ISSN 1941-6466 BAKER INSTITUTE POLICY REPORT PUBLISHED BY THE JAMES A. BAKER III INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY OF RICE UNIVERSITY NUMBER 59 JULY 2014 WOMEN’S POLITICAL REPRESENTATION AND THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN’S POLITICAL RIGHTS IN THE ARAB WORLD: THE CASE OF JORDAN Introduction few decades has led to deteriorating levels of women’s overall participation in the political Female political participation—both as candidates process, since the Arab Awakening, women and voters—has stirred one of the most heated across the region are demanding greater roles debates over the past few decades not only in the in the political arena and defying decades of Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), but marginalization in the decision-making process. also in many parts of the world. Acknowledging Nonetheless, numerous institutional, cultural, the considerable gap in female political and structural obstacles must be directly representation, numerous countries around addressed and remedied to give women in the the globe have adopted significant measures to region the opportunity to participate actively and promote the presence of women in the political equitably in the political sphere. arena. Including women in the decision-making This report will mainly focus on Jordan, process is widely considered one of the most as it is currently one of the region’s leading effective institutional mechanisms to advance models for women’s political representation. women’s interests and concerns, improve Jordanian leaders have experimented with policy outcomes in favor of women, transform numerous institutional mechanisms to promote cultural stereotypes in regard to women’s roles the inclusion of women in the decision-making in the public sphere, and create more equitable process in the past few decades (e.g., a certain and just societies where all citizens are equally number of seats reserved for women members represented. of parliament, quota regulations, and national While women have made substantive closed-party lists). gains in the political arena—not only on the The first section of this report outlines the institutional level but also on the societal level theoretical framework of the various forms in many democracies—women across the MENA of women’s political representation and the region are still struggling to achieve parity in significance of women’s presence in the political the political realm. The fact that not a single arena. The second section of the report sheds Arab country has been rated as “free”1 over light on the societal and political context of the past few decades, combined with the lack women’s political participation in Jordan—with of genuine representative democracies in the a special focus on the changes in the country’s region, has greatly affected the status of women electoral system over the past few decades and in the political arena. Currently, the Arab region their impact on women’s political representation continues to have one of the lowest percentages in Jordan. The third section of the report highlights of women members of national parliaments, with the obstacles facing women in the legislative arena very slow improvement compared to any other and offers insights from Jordan’s most recent region in the world. parliamentary elections. While previous studies Despite the fact that the political and and analyses focused on the issues of tribalism and social stagnation across the region in the past personalistic politics as the main impediments for 1 Table 1. Women in National Parliaments by Region (2013) Single House Upper House Both Houses Region or Lower House or Senate Combined Nordic countries 42% --- --- Europe — OSCE* member countries 24.6% 22.6% 24.2% including Nordic countries Americas 24.2% 23.8% 24.1% Europe — OSCE member countries 23% 22.6% 22.9% excluding Nordic countries Sub-Saharan Africa 21.1% 18.7% 21.7% Asia 19.1% 13.8% 18.5% Arab States 17.8% 7.7% 15.9% Pacific 13.1% 38.6% 15.9% Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), 2013; Regions are classified by descending order of the percentage of women in the lower or single house. *OSCE = Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe women’s access to power, this report argues that people and groups, and operating in the complex the widespread perceptions of corruption and ways of large-scale social arrangements.” She the general lack of trust in the electoral process also argues that representation should be the as a whole are instead the main impediments to final outcome of the structure and functioning the political empowerment of women. The report of the whole system and the patterns emerging concludes with an overview of the lessons learned from the multiple activities and multiple players from the Jordanian experience and offers specific in the system. policy recommendations for promoting women’s According to Pitkin, political representation political representation that can be applied not only is mainly classified into three forms: descriptive, in Jordan, but also in other parts of the region. substantive, and symbolic representation. Descriptive representation is conceptualized Women’s Political Representation: as “the politics of presence” and is generally An Overview and Why Does it Matter? considered a “mirror”3 for the population from which the representatives are drawn. The Political representation stands out as a pivotal argument for descriptive representation is based concept in the study of politics, yet it continues on the premise that elected officials are more to stir much controversy across the discipline. likely to represent those with whom they share The ongoing struggle between idealistic views personal characteristics.4 Therefore, descriptive and realistic views of political representation representation is not only important for the has repeatedly surfaced over the past few legitimacy of elected bodies5 but it is also decades in the work of many social scientists. crucial to remedy the issue of marginalization of In her groundbreaking work, The Concept of minorities and women. According to this view, Representation, Hanna Pitkin2 offered one of there is a strong need for devising institutional the most comprehensive theoretical frameworks mechanisms (such as gender quotas, legislative on the study of political representation. Pitkin mandates, and proportional electoral districts) defines political representation as “A public, to ensure that marginalized groups are fairly institutionalized arrangement involving many represented by people who share their policy positions on important issues.6 2 Moreover, proponents of descriptive in the public, sending signals that politics is representation argue that increasing the number no longer a male-dominated field and that of women in legislative assemblies is crucial for their participation is important and valuable.14 ensuring substantive representation.7 In theory, Despite the plethora of research in the context substantive representation is directly related of established democracies, the symbolic impact to the degree to which representatives seek to of women’s presence in the political arena in the advance the interests and the preferences of Arab world has remained largely unexplored. the group—or in other words, the translation Acknowledging the importance of women’s of policy preferences into legislative outcomes presence in legislative bodies over the past in favor of the represented group.8 Despite the few decades, countries across the globe have fact that the empirical relationship between introduced a variety of affirmative action policies substantive and descriptive representation has to promote women’s presence in legislatures. been strongly debated among scholars, recent However, gender quotas continued to be one of studies lend substantial support to the theory the most widely used institutional mechanisms that the identities of legislators have a positive to promote women’s descriptive representation. impact on the types of measures prioritized, The most direct benefit of gender quotas is that proposed, and passed on behalf of different they efficiently address the claim to political groups.9 What’s more, scholars argue that inclusion by imposing a significant number increasing the number of women in decision- of new actors into political institutions, thus making institutions is also expected to have disrupting male monopolies in legislative a strong impact on the substantive input of bodies.15 There are three main types of quota women in relation to national budgets, the systems that have been widely used across the ideological direction of government policies, MENA region: voluntary party quotas, reserved and policy priorities as a means to remedy seats, and statutory quotas.16 First, voluntary the underrepresentation of women in elected party quotas are the most common type of office. As maintained by Jane Mansbridge,10 gender quotas in the region. Political parties “descriptive representation by gender improves adopt these policies and commit to include a substantive outcomes for women in every polity specific number of female candidates to political for which we have a measure.” office (i.e., Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia). These Furthermore, increasing the presence of mechanisms vary across the region in regard women in the legislative arena (i.e., descriptive to placement mandates and non-compliance representation) is also closely related to the sanctions. When combined with a proportional symbolic representation of women—though less representation system