Women in Politics: Gender, Power and Development

Description

Offers fresh perspectives on the different spaces, networks, and processes influencing women’s political leadership today. Women the world over are being prevented from engaging in politics. Women’s political leadership of any sort is a rarity and a career in politics rarer still. We have, however, begun to understand what it takes to create an enabling environment for women’s political participation. In this exciting and pioneering collection, writers from Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East are brought together for the first time to talk explicitly about women’s participation in the political scene across the global South. Answering such questions as how women can get political apprenticeship opportunities, how these opportunities translate into the pursuit of a political career, and how these pursuits then influence the kind of political platform women advocate once in power, Women in Politics is essential reading for anyone interested in what it means to engage politically. Front cover......Page 1 Feminisms and Development......Page 2 About the Editor......Page 3 Title Page......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgements......Page 8 Preface......Page 9 Introduction – Engaging Politically: Rethinking Women's Pathways to Power......Page 12 A ‘pathways lens’ to political empowerment......Page 15 Rethinking the political......Page 17 Profiling women’s trajectories......Page 21 Political apprenticeship......Page 24 Enabling and constraining factors......Page 29 Feminist support and the question of training......Page 35 Electoral mechanisms and systems through a bottom-up lens......Page 38 Conclusion......Page 42 References......Page 48 1 Politics as Service: Pathways of District Assembly Women in Ghana......Page 51 Decentralization in Ghana......Page 55 Pathways to political power of selected assembly women......Page 61 Conclusion......Page 77 Notes......Page 79 References......Page 81 2 Exceptional Women: Reserved Councillors in Municipal Corporations in Bangladesh......Page 85 Women in politics: the Bangladesh context......Page 87 Pathways of power in politics for Bangladeshi women councillors......Page 90 Conclusions: towards a more nuanced understanding of Bangladeshi women in politics......Page 105 Notes......Page 109 References......Page 110 3 Ejecting Women from Formal Politics in the ‘Old-New’ Egypt (2011–12)......Page 112 Background......Page 114 Political context: exit Mubarak’s authoritarianism, enter Mursi’s Islamic dictatorship......Page 117 Egypt’s first post-Mubarak elections: the old and new interfaces with gender politics......Page 121 Different women for different eras?......Page 126 A different pathway for each season?......Page 133 Election results......Page 136 Table 3.1 Egyptian Women in Parliament, 1979–2012......Page 138 Conclusions......Page 139 Notes......Page 143 References......Page 144 4 Local Power and Women’s Empowerment in a Conflict Context: Palestinian Women Contesting Power in Chaos......Page 146 Contextual background: politics and agency in disarray......Page 147 Affirmative action in Palestine: feminist aspirations between past and present realities......Page 152 Kinship and family ties: pathways to political office?......Page 156 Table 4.1 Family support by political affiliation......Page 157 Table 4.2 Type of family support by political affiliation......Page 158 Table 4.3 Number of children compared with attendance at council meetings......Page 161 Party politics and women’s pathways to public office......Page 162 Table 4.4 Party support by political affiliation......Page 163 Women making their way to political power: serving the community......Page 167 Women constituting their leadership: serving the nation......Page 168 Women’s organization and women’s power......Page 170 Mainstreaming gender in the public office: role of the Local Government Ministry......Page 171 Conclusion......Page 172 Notes......Page 174 References......Page 175 5 Pathways to Political Power in Sudan......Page 178 Background: authoritarianism as the norm......Page 179 The quota pathway leads to a familiar stop: one-party rule......Page 181 The quota: a pathway to empowerment or to the ‘women’s yard’?......Page 184 Alternative pathways to political empowerment: relationships matter......Page 198 Conclusions......Page 207 Notes......Page 210 References......Page 211 6 Crafting Political Pathways through the Exclusionary Mesh in India......Page 213 Gender and decentralized governance in India......Page 217 Women’s political participation in Rajasthan......Page 223 Conclusion......Page 238 Notes......Page 240 References......Page 241 7 Independent Candidacy: An Alternative Political Pathway for Women in Sierra Leone?......Page 244 Background......Page 245 Historical overview of party politics in Sierra Leone......Page 246 Independent candidacy in Sierra Leonean politics......Page 249 Female independent candidates, 1957–77......Page 251 Gender discrimination and female independent candidates in the post-war electoral process: the 2004 and 2008 electoral cycles......Page 253 Table 7.3 Successful independent candidates in Sierra Leone’s electoral process, 1957–2012......Page 254 Women’s resistance and counter-mobilization......Page 258 Independent candidacy in the third electoral cycle 2012–17......Page 263 Conclusions......Page 266 Acknowledgements......Page 267 References......Page 268 8 Conservative Modernization in Brazil: Blocking Local Women’s Political Pathways to Power......Page 270 Political structures in Brazil......Page 271 Women and politics in Brazil......Page 273 Table 8.2 Female participation in municipal legislatures......Page 275 Table 8.3 Occupations declared by female candidates for the Municipal Chamber in the elections of 2008 and 2012......Page 278 Women councillors and mayors in Bahia......Page 279 Table 8.4 Motives given by women councillors for their candidature......Page 285 Table 8.5 Role of the political party in the election of female municipal councillors......Page 288 Table 8.6 Attitude of the parties in relation to women......Page 290 Conclusion......Page 292 References......Page 293 About the Contributors......Page 295 Index......Page 298 Back cover......Page 306