|
Book Review
Gender inequality in politics
PADMINI SWAMINATHAN
|
Current status of women’s position in politics and their political representation across diverse countries
|
WOMEN, POLITICS AND POWER — A Global Perspective: Pamela Paxton, Melanie M. Hughes; Pine Forge Press, USA, Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd., B1/11, Mohan Industrial Cooperative Area, Mathura Road, New Delhi-110044.
$ 36.95
Paxton and Hughes have put together a brilliant and detailed account of the current status of women’s position in politics and women’s political representation across diverse countries and regions of the world. Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, the authors have managed to deal with, simultaneously, a range of issues whose inter-connectedness has a bearing on how much or how far women have been able to acquire and/or exercise political power.
Beginning by orienting readers with key concepts and theories to explicate the nature of interconnectedness and interaction between power and gender, the authors then take us on a historical journey that maps the struggle for universal suffrage that women had to wage and the diverse outcomes of these struggles — within, across and over time — in several of these countries. As the authors note, “It is important not to forget, however, that women’s right to vote came only after decades of struggle by thousands of brave men and women and that some women in the world still lack this basic right.” At present, for instance, in Lebanon, proof of education is required for a woman to vote, whereas a man is not subject to any education restrictions. Further, while women’s vote is optional, men are required to vote by law. In Bhutan, only one vote per family is allowed at the village level, meaning that oftentimes women are excluded. As of 2005, Saudi Arabia still refuses altogether to allow women the right to vote.
Female participation
The discussion relating to women’s attempts to quantitatively increase their representation in halls of power provides a much nuanced account of what impact different systems of representation have on numbers of women elected/selected and what these numbers imply when seen against forms of government and systems of governance. For want of space we highlight only a couple of the several important observations contained in this section. One, the authors note that, Asia has generally low levels of female participation in other areas of politics but it accounts for 30 per cent of female national leaders and 75 per cent of countries with more than one female leader over time. However, every woman who has held high political office in Asia is part of a political dynasty… The West does not lead the world in elevating women to the highest political office. Two, the authors also note that across the globe, women are highly overrepresented in some cabinet positions and underrepresented in others. Female cabinet ministers tend to be given positions in “softer” areas – health, family, education – that are less prestigious and less likely to enable women to be part of the core cabinet team.
The authors’ examination of social structure components finds mixed support for supply side effects on women in politics. Taking the U.S. as example, a developed industrialised country, providing its female citizens with resources that should allow them to participate more extensively in politics, the authors report that women’s representation in the legislature was only one-third of what would be predicted by the pool of women with the appropriate education, occupational experience, and associational memberships to qualify them to run for office.
Critique
An important question dealt with is: do women make a difference? While advocates for women assert that a critical mass of women changes the process and outcomes of legislative bodies, the authors caution against attributing any kind of transformatory powers to women legislators given the enormous difficulties faced by researchers in, among other things, sifting out effects of gender from effects of political party and constituency, in ascertaining the impact that women of different social categories would make, and in understanding what women’s impact stands for, outside of the Western industrialised world.
In sum, this is a rich source book giving a global panoramic view of gender inequality in politics. There is much that individual researchers and countries can draw upon for contextualising their studies and situations. Throughout, the use of a comparative methodology enables the authors to explain differential outcomes of similar legislations while at the same time emphasising why there is need to exercise caution in interpreting comparative statistics on the subject. The concluding chapter however lacks rigour. Some attempt could have been made to tie together the concepts and theories outlined in the introductory chapter with what has been the actual position in countries across the globe – an attempt that could have added value to the conceptual framework of the study.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Book Review
|
