MA (Women Study)

M.A. (Women Study) Part-II 55 Paper V M.A. (Women Study) Part-II Paper V Lesson 2.3 Author: Dr. Satinder Kaur DEBATE ON WOMEN PARTICIPATION 1. Introduction 2. Historical Background of Demand of Political Participation 3. Political participation in Contemporary Era 4. Conclusion Introduction: Feminist historians growing concern with the interaction of gender with other forms of social hierarchy, notably of race and class, would express separate spheres models further in this direction. It stressing the range of gender identities that different conceptions of public and private have produced across both space and time. The notion of gender understood as a central axis of social organization comes increasingly fore. Women in many countries have organized to fight against male supremacy and to advance their interests which were arising from their unique life experiences. With the rise of multilateral institutions in the twentieth century, feminism emerged in a form with an internationalist orientation that sought to shape the agendas of international organizations and normative practise of global governance. Historical Background of Demand of Political Participation: The study of gender began a separate sphere when historians studies across religion, ethnic racial and religious lines, indeed construction of womanhood. It is studied that women’s hard lives were not mere product of happenstance or bad luck. Rather, they were shaped by interaction of three powerful and pitiless hierarchies- race, class and gender. The story of women is not only story of thrice victimized by slavery then poverty, racism and sexism. It is a tale of resistance, survival and creativity in the face of overwhelming odds.2 The study of gender is another aspect of women history. This is an understanding of how male and female are distinctively different and complementary to each other. First wave of feminism was a large, multi-faced, long-lived and highly effective political phenomenon. first wave feminism was limited by a commitment to liberalism, as far as these liberal feminists recognized that women were barred from equal rights with men because they were women they were implicitly using sex/class analysis and hence incorporated some aspects of radical feminist thought. Political awakeness within women was part of it. Campaigns included not only the famous one for suffrage but also for containment of predatory male sexual behaviour Christabel Pankhurs’s slogan was ‘votes for women, Chastity for Man’, access to employment; to training and education; reform of legal separation at the woman’s behest as well as that of the M.A. (Women Study) Part-II 56 Paper V husband; for collective rather than private organization of meal preparation among many others. About second wave we can say that politics was the motor that drove the rapid expansion of women’s history after 1968. Feminist strove build a new style of scholarly interaction, one that stressed cooperation and dialogue, as opposed to the competitive aggressive and individualistic styles associated with a male-dominated academy. One final consequence of this movement was it closed link between differences among women. The problem of difference, whether of race, ethnicity, class, religion or sexual orientation erupted early in the women’s movement, troubling would be smooth surface of feminist identity politics with the complicating factors of women’s highly varied social situations. Feminists lobbied national delegates and mad deputations to officials’ negotiations commissions. As a result of their interventions, the Versailles treaties codified such principles as representation of women in the new League of Nations, the international Labor Organization, governmental delegation, as well as “equal remuneration for work of equal value”. They also placed o n the agenda of new international organizations such issues as the protection of women’s, children’s and young persons labor as well as traffic in women and children. Women’s organizations campaigned throughout the 1920s and 1930s to ensure, among other things, that women and their rights would not be neglected. The League of Nations established a body for international legal protection of human rights of particular minority groups. The term “gender empowerment” has become a mantra in global world and international institutions. It is being used as a technique for responding to inequalities between women and men. The idea behind gender mainstreaming is that questions of gender must be taken seriously in central, mainstream, “normal” institutional activities and not simply left in a marginalized, peripheral backwater of specialist women’s institutions. The strategy implicates what Olympe de Gouges identified in the eighteenth century as the paradox of feminism: whether women’s rights are best protected through general norms or through specific norms applicable only to women. This dilemma pervades modern international legal responses to the unequal position of women. This was an attempt to improve women’s lives through general laws can allow women’s concerns to be submerged in what are deemed more global issues; however, the price of creating separate institutional mechanisms for women has been the building of a “women’s ghetto” with less power, resources, and priority than the “general” human rights bodies.4 There has been not only a third wave of democratization and immediate suffrage for women in the new democracies, but also an increase of women in existing parliaments.5 Against this backdrop of differential impacts of globalization on men and women, the strategy of gender mainstreaming in politics, economy, society etc. has attempted to create a just and equitable environment. M.A. (Women Study) Part-II 57 Paper V Political participation in Contemporary Era: Political participation of women goes under the process of the representation. This process began from legislation/policy making and implementation of those policies then followed by transformation of politics through change mind sets of people. In this process political parties can play determinant role. Then at the end is mobilization of those policies to elect women as representative. Sylvia Walby’s argument is that there are two major changes in gender issues in complex globalization. First, the transition in the gender regime has provided political opportunities within the state and formal electoral politics that have facilitated the mainstreaming of feminist demands. Second, globalization has facilitated new spaces, institutions and rhetoric where the notion of universal human rights is a powerful justificatory principle embedded in specific institutions. In the past, when legislature or decision making institutions were defacto and closed to women, feminist politics engaged in more radical separatist autonomous forms of politics. As these institutions have slowly admitted more women, there has been a growth in the kinds of politics that are oriented to the state. Liberal democracies are in the making, but are not yet consistently developed. In 1911, women were allowed to vote in just two countries of the world. Today, a century later, right to vote is virtually universal. Since 1945, there has been increase in the extent to which women are elected as representatives in national parliaments around the world. This process started from very low base indeed, and everywhere, women’s representation in parliaments is still lower than men’s representation. Nevertheless, there have been major changes. There was a continued increase in women representation in parliament around the world in 1945 there were 3%, 1955 there were 7.5%, 1965 there were 8.1%, 1975 there were 10.9%, 1985 there were 12%, 1995 there were 11.6%, 1999 there were 13.2%,8 2009 there were 17%, 2010 there were 18.4%. But there are regional patterns, although there are significant variations within each region. The Nordic countries have been highest representation of women, with female parliament membership in January 2011. Developed regions have reached near 30 percent critical mass for share of women in ministerial positions, but no region has achieved the mark for the proportion of women in parliament. The 30 percent critical mass mark for women’s representation has been reached or exceeded in 28 countries, of which at least 23 have used quotas. Only nineteen women were serving as elected heads of states or governments in 2011. These are impressive strides of some of the world’s poorest countries including those which are emerging from conflict. This data shows that progress depends on political will more than level of development. In a number of countries, including Costa Rica, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Rwanda, increases in women’s representation in parliament have coincided with significant legal reform on women’s rights. In 2007 Kenyan general elections saw a record number of women 269 women out of 2,548 candidates, compared to just 44 M.A. (Women Study) Part-II 58 Paper V in the 2002 elections vying for a Parliamentary seat. For the political empowerment of women is as result of gender mainstreaming and, quota system for the under- represented sex has been introduced in Nepal, Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Spain. There has been a significant change in the political opportunity structures as a result of the slow opening of positions in parliaments to women. Feminist politics gave more political opportunity to women against gender inequality and masculinity- dominant political structure. There has been an increase

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