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Women on the rise in politics
Leaders for the new Southern African Millennium
14 December 1999, Institute of Social Studies, The Haguenext
Lecture by Ineke van Kessel (African Studies Centre Leiden), with co-operation of Yvonne Jansen (NiZA)
IS DEMOCRACY GOOD FOR WOMEN?
THE IMPACT OF DEMOCRATIC TRANSITIONS ON THE REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN THE NATIONAL PARLIAMENTS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA
Last month, the Socialist International met in Paris for its bi-annual conference. The delegates elected a new executive, or presidium. Of the 28 members of this presidium, 28 were men. Among the seven additional members representing various affiliated organisations, one was a woman. She represented, indeed, the Socialist International Women: she owes her place in the presidium to a reserved seat (or ex officio seat).
Our conference today is not about the Socialist International, but about women and political participation in Southern Africa. I have mentioned this example for two reasons. First, to remind ourselves - if at all necessary - that although the focus today is on Southern Africa, the issues under discussion are fundamentally of a universal nature, although they may present themselves in different guises depending on time and place.
Second, to remind ourselves that women's rights are not necessarily in safe hands even in movements that consider themselves progressive. Numerous conferences of the Socialist International have adopted resolutions urging proper representation of women. But the men who adopt these resolutions are apparently not willing to make room for women, if that means that they themselves will have to step aside.
The venue of that meeting served as another reminder. France was the first country in Europe to have a Popular Front government. This coalition government of socialists and communists in the 1930s introduced important reforms in labour laws. At the same time, they opposed the women's franchise, believing that women are more conservative than men. When given the right to vote, they would vote the Popular Front out of power. Thus France ranked among the last European countries to introduce the women's franchise. Only in 1944 did French women gain the right to vote.
My focus is on the impact of democratisation processes on political participation by women. Over the past ten years, most of the countries of Southern Africa have embarked on a process of political liberalisation. This has meant typically the introduction of multiparty politics and a more open political competition, more space for civil society and more respect for fundamental human rights, such as the right to free association and to freedom of expression.
In the cases of South Africa and Namibia, the transition was not one from a one party state to multiparty politics, but from a limited racial franchise to a universal franchise.
Not all countries in the region have experienced democratic transitions. Botswana and Mauritius have an uninterrupted history of multiparty politics, right from independence. Swaziland is a neo-traditional monarchy, which has outlawed political parties. Zimbabwe is only in a formal sense a multiparty democracy: it functions as a de facto one-party state.
I will briefly discuss four points:
- The representation of women in parliament under the one party-state
- The representation of women after the democratic transition
- Which factors influence the participation of women?
- Does it matter: does political participation result in improvements in the quality of life for women?
Political participation is of course not limited to parliamentary representation: but the percentage of women in parliament is one indication of the state of participation by female citizens.
With the help of Yvonne Jansen of NiZA we have produced some overviews of women's representation in the parliaments of southern Africa.
The figures are based on statistics from the Inter Parliamentary Union, the UNDP and SADC. They are not always 100% fool proof. In some instances, different sources produced different statistics, but the differences were mostly marginal. The figures are limited to representation in the lower house, as not all countries have senates or upper houses.
1. Multiparty elections and women's representation
The UN Development Report of 1995 which analysed gender and development in 174 nations, found that:
'While it is true that no definite relationship has been established between the extent of women's participation in political institutions and their contribution to the advancement of women, a 30 percent membership in political institutions is considered the critical mass that enables women to exert meaningful influence on politics'.
As for national parliaments, only eight countries in the world have now achieved this 30 percent target: this select company includes the Nordic countries and the Netherlands, and since the 1999 elections, also South Africa. Between 1991-1993, the Seychelles also belonged to this vanguard group.
When the countries of Eastern Europe adopted multiparty politics, the percentage of women in parliament dropped from an average of 30 percent to only 5 percent. In the one party-state, representation of women was generally secured by reserving a fixed number of seats for the women's organisation of the communist party. With the advent of open political competition, women were marginalized in the political arena.
This rather alarming fact inspired the question: what has the democratic transition (multiparty elections or non-racial franchise) meant for women in Southern Africa?
Table 1
WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN PARLIAMENT (LOWER HOUSE) BEFORE THE DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION, SADC REGION
COUNTRY YEAR
NUMBER OF SEATS % OF WOMEN angola 1986
289 + 22
14,5 + 24,1
botswana 1989
40
5
lesotho 1985
80
0,0
malawi 1987
112
9,8
mauritius 1991
70
2,8
mozambique 1986
249
15,7
namibia 1989
72
6,9
seychelles 1991
33
45,8
south africa 1989
178 + 85 + 45
2,8 + 1,2 + 2,2
swaziland 1987
55
3,6
tanzania 1990
255
11
zambia 1991
150
6,7
zimbabwe 1990
150
12
The most surprising figure concerns the Seychelles. The 1991 elections brought the staggering result of 45,8 % women in parliament. This may be a world record, surpassing even the quite respectable showings of the Nordic countries. In the period of military rule and one party state, the Seychelles has consistently had a high percentage of women in parliament. The 1991 election belongs to the era of the one party state. The picture has changed somewhat with the advent of multiparty politics, but the percentage of women remained the highest in the region.
Next best are Mozambique and Angola, where the political model was inspired by the communist states of Eastern Europe.
South Africa is quite at the bottom of this ranking. Only Lesotho has an even poorer showing.
Remark that women's representation is also very poor in the only two multiparty democracies at this time: Botswana and Mauritius.
2. The representation of women after multiparty elections: what has changed?
Table 2
WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN PARLIAMENT (LOWER HOUSE) AFTER THE DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION, SADC REGION
COUNTRY YEAR
SEATS
% OF WOMEN
ANGOLA
1992
220
9,5
BOTSWANA
1994
47
8,5
LESOTHO
1993
65
4,6
MALAWI
1994
194
5,6
MAURITIUS
1995
66
7,6
MOZAMBIQUE
1994
250
25,2
NAMIBIA
1994
72
18,1
SEYCHELLES
1993
33
27,3
SOUTH AFRICA
1994
400
27
SWAZILAND
1993
65
3,1
TANZANIA
1995
275
17,5
ZAMBIA
1996
155
9,7
ZIMBABWE
1995
150
14,7
The picture is rather mixed. In some countries, women have lost out in multiparty elections: Angola, Malawi and Seychelles.
In other countries, women have made substantial gains. The most spectacular example is South Africa: with the 1994 elections, it shot at once to the 7th place in the world ranking of equitable representation of women parliamentarians. In the 1994-99 parliament, women constituted 27 percent of parliamentarians. Within the region, it is only surpassed by the Seychelles. The South African score was slightly improved upon in the 1999 elections, when the percentage increased to 30 %. More important however was the unprecedented number of women ministers appointed in Thabo Mbeki's cabinet. Eight of the 29 ministers are women (27,6%) and more than half of the deputy ministers are women.
The secret of success: the ANC's rule that women must occupy at least one third of the party's seats in parliament, and the electoral system of proportional representation.
What do the Seychelles, South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia have in common? These are the four countries in the region, which have adopted a system of proportional representation.
Countries were women are better represented in parliament after the democratic transition: South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.
Over all, the tendency is towards better representation of women, unlike Eastern Europe.
3. How to secure the presence of women in parliament?
It is of course not self evident that only women can represent women's interests. Nor is it self evident that women parliamentarians will address women's issues: they may want to focus on other priorities. In a number of African countries, women MP's have not succeeded in putting women's issues on the national agenda (Mama, 1996) or in bringing out the gender dimensions of seemingly gender-neutral policy decisions. The gender implications of seemingly gender neutral policies are of course a crucial issue: see the Women's Budget in South Africa.
Nevertheless, the presence of women in the political arena is clearly vital. If women are marginalized politically, it is very unlikely that gender-sensitive policies will emerge from government.
What is to be done?
- The general state of development
One of the most important characteristics of society that correlates with women's representation levels is a country's state of development. Research in democracies in the developed world (Richard Matland) has demonstrated a clear correlation between the representation of women in politics and factors such as:
- Women's participation in the labour force
- The ratio of women's literacy to men's literacy
- The ratio of university-educated women to university-educated men
However, when these variables are applied to democracies in the developing world, the picture is much less clear. None of the variables listed above were found to have a consistent effect. These research findings indicate that a minimum level of development is needed to create an enabling environment. Otherwise these variables, such as level of education and women's labour force participation, have no clear effect. Below a certain level of development, these factors were no longer decisive.
- Quotas and reserved seats
Quotas have been successful in creating a woman's presence in politics. Nomination is the crucial phase, not the actual election. Quotas for women entail that women must constitute a certain number or percentage of the members of a body, whether a candidate list, parliament, or the cabinet. This system places the burden of recruitment not on the individual woman, but on those who control the recruitment process.
There are quotas on two bases:
Party informal quota such as the ANC's rule that one third of the candidates on the party's list must be women. This system also prevails in a number of parties in several developed countries.
Statutory quota or reserved seats: written into the constitution or national legislation. In Africa this is the case e.g. in Uganda, Eritrea en Tanzania (15 % out of 255 seats in parliament).
This was also the prevailing system in the one party-states of Eastern Europe under communism. The system of reserved seats enabled the ruling government to achieve two objectives at the same time: to demonstrate that they are in favour of promoting women's participation, while making sure that the seats were taken up by "controllable" token women. Even in more open political systems, a quota can be a double-edged sword, as stated by a female parliamentarian from Spain:
"On the one hand, they oblige men to think about including women in decision-making, since men must create space for women. On the other hand, since it is men who are opening up these spaces, they will seek out women who they will be able to manage, women who will more easily accept the hegemony of men."
One pre-condition for the quota-system to work is adequate preparation of women candidates and adequate linkages between parliament and civil society. Nothing is achieved by electing women representatives who feel powerless and ineffective.
There are various arguments in favour of quota and arguments against.
The discussion basically reflects two concepts of equality:
- Equal opportunity (removing formal barriers): "may the best man win" (!)
- Equality of result (compensatory measures must be introduced to turn equality into a material reality)
Quotas can be a transitional arrangement, to be abandoned when women's representation seems to be firmly established. "Mainstreaming" is very fashionable these days, but success is by no means guaranteed. Once special measures, policies or institutions are abandoned, the gender dimension is easily sidelined rather than mainstreamed.
Quotas can also be introduced as a permanent feature, to ensure a bottom line for women's representation.
- Women's pressure groups and networks
The Zambia Women's Lobby Group has worked hard to sensitise women on the need to participate in leadership politics, and has trained women in campaign skills, public speaking and communication skills. They have also set up a campaign support fund for women candidates for the 1996 elections, and it was reported that this campaign contributed to increasing the number of women parliamentarians to 14, the highest so far in Zambia's history.
A similar programme, run by Emang Basadi in Botswana, aims at increasing the number of women in decision-making positions. It organises training workshops for female political candidates and has facilitated the formation of a Caucus of Women Councillors and Parliamentarians. The caucus is intended to ensure that gender and women's issues are put on the agenda of decision-making institutions. (SADC Gender strategy Workshop 1997)
- Electoral systems: majoritarian or proportional representation
Electoral systems based on constituency representation can make it difficult for women to break through conventional stereotypes of women's roles. As the 1994 elections in South Africa demonstrated, proportional representation systems can allow politically progressive elites to break through patriarchal bias and fast-track women into public positions (Hassim, 1999).
Changing electoral systems is a lot easier than changing cultural perceptions of the role of women. Over the past decades, there has been a clear pattern in the established democracies:
women's representation in systems of proportional representation has increased substantially.
In majoritarian systems (based on one seat per electoral district), there has been very little progress. In both cases, the starting point in 1945 was around three percent women in parliament.
The top ten countries in terms of women's representation (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, the Seychelles, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa and Iceland), all utilise various forms of proportional representation.
By contrast, in established democracies using a majoritarian system, such as the United States, Great Britain and France, the percentage of women in the national parliaments keeps hovering around 10 percent.
Why?
In a majoritarian system, the party can nominate only one candidate per district. Female candidates must compete directly against male candidates. Both the nominating process and the election process are a zero-sum game: winner takes all. And the loser loses all, which can mean that substantial amounts of money invested in the election campaign are lost.
In systems of proportional representation, parties are more likely to balance their party tickets, to accommodate various sections of the electorate. They do not have to look for one single candidate who can appeal to a broad range of voters. Including a female candidate on the party list might win more votes from women voters, while it does not mean that male candidates will have to step aside.
4. Turning presence into power: Does it matter?
Has the participation of women in politics resulted in improving the quality of life for women? In other words: does it matter how many women sit in parliament?
Table 3
GENDER-RELATED DEVELOPMENT INDEX
UNDP-1998 (1995) COUNTRY RANKING IN TERMS OF WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN PARLIAMENT 1. CANADA 12. NETHERLANDS ? (1) SEYCHELLES 1 54. (2) MAURITIUS 10 74. (3) SOUTH AFRICA 2 85. (4) BOTSWANA 9 99. (5) NAMIBIA 4 105. (6) SWAZILAND 13 118. (7) ZIMBABWE 6 123. (8) LESOTHO 12 134. (9) ZAMBIA 8 137. (10) TANZANIA 5 145. (11) ANGOLA 7 150. (12) MALAWI 11 156. (13) MOZAMBIQUE 3 163. SIERRA LEONE (Indicators used: Human Development Index, plus life expectancy, adult literacy and school enrollment among women, as compared to men. Plus female share of income earned.)
UNDP ranking in first column - this is a ranking on a world scale. Between parenthesis is the ranking within SADC. Second column is ranking according to women's representation in parliament. If there is a direct relationship between political representation and improvement in the position of women, there should be a correlation between these rankings.
Strategies for women's empowerment in politics:
- E.g. by forming a women's caucus as a forum to address the gender dimension of the legislation, crosscutting barriers between political parties and involving women in parliament and in civil society (Van Donk/Maceba).
- Women's Budget in South Africa, which analyses the gender implications of all aspects of the budget.
- A ministry for Women's Affairs: is contentious.
More ideas no doubt will come up during today's discussion. I hope we can benefit from an exchange of ideas.
At this conference of the Socialist International in November, the ANC was welcomed as a full-fledged member. Maybe the experiences of Southern Africa can also inspire new empowerment strategies for women and men in other political fora.
14 December 1999, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague
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