Political Role Of Women
Remove Bottlenecks

By Mukti Rijal

WOMEN participation in modern day politics is almost a contemporary initiation. It is recorded that women gained full fledged right to vote for the first time in 1893 in New Zealand.

Presently, the right to vote has been guaranteed almost in every country of the world. But this has been an outcome of arduous and presevering struggle. The fight for women’s suffrage in the United States and the United Kingdom began in the middle of the nineteen century and continued till the first quarter of the twentieth century.

In India women struggled to achieve franchise right and linked it with the fight for liberation from colonial domination but they could not gain it fully till the country gained independence in 1947.

The date reveal the fact that only eleven countries granted franchise right to women before the Second World War. The countries sanctifying the right to vote to women included Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Maldives. Mongolia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Maldives, Mongolia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka Thailand and Uruguay.

In Nepal franchise right came to women together with men. Only in 1959 the democratic all Nepal general election was held in which both adult men and women were eligible to participate in voting. Since then onwards both men and women are allowed to cast vote in national and local elections no matter the type of polity-partyless and party based.

Following the democratic change of 1990 the agenda relating to political empowerment of women has been pushed to the forefront. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal promulgated in 1990 requires the political parties to field at least five per cent women candidates in the elections and the parties not following to this constitutional provision can be disqualified from contesting the polls.

A major step towards the political empowerment of women constitutes in the provision of the Local Self Governance act that reserves twenty per cent seats at the council level of the local governments except for the district. The provision also exists for the cooptation of women and representatives of the disadvantaged groups in the executive level of the local governments to guarantee that the gender has some say in decision making level as well. These initiatives were important and also necessary to increase women’s participation in political arena thereby ensuring that they have a voice in the affairs of the state governance.

However, experiences have it that these measure alone cannot guarantee women’s participation on an equal basis with men. They have only served as formal provision without bringing any effect on the real life situation. Legal equality enables and validates women’s struggle for equal rights and access to resources a public issue. The legal and constitutional change can not end patriarchy and end centuries of discrimination.

The road from constitutional reform to real equality is not smooth and thus very difficult. It depends on the political will of each government to reorient its priorities towards ending discriminations. Legal equality leaves the real foundation of discriminations and exploitations unchallenged. This needs to be carefully assessed and effective measures need to be implemented to ensure that the formal equality is translated into substantive equality.

However, one can say that when significant numbers of women are present in politics, as in the Scandinavian countries where women hold a relatively high percentage of electoral positions, they can make significant difference.

A study women in politics and public life carried out by the UN Division for Advancement of Women contends that only a critical mass of women empower female politicians to bring gender friendly values to public life.

The study says "the fewer the number of women in public life, the less they are likely to be able to confidently assert distinctively female values, priorities and characteristics. As a minority operating in a male domain most women public figures have had to adapt to and adopt the male priorities predominating in public life."

Political parties, parliaments and trade unions and other professional organisations are major forums for women in building political careers. The poor participation of women in these organisations especially at the front ranking leadership level hinders avenues for advancing to decision making positions. Nirmalka Fernando, A Sri. Lankan writer and women rights leader writes." The structuring of political working time, conceived by men for men, creates a time conflict for women between political activities and the time they must and wish to devote to their family. This is true for women in all countries, and particularly true for those in the developing world where traditional division of tasks between men and women remains rigid."

The process relating to political empowerment of women is a tardy and gradual process hitting snags at various crossroads. We must examine the current situation prevailing both at the national and local level from holistic social cultural perspectives and remove the bottlenecks blocking participation of women.