Effective Representation of Women Legislators in Parliaments
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EFFECTIVE REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN LEGISLATORS IN PARLIAMENTS: A CASE STUDY OF NEW ZEALAND IN THEORETICAL AND GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science in the University of Canterbury by Nomita Halder University of Canterbury New Zealand 2002 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENTS PAGE List of Tables VI List of Figures V11 List of Appendices V11 Abbreviations Vlll Acknowledgement IX Abstract X CHAPTER ONE: A QUEST FOR BARRIERS, POLITICAL 1 REPRESENTATION, EFFECTIVENESS AND POWER 1.1 Problems in levels ofwomen's representation 1 1.2 Regional variation of women's representation 4 1.3 Political Representation 8 1.3.1 Theories of representation 9 1.4 Political Effectiveness 20 1.5 Project profile 27 1.6 Research design/Methodology 31 1.7 Secondary sources 33 1.8 Structure of the thesis 34 CHAPTER TWO: BARRIERS TO PARTICIPATION AND 36 EFFECTIVENESS AND SOURCES OF POWER 2.1 General societal barriers 36 2.1.1 Reproductive roles 36 2.1.2 Private versus public roles 38 2.1.2.1 Sources of stereotypes 40 2.1.2.1.1 Socialisation as a source of stereotypes 41 2.1.2.1.2 Popular attitudes 42 2.1.3 Cultural factors 46 2.1.4 Religious factors 47 2.2 Sources of power 52 o 111 2.2.1 Sources of individual power 55 2.2.l.1 Resource power 55 2.2.1.2 Position power 59 2.2.l.3 Expert power 59 2.2.l. 3.1 Education 62 2.2.1.3.2 Professional occupations and labour market 63 partici pation 2.2.1.4 Personal power 64 2.2.l.4.1 Family connections 66 2.2.2 Sources of group power 67 2.2.2.1 Quotas and reserved seats in political parties and 69 legislatures 2.2.2.2 Network/pressure groups/women's movement 72 2.2.3 Sources of institutional power 74 2.2.3.1 Political parties and caucuses 74 2.2.3.2 Electoral systems 79 2.2.4 Sources of structural power 80 2.2.4.1 Democracy 81 2.2.4.2 Socio-economic condition of the nation 82 2.3 Summary and conclusion 84 CHAPTER THREE: WOMEN LEGISLATORS' POWER AND 86 EFFECTIVENESS IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD 3.1 Visible differences between male and female MPs 86 3.l.1 Reproductive roles make women less effective 86 3.l.2 They are different from men in exercising power 88 3.1.3 They are less aggressive 89 3.1.4 They serve in the softer portfolios 91 3.1.5 They show specific issue preferences 95 3.1.5.1 Single-issue legislators 98 3.1.5.2 Multiple issues legislators 101 3.1.5.3 Legislators who avoid women's issues 103 3.2 Sources of women's power and effectiveness 108 3.3 Summary and conclusion 112 tv CHAPTER FOUR: SOCIETAL BARRIERS TO THE DEVELOPMENT 114 OF WOMEN'S REPRESENTATION IN THE NEW ZEALAND PARLIAMENT 4.1 Gender in New Zealand 115 4.1.1 Cultural factors 116 4.1.1.1 Power in gender relations 116 4.l.l.2 Reproductive roles 119 4.l.l.3 Socialisation processes 122 4.1.1.4 Division of private and public spheres 128 4.1.1.5 People's negative attitudes 134 4.1.1.5.1 Negative attitudes in the parliament 139 4.1.1.5.2 Aggressiveness and power 141 4.1.2 Religion 142 4.2 Summary and conclusion 146 CHAPTER FIVE: BARRIERS TO THE EFFECTIVENESS AND POWER 149 OF WOMEN'S REPRESENTATION IN THE NEW ZEALAND PARLIAMENT 5.l Representati on 150 5.2 Sources of individual power 152 5.2.1 Resource power through select committees 152 5.2.2 Position power through cabinet positions 155 5.2.2.1 Local government as a stepping-stone 156 5.2.3 Expert power through education and professional occupations 159 5.2.3.1 Education 159 5.2.3.2 Professional occupations 160 5.2.4 Personal power 163 5.2.4.1 Personal power and family connections 164 5.3 Sources of group power 166 5.3.1 Women's/feminists' organisations and networks 166 5.4 Sources of institutional power 178 5.4.1 Party activities and partisan nature of New Zealand women 178 5.4.1.1 Trade union involvement 187 5.4.2 Electoral systems 191 5.5 Sources of structural power 193 v 5.5.1 Democracy 193 5.5.2 Socio-economic condition 194 5.6 Summary and conclusion 195 CHAPTER SIX: ANALYSIS OF PERCEIVED 198 EFFECTIVENESSIINEFFECTIVENESS OF WOMEN'S REPRESENTA TION IN NEW ZEALAND 6.1 Male MPs' opinion 198 6.2 Personal interviews of female MPs 205 6.3 Summary and conclusion 234 CHAPTER SEVEN: CONTEXTUALIZING THE RESULTS: WOMEN'S 237 REPRESENTATION IN NORWAY AND BANGLADESH 7.1 Gender in Bangladesh and Norway 237 7.2 Women's effective representation 248 7.2.1 Sources of individual power (resource/position/expert) 248 7.2.2 Personal power 256 7.2.3 Sources of group power 260 7.2.4 Sources of institutional power 269 7.2.4.1 Political parties 269 7.2.4.2 Electoral systems 277 7.3 Sources of structural power 278 7.3.1 Democracy 278 7.3.2 Socio-economic conditions 280 7.4 Summary and conclusion 281 CHAPTER EIGHT: CONCLUSION 286 8.1 Barriers to participation and effectiveness 287 8.1.1 General societal barriers 287 8.1.2 Women's access difficulty to sources oflegislative power 291 8.2 Are women effective representatives? 303 8.3 Contribution of the work 308 REFERENCES 311 APPENDIX 341 VI LIST OF TABLES TABLES PAGE 1.1 Women's parliamentary representation in seven global regions 4 2.1 Common extrapolations from domestic roles to political interests 39 2.2 Sources of power extracted from available literature 54 3.1 Gender based portfolio allocation 92 3.2 Portfolios held by women before their chief executive position 93 4.1 Women's role according to equalitarian and traditional views 120 4.2 Subject choice of male and female students 123 4.3 Gender gap in political interest (%) 126 4.4 Interest in politics (%) 126 4.5 Knowledge of the MMP system by gender (%) 126 4.6 Women MPs' interests 131 4.7 New Zealand people's affiliation to religious denominations 144 5.1 Women MPs in select committees of 46th parliament 154 5.2 Women MPs used local government positions as stepping-stones 158 5.3 Women MPs' family connections 165 5.4 Women MPs' involvement in women's organisations and networks 172 5.5 Women MPs with trade union experience 187 5.6 Party based seat allocation in the 1999-2002 parliament and women's share 190 5.7 Women, Maori and ethnic communities' representation in the parliament 192 6.1 Gender gap in select committees 218 6.2 Women MPs' issue choice 221 6.3 Portfolios held by Prime Ministers of New Zealand before first becoming 226 Prime Ministers 7.1 Religious denominations in Bangladesh 240 7.2 Major religious denominations in Norway 245 7.3 Background of women MPs in the Bangladesh parliament 254 7.4 Women's representation in the Bangladesh parliament (1973-2001) 265 7.5 Effect of quota in political parties 269 7.6 Women in political parties' central executive committees 276 Vll LIST OF FIGURES FIGURES PAGE 4.1 Level of confidence in political parties 127 5.1 Bachelor degrees held by men and women 160 LIST OF APPENDIX APPENDIX PAGE A Perceptions of female members of parliament among male members of 341 parliament Vlll ABBREVIATIONS AL Awami League BBC British Broadcasting Corporation BNP Bangladesh Nationalist Party CCWI Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women CIA Central Intelligence Agency CND Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament CNN Cable News Network CWW Committee on Women's Work DPB Domestic Purposes Benefit EC European Community EEO Equal Employment Opportunity FEMA Fair Election Monitoring Alliance FPP First-Past-the-Post GEM Gender Empowerment Measure ICW International Council of Women IDEA Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance IPU Inter-Parliamentary Union ITB lamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh lP latio Party ·MMP Mixed Member Proportional NCW National Council of Women NGO Non Government Organisation NOW National Organisation of Women NOW National Organization of Women NZES New Zealand Election Surveys PPP Pakistan People's Party PR Proportional Representation PSA Public Service Association PSC Public Service Commission SROW Society for Research On Women UN United Nations UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNFPA United Nations Population Fund WCTU Woman's Christian Temperance Union WDFF Women's Divisions of Federated Farmers WEL Women's Electoral Lobby WID Women In Development WILPF Women's International League for Peace and Freedom ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Firstly, I express my deep sense of gratitude and profound appreciation to my supervisor Emeritus Professor Keith Jackson and my associate supervisor Dr Jim Ockey for their invaluable guidance, suggestions, encouragement and kind help throughout the period of the study and preparation of this manuscript. My deepest thanks go to the Head of the Department Professor Mark Francis and all the academic members including two ever-helping secretaries of the Political Science Department Jill Dolby and Phillipa Greenman. I am thankful to the Honourable Speaker, Ministers and MPs of New Zealand who allowed me to interview them personally and co-operated in filling out the questionnaires. In fact, New Zealand is a great country to work with. I am surprised to see that unlike many other countries the public have easy accesses to ministers and MPs.