Feature: Should Women Fight Or Wait For Goodwill?

A GNA FEATURE BY EUNICE MENKA

Accra, Nov. 30, GNA - Should political parities nominate seats for and field more women during Election 2008 to raise the current number of women from 25 to about 100 in the 230-seat Parliament?

Or should these parties just ignore calls for a large representation of women in the Legislature and, as usual, leave Ghanaian women to contend with their male opponents, right from the primaries to the general election?

Political power, after all, is about competition and contest. For women in Ghana and across Africa, however, the question is whether they should wait for handouts from these political parities or lobby for constitutional changes to enable them to realize their dream of a respectable representation in the Legislature.

Currently, on the agenda of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP), who recently met in Accra, is how to work towards lobbying governments to put in constitutional provisions that will bring more women to Parliament.

"We should not give men ultimatums to get more women into Parliament," Mrs Eugenia Kusi, Deputy Majority Chief Whip, intoned in an interview with the GNA.

While there are indeed divergent views about how to increase women's participation in Parliament, Mrs Kusi believes women must hold themselves in readiness to take part in national politics.

"We must dialogue, create awareness and educate our professionals or educated women on the need to be part of the political process," she said.

"Educated women are not well educated on politics... we do not go for political rallies or meetings to learn more about politics because we do not have the time," she said.

For Mrs Kusi, who was virtually new to politics before Election 2000, said she had had to be talked to and convinced to step into politics.

Apart from the insults she took in her strides during her campaigns, she also sold her car and house to enter politics. On a recent visit to Accra, Madam Lucy Oraing, a gender activist and a journalist with the Kenyan "Daily Nation" said: "Women must get out there and surmount the challenges. They cannot wait to be handed power on a silver platter.

"There must be no free rides to Parliament. No special seats for women or nominated seats, they should go out there and compete on an equal footing with the men," she said. Madam Oraing argued that nominating seats for women could compromise their position and women could end up with more than they bargained for.

"Women must earn the respect of potential constituents by competing on their own merit," she said.

According to her, sometimes women, who took up nominated seats in some countries, did not perform because there was nothing at stake and they were not accountable to their constituents.

Mr John Agama, Deputy Clerk to Parliament, speaking during a media briefing ahead of the CWP seminar in Accra, said constitutional amendment was not required to increase women's representation in Parliament.

Mr Agama said the question of increasing women's representation in national legislatures should also not be up for bargaining or questioning.

"Women's representation in politics should be seen as a matter of rights to be supported by all to increase their numbers in Parliament." Despite the increasing calls for support to get more women into politics with some countries actually reserving seats for women in Parliament, there has not been any significant increase in the number of women entering the House.

Morocco, for instance, has 10 per cent of parliamentary seats reserved for women. Statistics, however, show that the numbers has not changed for women.

Figures from the International Parliamentary Union show that, as of April 2005, women represented about 30 per cent of the Lower or Single Chamber in 19 countries out of a total of 180 countries. Only in 13 countries did they reach or surpass the 30 per cent in the Upper Chamber or Senate.

Between 2000 and 2005, the proportion of Members of Parliament in the world who were women rose from 13.4 per cent to 15.7 percent, crossing for the first time ever the 15 per cent mark.

Incidentally, in 2003, Rwanda became the country closest to reaching parity between men and women of any national legislature. In the Lower House, women representation is 48.8 per cent won 391 of the 801 seats. In the Upper House, women won six of the 20 seats. Some gender activists believe that the dream of seeing more women in parliament would take a long time if women have to ride on goodwill. This is because political power is a precious commodity and has to be fought for. Additionally, women have several hurdles to scale to get power.

A major barrier to women's involvement in politics is money. Politics is money.

Apart from overcoming the hostile male-dominated world of politics, women have to find a way around campaign financiers, who favour male politicians because they stand a better chance of emerging winners in any elections. For these political godfathers, women are a high-risk investment.

Mrs Kusi believes, however, that women should find ways of surmounting every challenge. According to her, "where there is a will there is a way....women can even embark on fund raising campaigns" Even when women succeed in getting round the financial barrier the hurdle of motherhood would also have to be cleared.

"The best time to enter Parliament is after child-birth when one's children are grown. When there is a little relief from their reproductive role to be able to concentrate.

"However, if the opportunity comes at any age, one could grab it and prepare towards the work", Mrs Kusi said. "Being an MP is something that should be done not as part time but as work to be done," she said

An MP with young children can only negotiate and have the support of the husband, who should agree to cooperate by, for instance, sending and picking the children from school" she said.

She said women with young children, who wanted to enter Parliament, could rather spend time building themselves and their political career in the constituencies and see this time as a nurturing process. Indeed, the road to political power may be rough but women cannot afford to be left out of the leadership since women have a stake in the governance process.

Whether it is through a fight or laid down procedure, whichever way a woman steps into Parliament, it must be through hard work. That woman must be independent and capable of holding her own when it comes to parliamentary business. 30 Nov. 06