frameworks that promote women’s leadership at all levels of decision-making in political representation, while the governments political and public life. of States that did not witness such change (e.g. Jordan or Morocco) adopted pro- A thorough desktop review was conducted to democratization measures in an attempt to develop the conceptual framework for the study pre-empt further upheavals. Although they have and establish a knowledge base on the status of introduced more limited changes, member women’s presence in decision-making and States of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) public life. This was supported by a survey have also witnessed some positive advances, completed by member States on the status of such as women being able to vote and run in women’s political representation, as well as Saudi elections for the first time in 2015. national measures to enhance it. Interviews Consequently, the presence of women in the were carried out with women who sought to political sphere has generally increased in the participate in public life, regardless of whether region over the past years, as a result of the they were successful or not. Case studies were actions of governments, civil society actors, and conducted in four countries in the region, in international organizations. order to establish an in-depth understanding of the status of women’s representation within Despite these advances, however, women their national political context. remain largely underrepresented at all levels of governance in the Arab region. The average This study examined women’s representation regional proportion of female members of in the legislative, executive, and judiciary parliament, 19 per cent, is well below the branches, as well as in local councils, with the global average. Many governments still include understanding that the analysis was incomplete only one or two female ministers, if any, and in certain cases due to data limitation. Regional they are typically confined to portfolios analysis was conducted to showcase new forms associated with women’s traditional roles in of women’s representation, such as their society (e.g. health or education). Those participation in peace talks, national dialogues ministries also feature the highest proportion of and constitutional committees, which challenge female civil servants, and women’s presence traditional roles and representations. decreases notably at higher levels in the public vi service hierarchy, Women account for only a Evidence from countries that have seen positive fraction of the region’s judges, and they are developments in terms of women’s generally more present in lower courts than representation provides examples of good higher ones. Women also remain severely practices that should be emulated throughout underrepresented at the local governance the region. These examples highlight the level, although decisions taken by local importance of political will to address councils can have a tremendous impact imbalances in women’s representation, which is on their lives. often accompanied by efforts to tackle other issues affecting women (for example by These low numbers suggest that many reforming personal status law). As these barriers to women’s political representation examples show, one of the most efficient tools remain in place, despite the promises of for improving women’s political representation greater gender equality brought forward is the adoption of quotas, for example for by the so-called Arab uprisings. Such barriers elections or for women’s representation in the are expressed along several dimensions, all executive. Countries that have adopted such intertwined. The sociocultural beliefs and mechanisms have, on the whole, witnessed a norms of patriarchal societies place different normalization of the presence of women in the expectations on women and men regarding political sphere, as evidenced by the increasing their social contribution, which for women number of female candidates in elections and of rarely includes political participation. This is those managing to get elected outside of the compounded by strong institutional barriers quota system. Nevertheless, a narrow focus on to women’s political participation, which augmenting headline numbers is not sufficient include enduring legal discrimination against to sustainably improve women’s political women and gender-blind processes that representation. Rather, the issue should be do not provide women with the tools they addressed in a holistic manner, through need to break into largely male-dominated policies that also address sociocultural and political spheres. institutional barriers. vii Contents Page Acknowledgments iii Executive Summary v Contents vii 1. Women’s Political Representation: A Snapshot of the Arab Region 1 A. Introduction 1 B. Purpose of the study 1 C. Research questions and methodology 3 D. Key actors in advancing women’s political participation 3 E. Snapshot of regional trends 7 2. Barriers to Women’s Political Representation 19 A. Sociocultural barriers 19 B. Institutional barriers 23 C. Examples from the field 28 3. Case Studies 35 A. Jordan 35 B. Morocco 40 C. Tunisia 46 D. Egypt 51 4. Conclusions and Recommendations 59 A. Conclusions 59 B. Policy recommendations 62 Annex 66 Endnotes 68 List of Tables Table 1. Year of women’s suffrage by Arab country 9 Table 2. Electoral quotas for women 12 Table 3. Women in local councils 17 viii Contents (continued) Page List of Figures Figure 1. Percentage of women in lower or single houses of parliament 10 Figure 2. Percentage of women in upper houses of parliament 11 Figure 3. Women holding ministerial positions 14 Figure 4. Women judges in the judiciary 15 Figure 5. Percentage of women in local councils 16 Figure 6. Perceptions of men and women on political leadership 20 Figure 7. Percentage of Jordanian women in parliament, 1989-2016 36 Figure 8. Percentage of Moroccan women in parliament, 1970-2016 40 Figure 9. Percentage of Tunisian women in parliament, 1969-2014 47 Figure 10. Percentage of Egyptian women in parliament, 1969-2015 52 List of Boxes Box 1. Civil society leading a mentorship programme in Egypt 5 Box 2. International organizations supporting States in fulfilling their obligations towards enhanced women’s participation 6 Box 3. New forms of participation: the Syrian Arab Republic 7 Box 4. Yemeni women’s participation in the national dialogue process 8 Box 5. Women in traditional forms of participation: Egypt 11 Box 6.
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