Women, Policy and Political Leadership Regional Perspectives Editors Christian Echle Megha Sarmah www.kas.de Women, Policy and Political Leadership Women, Policy and Political Leadership Regional Perspectives Editors Christian Echle Megha Sarmah © 2020 individual works, the authors Editors: Christian Echle, Megha Sarmah Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Ltd 380 Jalan Besar #11-01/06-12 Arc 380 Singapore 209000 Tel: (65) 6603-6160 Tel: (65) 6227-8343 Email: [email protected] Website: www.kas.de/singapore All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying or recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. The responsibility for facts and opinions in this publication rests exclusively with the authors and their interpretations do not necessarily refl ect the views or the policy of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. The photos on the cover were taken during the Asian Women Parliamentarian Caucus meeting. Cover design by Select Books Pte Ltd Typesetting by Select Books Pte Ltd National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data Name(s): Echle, Christian, editor. | Sarmah, Megha, editor. | Konrad-Adenauer- Stiftung (Singapore), publisher. Title: Women, policy, and political leadership : regional perspectives / editors, Christian Echle, Megha Sarmah. Description: Singapore : Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung Ltd, [2020] Identifi er(s): OCN 1195783105 | ISBN 978-981-14-7126-1 (paperback) Subject(s): LCSH: Women--Political activity. | Women legislators. | Women politicians. Classifi cation: DDC 320.082--dc23 Printed in Singapore. Table of Contents 1 PREFACE vii 2 INTRODUCTION Reviewing Political Patriarchy and Women’s Political 1 Mainstreaming in Asia – Breaking Barriers, Fighting Blind Spots, Carving Opportunities Andrea Fleschenberg Women in Politics 33 Ella S. Prihatini 3 OVERVIEW 49 Fact Sheet 51 Global Gender Gap Index 2020 57 World Map and Timeline – Women in Politics 58 4 REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES 4.1 Africa African Women in Political Decision-Making – 65 “A Voice that Still Remains a Whisper” Yolanda Sadie 4.2 Americas Women in Politics in Latin America 77 Jennifer M. Piscopo Women in Political Offi ce in North America 89 Farida Jalalzai 4.3 Asia Women in Politics in Northeast Asia: South Korea, 97 Taiwan, and Japan Young-Im Lee vi Women, Policy and Political Leadership Women and Political Leadership in South Asia 109 Mallarika Sinha Roy Worrying Flattening Curve: Women’s Political 119 Participation in Southeast Asia Bridget Welsh 4.4 Australasia Women in Politics in Australia 131 Elisabeth Porter Women in Politics: Pacifi c Islands and New Zealand 141 Nicole George 4.5 Europe Women in Politics in Eastern Europe: 30 Years After 159 the Fall of the Berlin Wall Ekaterina R. Rashkova and Emilia Zankina Women’s Descriptive and Substantive 169 Representation in Nordic Politics Lenita Freidenvall Women in Politics in Western Europe 181 Haley Norris and Mary Nugent 5 ABOUT THE AUTHORS 193 Preface Women’s political leadership and the equal participation of women in public affairs and decision-making are key elements of democracy and prerequisites for achieving sustainable development. In the last few decades, there has been remarkable progress in this regard with more opportunities for women in leadership roles and significant steps being taken towards achieving gender equality. The world average of women in parliament has increased from 15.7% in 2004 to 22.1% in 2015 to 25.11% in 2020. Nonetheless, we have still not reached the target of 30% of women in decision-making positions set by the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995. As we marked the 25-year anniversary of this platform in 2020, we also witnessed the importance and impact of diverse leadership and the role of women leaders in high-stakes situations against the backdrop of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Countries with female leaders were hailed to be more successful in fighting the pandemic. A study published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research and the World Economic Forum, which analysed 194 countries, suggests that the difference is real and “may be explained by the proactive and coordinated policy responses” adopted by female leaders.2 Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) has always recognised and stressed the importance of women in political leadership and the crucial roles they can play. In order to promote female political leadership training and empowerment in Asia, KAS’s Political Dialogue Asia office in Singapore has always been committed to pursuing programmes to narrow the political gender gap by organising conferences and thematic meetings on issues pertaining to women’s empowerment in Asia. 1 Accurate as of 28 December 2020. 2 Garikipati, Supriya and Kambhampati, Uma, Leading the Fight Against the Pandemic: Does Gender ‘Really’ Matter? (3 June 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3617953 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3617953. viii Women, Policy and Political Leadership Since 2011, we have been bringing together a network of around 40 parliamentarians to promote, strengthen and develop female political leadership in their respective countries through policy discussions and capacity-building programmes. Since its inception, the Asian Women Parliamentarian Caucus (AWPC) has built on existing strategic knowledge and solidarity systems, especially for countries that lack adequate repre- sentation of women in politics. Through the Asian Women Parliamentarian Caucus initiative, KAS hopes to address the role of parliamentarians in forging the women leadership agenda and pushing it forward through best practices and shared experiences. AWPC has also helped to unite women across party lines, offer opportunities to discuss mainstream gender is- sues and provide oversight of government action in the work of parliament. AWPC has also been a platform to inform and encourage parliamentarians to discuss pertinent issues facing the region and to look towards the best policy approach. It is our hope at KAS that through stronger regional cooperation, we can support women parliamentarians across the region to consolidate best practices, and to influence policy-agenda in bills passing in their re- spective national parliaments. As our network members take leadership roles in their countries, like Hon. Minister of Defence of Australia Senator Linda Reynolds and Hon. Minister of Education of Bangladesh Dr Dipu Moni, we hope we can support them in their efforts to bring forward a more gender-sensitive and inclusive agenda in their countries and in the region as a whole. We are pleased to present the second edition of our book Women, Policy and Political Leadership: Regional Perspectives. The papers of the first edition have been updated by prominent authors from around the world to include the latest regional insights into the situation of female political leadership and prospects as well as challenges. We also present an up- dated overview with a) a fact sheet containing comparative data on the percentage of women in national parliaments; b) the Global Gender Gap rankings, introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2006 to assess the magnitude and scope of gender-based disparities within and across states, using economic, political, education and health as criterion; c) a world map illustrating the proportion of seats held by women in the upper house and lower house in 30 different countries around the world and d) a retrospec- tive timeline on milestones in global female political leadership. Preface ix We hope the material compiled by our authors prove useful for politi- cally active women. We have always believed that knowledge management is an integral part of regional network building and we hope that the con- tents of this book can help influence perspectives and narratives around the region. Christian Echle Director Regional Programme Political Dialogue Asia Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Reviewing Political Patriarchy and Women’s Political Mainstreaming in Asia – Breaking Barriers, Fighting Blind Spots, Carving Opportunities Andrea Fleschenberg Asia represents an interesting and diverse laboratory for gender-sensitive policy-making, legislation as well as women’s political mainstreaming at various levels of the political system and is home to multiple gender-spe- cific cleavages, contestations and controversies – be it in terms of formal or informal political participation, regimes and processes. Experiences of women politicians in breaking barriers of political patriarchy and carving opportunities for women’s sustainable and transversal political main- streaming have been diverse, sometimes ambiguous or with ambivalent outcomes and implications, more often than not encouraging and continu- ously widening the public space for women’s voice to be heard and agency to unfold. 2 Women, Policy and Political Leadership Assessing a Heterogeneous Region and Introducing Key Concepts1 One characteristic feature has been the introduction of different systems of gender quotas at multiple levels of Asian polities – be it in the form of voluntary party quotas, legislative candidate quotas, or reserved seats to be contested directly via elections or to be selected by male gatekeepers. Initially, public and academic debates revolved around the documentation of women politicians’ experiences and around the debate of quota designs, issues of representativeness and critical mass theorising.