There is still "a long way to go in the United States and in the world, in terms of viewing women as equals when it comes to politics", Representative James McGovern, Co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission observed at a briefing on women in politics held in Washington on 4 March.
The briefing was organized by the IPU in conjunction with the Commission to help launch the 2010 edition of the World Map of Women in Politics, a joint IPU-UN publication. In addition to Mr. McGovern, Rep. Russ Carnahan and Rep. Jim McDermott were in attendance for the US Congress. Senator Pia Cayetano of the Philippines and Senator Sabine De Bethune of Belgium joined them at the podium together with the IPU Secretary General.
Surveying the US political environment, Mr. McGovern said that there is still a glass ceiling limiting women’s access to leadership positions in his country. The recent presidential elections had shown that sexism was still present in the political world, even more condoned in some circles than even racism. Still, there was hope for change. The school curriculum today was much more gender-sensitive than in the past, Mr. McGovern said, and as a result new generations were more open to gender equality.
Mr. Carnahan noted that important changes had been made in his party, where special measures had boosted women’s participation in major party conventions. The fact that a women Speaker had been elected for the first time in 2007 was another important promising sign. Mr. Carnahan also praised the IPU for its leadership on women in politics, saying it was a good example of why the US Congress was on its way to rejoining the organization.
The meeting between the US representatives and their counterparts from the Philippines and Belgium helped highlight some of the obstacles that stand in the way of women entering politics as well as some basic measures adopted around the world to help level the playing field. According to Senator De Bethune, quotas could be useful tools, and had made a huge difference in her own country. She cautioned that quotas needed to be well designed, and that they worked best in electoral systems based on proportional representation.
Senator Cayetano drew attention to the special challenges of developing countries such as the Philippines. She spoke of how women politicians could make a real difference to help change discriminatory laws. Citing her own experience, the senator said that women could preserve their own sensibilities and identities once they entered politics without having to appear to be tougher than men. Still, parliamentary practices needed to change in order to accommodate the extra demands placed on women politicians as mothers, caregivers or breadwinners.
