Two Swedish research groups address the role of women in governing bodies in papers coming out this year. Wängnerud (2009) addresses two questions about the representation of women in parliamentary democracies: first, the number of women in Parliaments, and second, the effect these women have once they reach office. Wängnerud notes that globally, women's representation in Parliaments has increased from 11.7% to 18.3% in the past 10 years. Lindgren et al (2009), focusing specifically on India, suggest that the participation of women in government leads to better representation of the needs of the masses in two ways: women are understandably better at representing the needs of women, but also seem to be better at representing the needs of men.
This seems to be at the core of a lot of why I now consider myself a feminist, and why I didn't always. When women prosper, society prospers. I used to be afraid that promoting the needs of women was at the expense of the needs of men, but that's not really a concern for me anymore.
My experience of participation in government is sadly lacking. There's the small things I do towards the national and local government: voting, the occasional call to a representative, and (in the most recent presidential election) campaign contributions. However, for local government, my main role model is my mother, who joined the local school board when I was a kid.
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2 comments:
xleste
2009-01-09 07:48 am UTC (link)
The UN has a great report on the status of women and they also cover the role that female representation has on the country and also specifically on families. On a smaller scale, I can't remember exact figures, but in families where women have at least equal decision making authority with men, children are more likely to get resources and get educated. This translates on a larger scale.
It's a major reason I'm a feminist!
[info]differenceblog.com
2009-01-09 07:16 pm UTC
@xleste
That's so weird! I was sure I had linked to the UN report at some point, but I can't find any record of this in the d-blog archives. Thanks for reminding me!
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