On Tuesday March 19 2024, the alliance Politica, a collaboration between four organisations with the aim to expand political representation of women in all their diversity in the Netherlands, organised an online session in the NGO CSW68 Forum called: ‘Making Political Participation Work Worldwide!’ In the session we discussed the representation of women in the political systems of the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain and Mexico. During a lively session we learned about best practices and brilliant failures in these countries, such as a gender quota.
The Netherlands needs more attention for women role
models
“If you
don't have a seat at the table, there's someone sitting in your chair,” according to Devika Partiman, founder
and director of Stem op een Vrouw (Vote for a Woman). Women are still underrepresented
in Dutch politics. This applies to all political levels, from municipal councils to the national
parliament. But why? Devika introduced the results of Politica’s latest research
on barriers that women face to become, to be and to stay politically active. These barriers can be divided in
social-cultural barriers (think about stereotypes), political barriers (think
about working conditions and violence faced by women in politics) and knowledge
and information barriers (think about the lack of role models or a relevant
network). She stressed the importance of having role models in politics: “In
the Netherlands when people speak about
political role models, only the first [usually a man] in something is
mentioned. Never who came after. We try to promote ‘other first’ role models,
so more people can recognize themselves and be inspired." Read more about the research here.
Sweden sees successful voluntary gender
quota but there are gaps
Following on Devika’s call for more role
models, Christina Alnevall from the Swedish Gender Equality Agency shares that increased representation of women in
politics indeed “also serves as a powerful form of role model, inspiring
other women and girls to engage in politics.” She explains that political
representation of women in all their diversity is important for multiple
reasons: “It reflects society's diversity and thereby builds trust and
legitimacy. By increasing the representation of women in politics, democracies
become more inclusive. Furthermore, studies have shown that greater gender
diversity in political decision-making bodies leads to improved policy
outcomes."
Sweden is known to have a high number of women
that are politically active. Almost all political parties have taken specific
measures to achieve this. One successful practice has been the implementation
of a voluntary gender quota by political parties for their candidate lists,
explained Christina Alnevall from the Swedish Gender Equality Agency. However,
she emphasizes that there is still a lack of representation of young women. In
addition, young women tend to drop out of politics earlier in Sweden. Attitudes
and aggression towards women in politics play an important role. Christina
therefore concludes: “We need to focus on representation, conditions, attitudes.
We must improve efforts against violence against female politicians”.
Spain’s success is not entirely due to the
quota system…
For Ainhoa Novo Arbona, professor
at the Political Science department at the University of Basque Country the importance
of women’s political representation is a no-brainer: “It is as relevant as
the participation of men. Why do we, as a society, naturally sustain this level
of underrepresentation?” Her research concerns gender studies, gender
representation and quota (in Spain and comparative). Women make up 40% of the Spanish Parliament. But according to Ainhoa the gender quota that
Spain introduced since 2008 “hasn't been that effective. The voluntary
zipper system is. Political parties now focus more on how they create the
list.”
In Mexico collaborating feminists across parties
have made a difference
Dapthne Cuevas from
Equidad de Género (Mexico), a feminist activist with a degree in economics and
government stresses that political change has to be done together. “I have
dedicated my efforts to political advocacy in Mexico and Latin America, working
to ensure that the feminist agenda is translated into laws and public policies
promoting gender equality and women's human rights… In Mexico we've done so as
feminists, across different political parties. We came together, because we had
a common goal: improving political participation of all women."
The topic of online
violence faced by women politicians was brought up many times, but did not get
the time it required in this session. Alliance Politica plans to organize a
follow-up webinar to share more experiences around addressing online violence
against women in politics. Interested? Keep an eye on our social media.
We take the lessons learned about what works and what does not to increase women’s political representation home with us to continue to work on the topic of more sustainable participation of women in Dutch politics!
Written by Yara Bon, WO=MEN / Alliantie Politica
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