Delegation Reports
Fourth Conference for Members of Parliamentary Committees on the Status of Women and other Parliamentary Committees dealing with Gender Equalities, Geneva
28 to 29 September, 2009
Report by Baroness Northover
Delegate
Baroness Northover
The meeting brought together about 80 MPs from 38 countries to focus on the progress, or lack of it, of women parliamentarians.I represented the UK Parliament. There has been some progress since the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. Now 18% of parliamentarians are women.
This level of women’s participation has been achieved because a large number of countries now use quotas. Of the 25 countries which have reached the critical number of 30% women parliamentarians, 22 are using quotas. Only Finland, Denmark and Iceland no longer need to use quotas. Most countries which do not use quotas are well down the list in terms of the proportion of women parliamentarians.
People emphasised that challenges were faced by women worldwide. There were cultural attitudes towards men and women, the challenges of balancing family with public life, the reluctance of political parties to open things up for women, the shortage of finance and campaign support, and stereotypes perpetuated by the media.
There were some extremely impressive MPs and speakers at this meeting. One, from an Arab country, related how when she was elected as the first woman MP in her country, for her supporters this was a great day, but for her detractors it was a terrible day, and they did their best to block her physically from taking her oath.
Others recounted how the husband and in-laws would be asked whether someone was a good wife before she was allowed to stand for parliament.
One found herself in a southern African country competing against five men in a section which was supposed to be the women’s quota.
In the Middle East, women had difficulty meeting male voters, and certainly could not meet them at the same time as women voters.
The point was made that often what countries had signed up to in terms of international agreements and commitments were far ahead of customs, but at least that international standard was there as people tried to hold their Governments to account.
There was a remarkable amount of agreement that quotas were the most effective device to redress this problem. As a Swedish academic put it, quotas are about reducing unwanted inequalities. They were compensation for discrimination against women – not discrimination against men. It was a simple measure to deal with a complex problem, and nothing else had proved as effective.
What came across very clearly from this meeting was that relying on chance would change little. This meeting was a very effective reminder of what is needed in all our countries to ensure that the generations coming up truly have equal opportunities to serve in parliament.
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