Women In Politics: Rhetoric And Reality Checks Of 'Gender-Equal' Nations

The one thread that links the past with the present is that gender issues remains a post-facto thought for nations and peoples. The idea we discuss after important matters has passed and been dealt with. Mostly never in the design stage. It wouldn't be untrue to say that we lack "believers" and more so "doers". Perhaps, one of the reasons why gender equality is the grandest but least invested idea across nations.

As of today, no country in the world can claim to be a gender-equal country as per their standards of committing to Sustainable Development Goal 5. What is demoralizing for those fighting the good fight, men and women, is the constant need to remind that this is about half of humanity, half of those who hold up the sky.

According to the World Economic Forum's 2021 Global Gender Gap report, more than 135 years will be needed for countries to close the gender gap, an increase of more than 35 years from the WEF's 2020 report. When deciphering any country's performance on the above index, we must bear in mind that the Global Gender Gap report is a measure of the gender gap on four parameters, namely: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment, which makes these areas crucial for any country to advance towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in the next few years.

As a new world order unfolds, the need for democratic, citizen-centered, inclusive governance is felt more than ever. It would be hard to negate that inclusive governance models cannot be built on the experiences, styles and leadership of men alone – we cannot be a world for women without women.

Zooming into the remotest but youngest corners of Asia, Timor Leste has just concluded the 7th Presidential Elections; results awaited saw an ambitious declaration for women to be at the helm of affairs. Four out of 16 candidates were women and this is the second presidential election in which there has been a high profile woman candidate – Armanda Berta dos Santos (KHUNTO)- received 8.7% of the vote. In comparison, the younger (at the time) Lucia Lobato (PSD) won 8.9% of the vote in 2007. Largely, the common view is that women candidates performed unremarkably.

However, did the Presidential Elections reveal a different story? Are political parties, manifestos and political strategists ignoring a subtle upswing. Two data points indicate that this indeed could be a turning point for "women in politics" and "women and politics" in this young democracy - one, this is the first presidential election where a significant number of women have contested as candidates.

In the first round in 2022, the four women candidates won 10.3% of the vote. So while individually, they may not appear as vote swayers – collectively, the four candidates seem to have influenced the outcome. The other data point, and probably the more significant point, is that more women turned up to vote than men in this election if seen as a percentage of registered voters.

The voter turnout rate for women though marginally, was higher at 77.91% against 76.65% for men. This was the case in 8 of the 13 municipalities and the diaspora. Mostly the turnout of men and women was relatively close; however, there were noteworthy differences in the capital, Dili (women 79.6%, men 73.6%), and the second largest district Bacau (women; 75.2% and men; 73.6%), Given that most campaigns, rallies and manifestos did not target gender issues/issues that deeply impact women and their lives, is the country missing the chance to reach and convert those who are showing up to leverage their voice through the vote?

What is however interesting is to see how important party backing is – more so for women, who deal with a host of gender specific barriers in leadership. This has been largely a universal observation. Five of the top 6 vote winners were formally backed by a political party.

The 11 independent candidates received between them 13.3% of the vote. May be the Presidential Elections did not reveal enough data to substantively analyze whether this is turning point in the Politics of Timor Leste, but a surface level analysis indicates that it could be.

UN Women in TL did an interesting analysis on Google Ngram, a tool to assess contiguous sequence of items from a given sample of text or speech, which is essentially growth in the use of a phrase or a word and the search revealed that while the phrase "Women in politics" started from 1860 and has generally increased over time, a similar phrase "women empowerment" started being used in 1990 and has also usually increased over time.

Let us bring this to Timor, the word "Timor" has been used since 1500, when Google Ngram Viewer starts documentation, but the tool is unable to find any mention of "women in politics in Timor" or "women empowerment in Timor", though similar searches for other and comparable geographies lead to substantial results.

International integration for the country would mean a greater focus on women, intentionally, where it matters. But where does it matter for women's political participation? Some of the common threads weaving through the need for women in politics includes the importance of mentoring young women, fostering their confidence to aim for political leadership positions and putting in place targeted policy solutions.

Women running for office face several unique barriers. Funding is one of them: campaigning can be expensive and a lack of funding for young women is a significant barrier for young women to compete for elected seats. Generally, when money dominates politics, women lose out.

With women having persistently lower incomes for many reasons (gender gap in pay, occupational segregation, disproportionate unpaid family care, frequent unwillingness to face the social consequences of pushing for higher salaries or promotions), and with social and business interaction proceeding heavily along gendered lines, women are far less likely than men to be in the social and business networks that pour money into political campaigns.

Like men, women are also ambitious to change the world, but are far less likely to believe that politics is the most effective or efficient means of doing this. In a recent survey of graduate students in law or policy schools, men were significantly more likely to agree that "The problems that I most care about can be solved through politics."

Politics remains an expensive affair for women, socially, privately, and publicly – we must, as a responsible society, work towards limiting the participation and representation tax for women and ensure they set foot on all levels of the political ladder. 20 years post-independence; the half Island nation will need to include half the population to fulfil its dreams and goals. Like they say no game is won with half the team sitting out.

Also Read: Maharashtra: Pregnant Tribal Woman Carried In Makeshift Stretcher Due To Absence Of Motorable Roads