Women’s political empowerment — more talk, less action

In any country, the political empowerment of women is generally possible with two routes — the first is to reserve seats for women in legislature by means of legislation and the second is to have provision for quotas for women candidates within political parties while nominating candidates. There are examples for both that have been adopted in various countries, in turn helping women’s political empowerment. Neighbouring Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan have opted for the legislative route and are faring better in terms of representation of women in their legislatures. For example, in Pakistan, 17% seats are reserved for women in its national assembly; Bangladesh has reserved 50 out of 350 seats in its Jatiya Sangsad and Nepal has reserved 33% of the total seats for women. Statistics show that there is an improvement in the number of women legislators being elected crossing the percentage of seats reserved for women which is a sign of women’s political empowerment in one way or the other.

There are many countries where there are no laws mandating quotas for women, but political parties are required to give a certain percentage of tickets to women candidates. Australia (38%), Canada (31%), South Africa (45%), and Sweden (46%) have no legislatively-backed quotas in their Parliament, yet most of these countries have more than 30% women in their respective Parliaments. This is clear evidence that quota is not the only route for women’s political representation. There is another route of reservation within parties while giving tickets, which is equally effective for women’s political representation.