“In high school, boys and girls are equally interested in running for office in the future. But by college graduation, young women’s political ambitions drop dramatically.”
The voice of women and youth is considerably underrepresented in political leadership positions worldwide, and engaging young women in public service is “the first step” to deal with the gender gap in political ambitions. “We have to start with young women in universities, even in high schools,” said Michelle Bekkering, Senior Gender Advisor at IRI, “and help them to really understand the essence of politics.”
In a recent event on closing the gender gap in leadership, Bikkering discussed approaches to increasing the percentage of women holding public service positions and addressing the barriers that female candidates face with Sandra Pepera, Director for Gender, Women and Democracy at NDI, and Jessica Reis, Vice President of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research.
CIPE also believes in the power of women and youth, and has been dedicated to empowering women and youth around the world through its international programs. CIPE’s youth programs empower talented young professionals worldwide as the political leaders of tomorrow by providing them opportunities and necessary tools to actually engage in the policymaking process.
Pepera then talked about the barriers that prevent women from getting involved in public sector leadership. To begin with, the electoral system is not friendly to female candidates in some countries. Organizations like NDI and CIPE have been working with the local parties to eliminate gender-biased laws and remove institutional obstacles for women’s participation. CIPE also works with private sector associations worldwide to advocate for policy changes and increase the representation of women in the democratic process.
Electoral gender quotas, which require a certain percentage of women in the candidate list, are another institutional issue that cannot be avoided. These regulations were originally designed to reverse gender discrimination in politics, but in reality they can be implemented in a tricky way. “Women candidates may be placed at the bottom of the list so they will not get elected,” Reis said, adding “the gender quota may only work at the lower level in order to get women more involved in politics.” As a matter of fact, “in some countries women are the primary opponents calling for no gender quotas,” Bekkering added.
Besides necessary institutional reforms, the factors affecting individual women’s confidence are also worthy of attention. Female candidates are less likely to feel they are “adequately educated, financially supported, or have sufficient time and energy” to win political contests.
CIPE has been dedicated to creating favorable conditions where women can empower themselves and represent their own political interests through political and economic participation – and that women’s political and economic empowerment are connected. In a recent Democracy that Delivers Podcast, gender and security expert Julie Arostegui talked about how economically empowering women enables them to be less venerable, more independent, and thus leads to greater women’s political participation.
Finally, Pepera discussed the social-cultural barriers that women leaders face. Female candidates can be more easily attacked on social media than male candidates, which is “devastating to not only the woman’s political life, but also her whole life.” This may deter other prospective women candidates from running for office.
Female candidates can also face issues with gender stereotypes. “Women leaders are viewed to be weaker on national security, crime, and toughness, and get boxed in social issues, such as education and health,” Reis noted. Moreover, voters tend to choose the person who “looks like a leader,” and in many societies men are traditionally and primarily viewed as leaders in political positions.
To break through the stereotypes that men are better suited to be political leaders, Reis suggested that we create female role models in public service to convince voters that choosing women leaders is viable, as well educate voters that they need to vote for those who represent their issues. We have to work on changing the perceptions of women in the society. As Pepera said, “If we transform gender roles, we liberate everyone in a society.”
Yini Wu is a Communications Intern at CIPE.
Published Date: July 26, 2016