Gender-Sensitive Parliaments Gender-Sensitive REPORTS AND DOCUMENT No. 65 - 2011 Inter-Parliamentary Union Office of the Permanent Observer of the IPU to the United Nations 5 chemin du Pommier Case postale 330 Inter-Parliamentary Union CH-1218 Le Grand-Saconnex 220 East 42nd Street – Suite 3002 Geneva, Switzerland New York, N.Y. 10017 – Gender-Sensitive Parliaments United States of America Telephone: +41 22 919 41 50 Good Practice of Review A Global Fax: +41 22 919 41 60 Telephone: +1 212 557 58 80 A Global Review of Good Practice E-mail: [email protected] Fax: +1 212 557 39 54 E-mail: [email protected] www.ipu.org Copyright © INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION (2011) ISBN 978-92-9142-524-2 (IPU) Towards parliaments that respond to the needs and interests of both men and women in their structures, operations, methods and work. All rights reserved. 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Original version: English Cover design by Julian Knott, layout by Michel Favre, Le Cadratin, France Printed in France by Courand et Associés Photo credit: AFP and IPU Gender-Sensitive Parliaments A Global Review of Good Practice Written by Dr. Sonia Palmieri Acknowledgements The Gender-sensitive Parliaments project (www.gender-parliaments.org) set out to examine the gender sensitivity of parliaments around the world. Originally conceptualised by Julie Ballington, former Programme specialist at the IPU’s Gender Partnership Programme (GPP), the project’s design benefited from the input of a number of gender and parliament specialists and project partners, including Zeina Hilal (Programme Officer, GPP, IPU), Kareen Jabre (Manager GPP, IPU), Karima El Korri (UNDP, Arab Regional Office), Elizabeth Powley and Kristen Sample (International IDEA, Latin American Regional Office). Senator Ruth Nancy, of Canada, also gave valuable insight on drafts of the questionnaires distributed for this research. Without the time and dedication of hundreds of parliamentarians and parliamentary staff this report would not be so rich with insight. We thank all who responded to the questionnaires for their considered responses and recommendations. We are especially grateful to the numerous parliamentarians interviewed for this study, who spent considerable time reflecting on their parliamentary experiences. The report also reflects the impressive work compiled for a number of national case studies, based on in-country research and interviews with parliamentarians, parliamentary staff and parliamentary stakeholders. In Latin America, the IPU thanks Dunia Mokrani Chávez, Patricia Chávez León, Daphne Cuevas, Ana Isabel Garciá, Beatriz Llanos, and Jutta Marx and Jutta Borner; in Africa, thanks go to Professor Amanda Gouws, Elizabeth Powley, Fanta Same; in Europe, to Dr Petra Meier and Eline Severs, Carmen de la Fuente Méndez and Lenita Freidenvall; in the Arab region, to Gihan Abu Zeid, Walid Husni Zahra and Riadh Zghal and in the Asia-Pacific region, to Dr. Sonia Palmieri. Writing is never a solitary process. The lead author of this global report, Dr. Sonia Palmieri, would like to thank the team of experts who reviewed, revised and suggested improvements to the initial drafts, including Ann Boman, Martin Chungong, Lenita Freidenvall, Zeina Hilal, Kareen Jabre, James Jennings, Kristen Sample and Valeria Sistek. Special thanks also go to Catherine Mackenzie and Catherine Todeschini Blondelle, for their invaluable support, to Nic Cottrell of Transmachina, for establishing and maintaining the questionnaire database and to Michel Favre for the lay-out and design. Last but not least, thanks go to Irish Aid, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) for their financial support. Inter-Parliamentary Union iii Foreword Parliaments mirror our societies. They aspire to represent Parliamentarians look to the IPU for capacity-building and respond to everyday reality. By so doing, parliaments support in this area, which the IPU is committed are constantly evolving. Modern parliaments are those to providing in a number of ways: strengthened in which citizens recognize themselves and find answers cooperation with other parliamentarians and experts to their questions and aspirations. in the field of parliamentary development; new tools to analyse legislation from a gender perspective; further In the 20th century, one of the greatest changes to research into areas where questions are still unanswered; democracy around the world was women’s participation and information seminars to share experiences and in politics, both as voters and as members of parliament. good practices. Today the objective of gender equality has permeated our societies and is now recognized as a central element This report consolidates the IPU’s long-standing of development and progress. This goal has already position as a leader in research on women in parliament. been taken into account by many parliaments, but there The IPU has forged strong partnerships with other is still a long way to go before parliaments become organisations to expand its research on the subject. leading actors in the struggle for gender equality. The survey on which this study is based is the result of a global, two-year project, which required collaborative In 2008 the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) launched a effort. With funding from Irish Aid, the Canadian global study of women in parliament, Equality in Politics: International Development Agency (CIDA) and the A survey of women and men in parliament. A clear finding Swedish International Development Cooperation of this survey was that women are overwhelmingly Agency (SIDA), the IPU has worked in partnership with the main drivers of progress in gender equality in the UNDP Parliamentary Development Initiative in parliament, but that parliaments, as institutions, also the Arab Region and with International IDEA in Latin have responsibilities. This finding begs the question: America. what are parliaments doing to encourage and foster gender equality? Indeed, what policies inform gender I wish to thank parliamentarians, parliamentary equality efforts? Are the institutional structures of staff, project collaborators and all others who gave parliaments around the world gender-sensitive? In generously of their time and effort. It is our hope that short, are parliaments gender-sensitive? this Study will make an important contribution to the continuing development of modern democracy and The report on Gender-sensitive Parliaments seeks to modern parliaments. answer these questions. Simply put, a gender-sensitive parliament is one that responds to the needs and interests of both men and women in its structures, operations, methods and work. While this report provides an important assessment of the gender sensitivity of the world’s parliaments, it also aims to give parliaments the tools they need to create the mechanisms required to mainstream gender equality concerns throughout their legislative, oversight and Anders B. Johnsson administrative work. Secretary General Inter-Parliamentary Union v Table of Contents Acknowledgements iii Foreword v Overview 1 Promoting women to key positions in parliament . 1 Pursuing gender equality through legislation and debate . 2 Dedicated gender mainstreaming infrastructure . 2 The contribution of men parliamentarians to gender equality . 3 Policies and procedures . 3 Political parties . 3 Parliamentary culture and infrastructure . 4 Parliamentary departments . 4 Chapter one – Introducing gender-sensitive parliaments 5 The need for change . 5 A gender-sensitive parliament . 6 Achieving change: introducing gender mainstreaming . 6 Chapter two – Ensuring women’s participation in parliaments 9 Global and regional trends . 9 Factors affecting women’s political participation . 10 Socio-economic challenges . 11 Seeking re-election . 12 Overcoming barriers . 12 Conclusion . 16 Chapter three – Achieving change through leadership and committee work 17 Pathways to leadership . 18 Women as committee chairs . 19 Committees chaired by women . 20 Women’s presence (and absence) on committees . 22 The allocation of committee memberships . 24 Policy specialisations . 24 Highlights and challenges of committee work . 27 Conclusion . 28 Chapter four – Pursuing gender equality through legislation and debate 29 Gender equality laws: a recent trend . 29 Legislative mandates for gender mainstreaming . 30 How to mainstream gender equality in legislation . 31 Strategies for introducing and passing gender equality legislation . 31 Raising gender equality issues in parliamentary debate . 33 Inter-Parliamentary Union vii Gender mainstreaming budgets . 34 Implementing gender budgeting in parliament: lessons learned . 36 Conclusion . 36 Chapter five – Setting up dedicated gender mainstreaming infrastructure 39 The gender mainstreaming work of parliamentary committees . 39 Dedicated gender equality committees . 40 Tenure and structure . 42 How effective is the committee on gender equality? . 43 How is the gender equality committee perceived in parliament relative to other committees? . 43 Multi-portfolio committees . 44 Mainstreaming methods . ..