Thursday, March 25, 2010

Role of Women Parliamentarians in Social and Political Change


The role of women parliamentarians in the previous as well as in the present parliament was impressive. However, women parliamentarians still face multiple challenges: social, cultural, structural and political, which need to be overcome through strategic essentialism, electoral as well as political reforms with the help of social and political movements. This was stated by the panelists speaking at the panel on Role of Women Parliamentarians in Social and Political Change.

The panel was addressed by Dr. Farzana Bari and Mr. Naeem Mirza while Ms Marvi Mamon was the discussant and Ms Nafisa Shah chaired the session.

Dr. Farzana Bari was of the opinion that gender deficit in politics is a global issue and its roots may be traced in the work of historical political thinkers. Women’s participation in politics has historically been considered irrational and patriarchal indoctrination has been furthered by the social, cultural and political environment.

Dr. Bari, while sharing the finding of her study, observed that this public-private division had been challenged by women’s rights moments throughout the history and succeeded in achieving their right to vote and representation. Today women have the right to vote globally except in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

However, she observed that global debate is still going on regarding women’s participation in politics and primarily two types of arguments have come to the fore: first that the population of women is 50% and they do participate in the generation of resources and production and therefore should also participate in policy formulation and decision-making process. Second, women are essentially different from men and so are their problems, which need specific attention.

Dr. Bari further said that women have distinct interests, political perspectives and legislative behavior but the question is still there: how far have they succeeded in making women’s concerns part of the legislation process? The answer lies in gender analysis of parliamentary proceedings. While sharing her analysis, she said that 220 bills had been tabled in the previous parliament and only two were bills specific to women pushed by the women parliamentarians, which they got through. Moreover, 60% of interventions on women specific issues by the women parliamentarians had been reported. One-hundred-and-one private bills had been moved by women parliamentarians, 40% were women-specific bills.

Dr. Bari was of the opinion that these evidences dismiss the assumption that women do not take interest in hard-core political and constitutional issues.

Dr. Bari went on to explain that the post-modernist intersectional approach destabilizes unity among women and divides them on the basis of social and political classes, which affects their performance. Under the concept of strategic essentialism, women may formulate at least temporary consensus, particularly on women’s issues, beyond party and intersectional lines. However, the analysis of previous parliament proceedings is negative in this regard, whereby women failed to build consensus on even a minimum agenda, stressed Dr. Bari

Notwithstanding that women parliamentarians do have an impact on the legislative process, particularly on women-related legislation, a dependency remains on a multiplicity of factors including the level of citizenship, democracy and democratization of society, governance structures, institutional roles and procedures, formative action and justice distribution, particularly resource distribution, as well as other structural and functional factors such as the role of media and gender role ideology, all of which come together to determine the performance of women parliamentarians.

Dr. Bari recommended instituting a quota for social classes, direct election on reserved seats, capacity building and networking of women parliamentarians with other civil society and rights organization and structural changes in political parties by creating gender quotas in their working committees and awarding tickets to women workers. She also suggested replacing the majoritarian system with a proportionate representation system.

Mr. Naeem Mirza of Aurat Foundation agreed with Dr. Bari and further elaborated the issue of the role of women parliamentarians. He was of the opinion that a 33% quota for women in the national parliament was a considerable leap in parliamentary history. While analyzing the performance of women parliamentarians in the previous parliament from 2002 to 2007, he explained that 42% of all private bills, 24% of all resolutions, and 30% of call attentions were moved, as well as 27% of questions were asked by women in the five year term. Mr. Mirza was optimistic about the performance of women parliamentarians in the current parliament by forming caucuses by women parliamentarians in the National as well as Provincial assemblies.

Mr. Mirza further said that women parliamentarians lack a power base in the absence of their constituencies and on reserved seats, which renders them unable to form their own power base, making their representation and political participation vulnerable and fragile. He pointed out that VIP culture and favoritism and nepotism further create constrains on women’s participation.

He opined that direct election on reserved seats and proportionate representation with a rotational system of allotting constituencies will consolidate women’s representation and mainstreaming in politics. Mr. Mirza was of the opinion that reserved seats alone may ensure women’s representation in the parliament but cannot mainstream women in politics, therefore the political parties should create a 15% inter party quota for women for political mainstreaming.

Ms Marvi Memon, Member National Assembly, as discussant on the panel observed, though globally we are fortunate enough having 33% representation on reserved seats, which solved the issue of representation at least numerically, lack of power base in the form constituencies still remains a constrain in the mainstreaming of women in politics. She affirmed that women parliamentarians have formed rotational groups and caucuses that work on an issue-to-issue basis across party lines, turf issues, egoism and personal likes and dislikes, adding that political and ideological orientation certainly comes into play in affecting the performance of women parliamentarians. However, this may be overcome through strategic essentialism, which she called a great concept. Although the primary responsibility of parliamentarians is legislation, in the present political structure many things like thana kaichari (police station/courts) and patronage in the form of development is expected from parliamentarians, she said. Equity in resource distribution as well as development funds is therefore essential for constituencies building. Ms Memon was of the opinion that being public figures, women parliamentarians should also be accountable for their time and should be accessible.

Ms Nafisa Shah while concluding the session said that the women parliamentarians should deliver something to the people, which was not possible in the traditional divisive system in the face of numerous challenges. She further elaborated that women’s participation in politics is not a new phenomenon in Pakistan as we have role models of great women politicians.

SOURCE:www.sdpi.org

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