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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/world/19nations.html?_r=1&ref=world_&oref=slogin

 

U.N. Study Finds More Women in Politics

 

By NEIL MACFARQUHAR

Published: September 18, 2008

UNITED NATIONS — Women have entered politics in greater numbers than ever in the past decade, accounting for 18.4 percent of parliament members worldwide, according to a study released Thursday by the United Nations Development Fund for Women. 

The proportion of women has increased by seven percentage points since 1995. Much of the increase was driven by women realizing that they needed to attain power rather than just lobby for change, said women who spoke at a ceremony for the study’s release.

“We need to convince women that the only way to really make a change is to stop complaining and just be the owner of power,” said Senator Cecilia López Montaño, the speaker of the opposition Liberal Party in Colombia. “It is a huge fight because men have been controlling power for centuries.”

If the rate of change holds constant, it will take until 2045 for women to reach parity in the developing world, which the study by Unifem, as the development fund is known, defined as holding 40 percent to 60 percent of elected parliamentary seats. The report also examined how women were affected by economics, the courts and crime, among other issues.

Quotas that reserve seats for women have proved instrumental in increasing their numbers. In elections held in 2007, women in countries with some form of electoral quota captured 19.3 percent of the seats, as opposed to 14.7 percent in countries without such quotas, the study said. Of the 22 countries where women constitute more than 30 percent of the national assembly, 18 have some form of quota.

Provisional election returns from Rwanda, announced in news reports on Thursday, indicated that its Parliament, which reserves 24 of 80 seats for women, will become the first in which women hold a majority, with 44 seats.

The genocide in Rwanda was also a crucial factor in galvanizing women to get more involved politically during the country’s reconstruction, said Inés Alberdi, the executive director of Unifem.

“If you are in a secondary position, you can never fight for women,” she said.

The study found a high correlation between the number of elected women and legislation related to women’s issues, including agriculture services, day care and street lighting for security. It also cited British research that women turned out in higher numbers to vote in elections when there was a female candidate.

In addition, the study suggested that women held far fewer party leadership posts than their membership in the rank and file would suggest. A Latin American study quoted in the United Nations report said that while 47 percent of party members in Paraguay were women, they held just 19 percent of leadership positions. In Mexico, 52 percent of party members were women, compared with 31 percent of the leaders. In Panama, the numbers were 45 percent and 19 percent.

“You have to be three times more intelligent, you have to be four times more transparent, you have to have everything more than men,” said Senator López, of Colombia. “We still have a male chauvinist society.”

It will continue this way, she said, until the “democratic deficit” is closed, meaning equal representation for men and women.





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