As you can imagine the women of AWDF are very political and we have been having very spirited discussions on politics. We easily agree on the importance of having women in parliament, women as decision makers, and on representational politics but when it comes to the subject of NPP and NDC (the two main political parties in Ghana) we are not all of 'one mind'.
To that end we have decided to have a 'blog off' between the various political factions. Grace has kicked off with her support for 'Yeresesam' and I invite all my colleagues to join in.
Nana Sekyiamah
Programme Officer
Fundraising & Communications
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2 comments:
I have always been skeptical about the power of representational politics (wrt gender) to improve the lot of women. Not only about whether there is a clear pathway from representation to changing power dynamics at households level, but also about whether women truly have the best interests of their kind at heart. Case in point - when the bill to make sexual assault within marriage a crime in Ghana, it was the women in parliament that shot it down.
Fortunately, to present a good case study, Rwanda has led the way in voting/appointing women to high office. An effort that has drawn worldwide praise, as their over 50% representation in parliament trounces progressive countries like Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Unfortunately, anecdotal evidence suggests that not much change has been seen in households - patriarchal traditions remain strong. It appears women in the rural areas, and those with little access to resources are not directly benefiting from having many of their sisters in power.
In a separate discourse, revolving around health and human development indicators - Rwanda comes up a lot. It was recently recognized as the most improved sub-Saharan African country in the last five years by the Ibrahim index. This index evaluates nations’ progress in safety and security, rule of law, transparency and corruption, human rights, sustainable economic development, and human development.
Is women's participation in governance correlated with this improvement seen in Rwanda? Perhaps I have been looking at the wrong indicators of success for representational politics. Is it the case that when more women are involved, there is better governance and the whole society benefits through improved social services - better access to health care, education and sanitation?
Without an in-depth analysis teasing out the effect on women's involvement in governance on development in a country, it is impossible to say that this is what has happened in Rwanda. However, the correlation is certainly an interesting one and merits further analysis.
The insidious nature of patriarchy means that even people who do not benefit from that social system (ie women) are gate keepers of the system.
I appreciate the information you shared about Rwanda being the most improved sub-Saharan African country according to the Ibrahim Index. It will be interesting to for there to be more research conducted as to whether more women in decision making contributed to this result. I join you in calling for more analysis in this respect
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