Women in Politics and Decision Making

Jana Smiggels Kavková, M.A.České Budějovice, 22.5.

Women in Political Decision-Making

Chamber of Deputies: 44 women of 200 members, 22%

Senate: 15 women of 81 senators, 18.5% Government: 2 women of 16 members,

12.5% Regions: 1 woman of 13 hetmans, 7.7%

Regional and Local Politics

Regional Assemblies: 17.6%

Local Assemblies: 26% in average, 23% in the largest cities

Mayors of Statutory Cities: 2 women of 23 statutory mayors, 8.7%

International Comparison(www.ipu.org)

Nordic countries 42%Americas 22.7%Europe (incl. Nordic countries) 22.7%Czech Republic 22.0%Europe (excl. Nordic countries) 20.9%Sub-Saharan Africa 19.8%Asia 18.8%Pacific 12.4 %Arab States 11.7 %

Czech Republic occupies the 56th place in the ranking together with Serbia, Eritrea and Uzbekistan.

International Comparison(World Economic Forum) – 75th place (135 countries)

Women on Corporate Boards

- Average in the EU countries: 13,7 %

- Very slow improvement (8,5 % in 2003)

- Women as chairs/presidents: 3,2 % in the EU

- Situation in the Czech Republic: in 100 largest companies only 7 %

Causes of Underrepresentation of Women in Czech Politics

Individual Barriers – patriarchal model of family, different measures for males and females, different concept of power

Social Barriers – traditional concept of male and female roles, women are interested in politics less then men, absence of female role models, different socialization of boys and girls

Institutional Barriers – internal mechanisms of political parties, electoral system,way of nomination of candidates, absence of affirmative action programmes

Women in Political Parties

Women are present in political parties: 30 – 52% of members are women

Lack of women in leadership: 25% of women

The higher position in a party, the less women (“glass ceiling”)

Result: women have only little opportunity to participate in decision-making within their parties (e.g. assembling ballots, promoting affirmative action, funding women’s organizations within parties)

Positive Measures/Affirmative Actions

- Used worldwide to improve the situation

- 1. Soft measures: mentoring, training, networking, campaigning

- 2. Hard measures: quotas; contoversial in many countries, at the same time the most efficient tool

Quotas

- Used mainly in politics

- New trend: quotas for corporate boards, big issue in the EU

- Voluntary versus prescribed by law

- Two important thresholds:

- 30 % - critical mass

- 40 % parity threshold

Quotas in politics

Two types:

1.Reserved seats: less common; certain amount of seats reserved for women (Rwanda)

2.Quotas for the candidate lists/ballots: a certain ratio of the candidates of both sexes on the lists (Poland, France, Belgium)

Forum 50 %: Basic Facts

founded in 2004 as an attempt to change the situation of women in Czech politics

strictly non-party association

main goal: increase women’s political participation in the Czech Republic (regardless of age, political opinions, ethnicity, religion etc.)

Forum 50 %: Mission and Goals

Forum 50 % strives for society with equal political participation of women and men

Goals:achieve at least 30% representation of women on all

levels of politicsintroduce affirmative action programs within political

partiesenforce legislative changes in favor of equal

representation of women and men in politicsincorporate equal opportunities into the programs of

political partiessupport and promote female candidates

Forum 50 %: „Chicken campaign“

Forum 50 %: „Chicken campaign“

Forum 50 %: „Chicken campaign“

Forum 50 %: „Chicken campaign“

Forum 50 %: „Chicken Campaign“

Chicken Speaking to Journalists

Everybody Wants to Be a Chicken...

Chicken with the First Lady

Protest against men-only government

Thank you for your attention.

Jana Smiggels Kavková

kavkova@padesatprocent.czwww.padesatprocent.cz