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          Mainstreaming Gender into Leadership and Governance in

                                         Bangladesh

                                   Ferdous Ara Begum

Former Additional Secretary and Former Member, UN CEDAW Committee

                                      A GED Training   Program

                                          Jointly organized by

             General Economic Division of Planning Commission  &

                     Population Science Dept, University of Dhaka

                                         February 10, 2014

Introduction

Development vision of Bangladesh incorporates gender mainstreaming and advancement of women in all spheres of life as an integral part of the nation-building process.

The Constitution of Bangladesh guarantees the equality and equal rights for both man and woman. Bangladesh constitution gives priority to women development, as they constitute about 50% of total population. Articles 27, 28, 29 & 65 recognize the equal rights of women. Article 28(4) offers  special opportunities to women considering them as a backward group in the society. 

Background  

 National Policy for the advancement of women, which was declared on 8th March, 1997, by the   Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina , also guarantees gender equality and mainstreaming  it  into leadership and governance. The National Policy was formulated on the basis of   Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995 at the conclusion of the 4th world women’s conference in Beijing.

Bangladesh participated in this conference & signed the declaration. The specific guidelines of PFA focusing on 12 critical issues regarding gender mainstreaming & advancement of women & girl child were the core issues of the National Policy.

Significant International Conventions & Declarations such as CEDAW Convention also contributed largely to shape our national and political ideology and guiding principles for gender mainstreaming.  Bangladesh signed the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discriminations against Women (CEDAW) in 1984. CEDAW Convention is the only bill of rights for women at the international level. I was fortunate to work as a member of this committee from 2007 to 2010 and participated in the examination of   State Reports on advancement of women of 115 countries, who ratified CEDAW.

Bangladesh participated in the 1st world women’s conference in Mexico in the year 1975. The year was also declared as the Year of Women by United Nations for development & empowerment of women in State, society, politics & economy.

The participation and contribution of women in our liberation war was a historical milestone towards fair recognition of women’s role in the creation of an independent Bangladesh.  Our National Policy and planning process take into consideration the relevant provisions of the constitution, International Conventions etc for the advancement of women and   gender mainstreaming.

But it is also true that   in the   male dominated    societies, women are subjected to denial of rights, discrimination and exploitation. On the top of these religious and traditional cultural practices    , superstition, domestic violence & oppression, societal neglect & low status of women remain a challenge for their advancement. Bangladesh is not an exception.

The participation of women and men in formal and informal decision-making structures varies greatly between countries, but is generally in favour of men. Institutional as well as cultural, economic and societal factors limit women’s opportunities and abilities to participate in decision making. Women’s low political representation is therefore often used as an indicator of gender inequality. Specifically, the ‘proportion of seats held by women in national parliament’ was chosen as one of three indicators to measure progress on MDG 3 on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

 Against these backdrop, to ensure women’s constitutional rights & equal participation in the development process, a planned policy decision for women’s progress is  strongly  needed  towards mainstreaming  gender and advancement of women in the leadership and governance.  In order to deepen democracy at the local, national and international level, it is important to ensure that women and men are able to participate on equal terms in both formal and informal decision-making structures.  Also there has been considerable international emphasis on ensuring a more equitable number of women and men in democratic institutions, through the introduction of quotas, ensuring education and skill building  for women in the country.

Understanding Gender

Gender is the range of physical, biological, mental and behavioral characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between, masculinity and femininity . One's biological sex is directly tied to specific social roles and expectations depending on the social norms and practices, which is often discriminatory to women.

Gender differences in formal representation can be attributed in large part to both institutional and societal constraints. The latter encompasses the social norms that make it more difficult for women to leave their traditionally domestic roles for more public roles outside of the home. Institutional constraints include barriers such as political systems that operate through rigid schedules that do not take into consideration women’s domestic responsibilities.

Here I would like to recall the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which reaffirms that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth therein, without distinction of any kind, including distinction based on sex.


Like wise the CEDAW Convention also confirms that discrimination against women violates the principles of equality of rights and respect for dignity which is an obstacle to the participation of women on equal terms with men in the field of political, social , economical and cultural spheres of their lives. CEDAW Convention prohibits both direct and indirect discrimination against women committed by both private and public actors.


In fact all of the international human rights treaties, including International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination, International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex and gender and include guarantees for the full enjoyment of human rights by men and women on the basis of equality.

But in reality, de jure and de facto equality has not been achieved in any country in the world due to inherent structural discrimination , which is reflected in discriminatory laws and practices that deny women’s right , in discriminatory customs and traditions that restricts women’s equal access ,and in marginalization and Social exclusion which generates feminization of poverty.

Major challenges towards gender mainstreaming to the leadership, governance and development process in Bangladesh which need immediate action :


1. Reducing gender gap & gender based discrimination from society, state, national & family level and ensuring formal equality & affirmative action.


2. Eliminating violence against women: Domestic, societal, state & custodial violence including trafficking of women & children.


3. Reducing economic deprivation of women & poverty through gender based resource allocation, Empowerment policy & safety net development.


4. Enhancing human capital & capacity of women through calculated initiatives in Education, health, nutrition, livelihood skill building, sports & culture.


5. Ensure good governance, enforcement of law to protect women’s human rights & legal rights.


6. Enhancing women’s effective & full participation in decision making process both political & administrative

 

7. Capacity building for institutions engaged in implementation, monitoring & evaluation of WID policy, gender equality issues.


8. Developing gender disaggregated data base & information.

9.  Sharing household responsibilities.


Beside the above mentioned structural discrimination and gaps affecting women in the employment sector, there are also vertical and horizontal occupational segregation with low representation of women in the top management impacting women in low skilled jobs with lower pay and poor working conditions.

Working women also subjected to work place harassment and sexual exploitation. This is also a matter of concern that while general labor laws recognize maternity leave , but in practice this issue is not fully respected in line with ILO Convention No 89, and that the length of maternity leave differs between private and public sectors.

Government steps to address these challenges:

National Machinery:
Separate national machinery for the advancement of women has been set up. The
Ministry of Women's Affairs was established in 1978 and the Department of
Women's Affairs was established in 1984. WID Focal Points have been identified
in  all relevant  Ministries and agencies as a means of inter-ministerial coordination on women’s issues to ensure the mainstreaming of women's concerns into all
sectoral projects, programs and policy statements. The mechanism is being
coordinated by the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs. 
A National Council for Women's Development was established in 1995 with the Prime Minister as the chair, to act as the highest policy making body and monitor
and oversee women related activities in the various sectors.  Besides Parliamentary 
Standing committee headed by a lady MP  also active to monitor actions on women issues. 
Gender Quotas in the civil and political level
Gender quotas can have an impact on society’s perceptions of women, with increasing acceptance of women as leaders. There is growing recognition that combining quotas with skills development in leadership and capacity building can have a stronger impact and strengthen the opportunities for women’s voice.
A quota system has been instituted for recruitment to Government service which is 10 percent for officers and 15 percent for other categories. In education, in order to increase the proportion of women primary school teacher in the country,  60 percent quota  is  reserved for women.
 But at the  higher levels such as  ;  Secretary, additional Secretary and joint secretary levels gender quotas were never fulfilled due to rate of female participation is very low.   
Presidential quota has been introduced for  higher category appointments . Qualified women may be appointed to decision making level to reduce the gap in the top positions. 
The Government is currently taking steps to increase these numbers.   It needs to be stressed that developments or advancements in any one sector are closely related with developments or advancements of  other sectors. For example developments in education , skill building and training are important for improvements in political participation or employment of women .
As the new recruitment is being limited, the impact of recruitment quotas in eliminating the gender gap in total employment is also limited  ,  in the situation new innovative initiatives is essential to speed up reducing gender gap in the decision making level.
Political empowerment through quotas 

There are 45 reserved seats for women in the Parliament to ensure their participation in politics in addition to the 300 elected seats.  Although women are equally eligible to contest the elected seats, very few women have been elected to   the Parliament through direct electoral process. However, women's participation in politics  is gradually increasing.  Political parties need to nominate more women candidates   for national elections.  While only 5 parties put up 15 candidates in 1986 election , in 1991 16 parties put up 40 candidates. In 1996 election , 36 women candidates were nominated. 

Women as voters are gaining in visibility and political strength. 
 Bangladesh is in a unique position having women in the posts of both Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition in the parliament for long.  Also woman  is   in the leadership position of the biggest opposition party in Bangladesh. Speaker of the Parliament is also woman.  Besides women are appointed as ambassadors, as 
chairmen of the corporations, as Judges etc,   but numbers are very few. Women are recruited in the police and in the combating position in army as well. 
Local level elections 
Women's participation in local government is another arena of political
participation. Women have reserved seats in all municipal and local government
bodies. Rural Local Government is a two-tier system with Union Parishads
 and  UP Zila Parishads. There are 4,434 Union
Parishads, 500  upzila parishads and  64 Zila Parishads. Local Bodies in the urban areas include 11 City Corporations and 119 Municipalities. Three seats are reserved for women in all of these.
 In 1997, one-third of the local Government seats of members/councilors were reserved for women who would be elected by the direct vote of the people. This has become a milestone for women’s participation in the political empowerment 

process. At the second tier of local elected bodies, Upazila Parishads, one of the two elected Vice Chairmen has to be a woman. There are  475 women have  been elected as Vice Chairmen out of 1,936 women who contested during elections held in January 2009.

In the 1994 City Corporation election 17 women contested but none won. In 1996
two women were elected directly. Now the most renowned woman City Mayor is Ms.  Ivy Rahman of Narayangong.

Many local government institutions are faced with limited human and financial resources, and in some cases legislation and cultural norms can hinder women’s participation and leadership role.  Steps need to be taken  to ensure that the elected women representatives to public offices are provided with needed institutional support and resources.

Maternity Leave and Day-care:
In the formal sector maternity leave is allowed for six months twice in the
working life of a woman. In the private and non formal sector this has not yet
been ensured although most ILO conventions in this respect have been ratified.
Gender Budgeting :

Gender-responsive budgeting is not an isolated event, but an important aspect of gender mainstreaming and more effective public financial management. It focuses not only on the content of budgets, but also on the underlying policy process, in particular inclusiveness, transparency and accountability. Participatory budgeting initiatives have become a relevant aid instrument for gender-responsive budgeting and for the more general participation of civil society in budgetary processes. Main objective of gender budgeting  is to ensure equal access to project services and benefits and  equal participation by both men and women in implementation of project activities so that they share benefits, opportunities and responsibilities equally.

Bangladesh established gender responsive budgeting for majority  ministries  which started from 2009 ,  that  ensures   allocation  of  funds for women related projects and programs.
Gender based training and curriculum 
 It is essential to develop a gender based curriculum for educational institutions to change the mindset and to address stereotyping attitude and discriminatory gender roles  for  women.
It is also essential to conduct awareness-raising activities for the society as a whole about the importance of gender equality and women’s participation in decision-making process and develop training and mentoring programs for women candidates and women elected to public office as well as programs on leadership and negotiation skills for current and future women leaders. 
 Zero tolerance for Gender based Violence
The CEDAW Committee in their Concluding Comments recommended the Government to ensure all forms of violence against women and girls, including domestic violence and sexual abuse are criminalized and   perpetrators are prosecuted and punished. It is also recommended that  

the women and girls who are victims of violence have access to immediate means of redress, rehabilitation and protection.

 

The Committee recommended organizing training and awareness-raising programs for the judiciary and public officials, in particular law enforcement and health service personnel, in order to ensure that they are sensitized to all forms of violence against women and can provide adequate gender-sensitive support to victims. Social expectations of the roles to be played by women are still very
traditional, giving importance to child rearing and household management.
The increasing practice of dowry which is a recent phenomena is one of the worst forms of discrimination against women. It is not an Islamic practice but is a social custom which need to be addressed through strict application of   legal methods . 
Conclusion.
Despite efforts to achieve  de jure   and de facto equality, true advancement
toward equality requires fundamental social and cultural change. Social and
cultural patterns that lead to discrimination and stereotyped roles for women
need to be changed. Interpersonal relationships between men and women and
practices based on ideas of superiority and inferiority of one sex in relation
to another and sex-stereotyping need to be addressed. To this end the
recognition of family life as a vital area, maternity as a social function and
the need  for shared responsibility of men and women in the upbringing of
children and family affairs, needs to be stressed.
We may conclude saying that mainstreaming gender in the leadership and governance needs political goodwill and support.  
Allocation of adequate budget for the women centered programs and identifying and addressing gaps through planning process are important tools to improve the situation and necessary intervention.