Female Leadership in Local Government
This month the question of the month was based on a text found on the website of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. It is titled: promoting women’s leadership in local government.
Although women comprise over 50 per cent of the world’s population, they continue to be under-represented as voters, leaders and as elected officials, including at the local level. As a result, women do not have equal influence over the policy decisions that affect their lives. The participation of women in local government can have a particular influence on local and national development.
The factors commonly identified as barriers to women’s participation include gender stereotypes and outright discrimination, personal obstacles such as lack of confidence, culturally prescribed domestic roles, low voter education, women’s relative lack of financial and socio-economic capital.
Despite various commitments made by the international community to empower women through increased women’s political participation (Beijing Platform for Action, ECOSOC, the Millennium Development Goals), the world average proportion of women members of national-level legislatures stands at just over 17 per cent. Rwanda and the Nordic countries have come close to parity, although women’s national political representation remains low in other regions, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa. It has often been argued that a “critical mass” of over 30 per cent women is needed before major changes in legislative institutions, behavior and policy occur.
First of all, it is an issue of human rights. Women have the right to participate in all decision-making processes. Full participation means full citizenship. Second, it is critical that women’s views and experiences are represented in decision-making bodies to ensure that the interests of women are taken into consideration in policy-making and implementation of projects related to economic development and poverty alleviation. The democracy argument tells us that the equal representation of women and men enhances democratization of governance.
In 1998, the International Union of Local Authorities launched the Worldwide Declaration on Women in Local Government as the result of a global consultation process among the members of the Union. The Declaration recognized that local government is the level of government closest to the citizens and therefore in the best position to involve women as decision-makers, planners and managers.
For decentralization to work for women, they need to be able to participate in local governance processes as candidates, as elected officials, as employees of the government and as citizens in order to take advantage of all opportunities for decision-making in budget processes, strategic planning, gender sensitive monitoring and evaluation of how services are provided.
Political parties play an important role for women to be elected. While the type of electoral system remains critical for women’s access to politics, the most influential factor is whether or not a quota system is used. In 2006, countries that used gender quotas nearly doubled the number of elected women, compared with countries without any form of gender quota. Quotas require the development of a democratic political culture, the level of mobilization of women in civil society, and the transparency, capacity building for women voters, candidates and elected officials, and for men to understand the cost of inequality and the benefits of promoting women in public office.
International and national organizations, including UN agencies, bi-lateral donors, civil society organizations, provide different forms of support to women at the local level. These programmes aim to empower candidates through capacity-building and training on decentralized governance, on the processes and rules, and women’s rights. Training programmes should not only target women, but also involve men as stakeholders.
The way in which women can influence political institutions and processes depends on the norms, rules and procedures within local bodies and political parties. The success of women and men with a clear gender equality agenda depends on the support of their own parties, their linkages to a women’s constituency and other institutions.
Strategies to strengthen women’s leadership and their capacity will have to differ according to individual country contexts, according to each country’s political, economic, social and cultural context. To prepare women for leadership positions and decentralized governance, they must be given appropriate leadership education and specialized skills training, including on policy development, strategic planning, and public speaking and leveraging resources. Women leaders need therefore to develop strategic alliances with men who are willing to actively support women’s participation and gender equality.
(2009, Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Promoting women’s leadership in local government)
Question of the month: describe the situation of the women’s participation in the local government at your country.
Rio +20
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