WUNRN
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.