Women, Politics, and Gender Quotas

1970 ◽  
pp. 18-27
Author(s):  
Valentine M. Moghadam
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
Arab Region ◽  
The World ◽  
Politics And Gender ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Gender Quota

The argument for gender quotas – made by women’s rights activists across the globe has come about in response to women’s continued collective marginalization from political power. According to data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (2005), the global average for women’s parliamentary representation is 18 percent, with high rates in the Nordic countries, Rwanda, and Argentina, and low rates in the Arab region and Iran.In the vast majority of countries, political power – legislative, juridicial, and executive rests in the hands of men. In recent decades, therefore, the worldwide growth of a population of educated, employed, mobile, and politically aware women, combined with the diffusion of the UN-sponsored global women’s rights agenda, has increased calls for women’s political participation and representation. One of the mechanisms to realize this objective is the gender quota. Feminist groups around the world favor the implementation of the gender quota – which may come in the form of a constitutional quota, an electoral quota, or a political party quota – but it remains both controversial and elusive, especially in the Middle East.

Implementing Inclusion: Gender Quotas, Inequality, and Backlash in Kenya

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Marie E. Berry ◽  
Yolande Bouka ◽  
Marilyn Muthoni Kamuru
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Gender Oppression ◽  
Women's Power ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
Gender Quota ◽  
New Inequalities

Abstract Extensive research has affirmed the potential of gender quotas to advance women's political inclusion. When Kenya's gender quota took effect after a new constitution was promulgated in 2010, women were elected to the highest number of seats in the country's history. In this article, we investigate how the process of implementing the quota has shaped Kenyan women's power more broadly. Drawing on more than 80 interviews and 24 focus groups with 140 participants, we affirm and refine the literature on quotas by making two conceptual contributions: (1) quota design can inadvertently create new inequalities among women in government, and (2) women's entry into previously male-dominated spaces can be met with patriarchal backlash, amplifying gender oppression. Using the ongoing process of quota implementation in Kenya as a case to theoretically question inclusionary efforts to empower women more generally, our analysis highlights the challenges for implementing women's rights laws and policies and the need for women's rights activists to prioritize a parallel bottom-up process of transforming gendered power relations alongside top-down institutional efforts.

State, Islam, and Gender Politics

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Dress Code ◽  
Main Site ◽  
Muslim Countries ◽  
Personal Rights ◽  
The Status ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Economy And Education

The existing literature on women’s rights and Islam falls short of addressing the relationship between the religious debate on women’s rights and the existing rules of law in Muslim-majority countries. This chapter will bridge this gap by analyzing the status of women in the legal systems of Egypt, Turkey, and Morocco. It will evaluate the influence of Islam on the shaping of these laws, compared to other factors like culture, socioeconomic development, and education. Except in marginal cases like Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan under the Taliban, women’s rights in politics, the economy, and education have advanced in all Muslim countries. But there are some limitations placed upon women’s rights using religious arguments. Everywhere, personal rights about family life, sexuality, and dress code remain discriminatory against women. In this regard, the woman’s body has become the main site of the politicization of Islam, by state and non-state actors alike.

Islam, Gender, and Democracy in Comparative Perspective

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Comparative Literature ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Muslim Countries ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Shed Light

This volume reframes the debate around Islam and women’s rights within a broader comparative literature. It examines the complex and contingent historical relationships between religion, secularism, democracy, law, and gender equality. Part I addresses the nexus of religion, law, gender, and democracy through different disciplinary perspectives (sociology, anthropology, political science, law). Part II localizes the implementation of this nexus between law, gender, and democracy, and provides contextualized responses to questions raised in Part I. The contributors explore the situation of Muslim women’s rights vis-à-vis human rights to shed light on gender politics in the modernization of the nation and to ponder over the role of Islam in gender inequality across different Muslim countries.

Women and Gender

2008 ◽  
pp. 495-510
Author(s):  
Charlotte Bunch
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Women And Gender ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
And Gender

This article discusses women and gender, and first identifies the differences between the concepts. It moves on to a critical examination of the norms and their institutional manifestations, along with selected UN system efforts to promote women's rights in development, peace and security, human rights, and health. The article also provides a balanced evaluation of how much things have changed for girls and women over the last sixty years.

scholarly journals Protecting Women’s Rights And Freedoms In Uzbekistan

2021 ◽  
Vol 03 (04) ◽  
pp. 353-358
Author(s):  
Marguba Makhsudovna Nosirova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The State ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Gender Policy ◽  
Participation Of Women ◽  
The World ◽  
State Programs

This article deals with the situation with violations of women's rights and freedoms in the world in recent years and the increase in violence against them during the COVID-19 pandemic, measures taken in our country on gender policy, a number of presidential decrees. The large-scale work on increasing the participation of women in society and the state, based on the tasks set out in the state programs and responded also was analyzed.

scholarly journals Gender Inequality in Indonesia: Facts and Legal Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-458
Author(s):  
Novia Puspa Ayu Larasati
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
The World ◽  
The Law ◽  
Shared Commitment ◽  
The Right ◽  
Male Workers

the present time, the law is still considered discriminatory and not gender-just. Whereas the law should not regard gender to guarantee the fulfillment of women's rights. Women's rights are still not protected. Equality and elimination of discrimination against women are often the center of attention and a shared commitment to implement them. However, in social life, the achievement of equality of women's dignity still has not shown significant progress. So, if there is discrimination against women, it is a violation of women's rights. Women's rights violations occur because of many things, including the result of the legal system, where women become victims of the system. Many women's rights to work still have a lot of conflict about the role of women in the public sector. Today, discrimination against women is still very visible in the world of work. There are so many women who do not get the right to work. This research found that the structure of the company, rarely do we see women who get a place as a leader, in addition to the acceptance of female workers companies put many terms, such as looking attractive, not married, must stay in dormitory and so forth. Their salaries are sometimes different from male workers. Like male workers, women workers also have equal opportunities in the world of work. While there are many legislations governing the rights of women workers, it seems that many companies deliberately do not socialize it and even ignore the legislation just like that.

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