A particle physicist leading protests; polls in Colombia, Indonesia, and more: All you need to know about women in politics from August
#WomenLead (Issue 142): Your monthly round-up on women in politics
Hello, and welcome to the August 2023 edition of #WomenLead!
Some of you may already be familiar with Caroline Cardio Perez’s seminal book ‘Invisible Women’ (but in case you are not, we’d highly recommend you read it!). It’s one of those texts we find ourselves going back to every now and then – for insights, for ideas and for inspiration.
Apropos of nothing, we wanted to begin this edition with a brief excerpt from the same:
“[F]emale politicians are not operating on a level playing field…We had to stop wilfully closing our eyes to the positive discrimination that currently works in favour of men. We have to stop acting as if theoretical, legal equality of opportunity is the same as true equality of opportunity. And we have to implement an evidence-based electoral system that is designed to ensure that a diverse group of people is in the room when it comes to deciding on the laws that govern us all.”
A reminder as you begin to read this month’s edition where we bring you updates from Colombia, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, and New Zealand. In case you missed last month’s edition, you can read it here.
Election Watch
Tracking women among candidates and winners
🇨🇴 Colombia: In October, regional elections will be held in Colombia with few women in the running for major positions, El Pais has reported. Currently, women occupy only 12 percent of mayoral positions and 18 percent of governorships. There are no women candidates for the mayor of Bogota (the capital city), considered the “second most powerful elective position in the country”. Nor are there any female candidates in Barranquilla, another major city, while a handful of women are contesting the elections in other major centres.
🇬🇹 Guatemala: The Central American nation held municipal-level elections in June and August 2023. Among the 340 mayoralities for which the results are out, only 12 will be led by female mayors (only two more than were elected previously in 2019), Ocote reported.
🇳🇿New Zealand: The current Parliament of the Pacific nation is among the handful of those with gender parity. However, this might not remain true for long, if election polls are to be believed. The country is set to hold fresh Parliamentary polls in October, and current opinion polls are predicting an advantage for the centre-right National Party, which does not have any internal quotas to achieve diversity.
🇮🇩 Indonesia: In May, we had written about how after civil society groups raised concerns, Indonesia has reversed a change in its election rules that could have potentially led to a decline in women’s representation in its formal politics.
However, it seems that political parties are still not very interested in acting a little sensible and inclusive. Nearly every political party in the country has failed to reserve for women candidates at least 30 percent of the contested seats in the 2024 polls, The Straits Times has reported.
Only one among the 18 political parties has submitted a list of candidates with 30 percent women. We are not surprised, but definitely quite disappointed to read this.
Leaders
Updates about women leading countries, states and movements
Who is Shikma Bressler? A particle physicist by profession, she has also emerged as the face of ongoing popular protests in Israel against the government’s proposed reforms to curtail the powers of the national Supreme Court. The New York Times profiled her this month, noting:
“For years, the physicist, Shikma Bressler, devoted herself to the lab she runs at a science institute near Tel Aviv, a job she describes as her passion, and to the raising of her five daughters in a small village in northern Israel, staying far away from politics.
“But she has also become the face of the protests that have rocked Israel for months, marching on the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday nights, exhorting crowds of protesters with speeches echoing with revolutionary ardor, and amplifying her message in a steady stream of social media posts.”
Read the full profile here.
On-the-job updates
Spotlighting women’s experiences in political office
Starry Lee, chair of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress, Hong Kong’s largest political party, is stepping down from her role, The South China Morning Post reported. In 2015, Lee became the first woman to lead the party and has served in the role ever since. She announced that she was now stepping down saying that due to “limited time and limited work capability” continuing to lead might not be conducive for the party.
Shout-out
A note of gratitude for those tracking gender gaps in politics
Shevika M is the founder of Kuviraa, an initiative working to build political engagement and leadership in young girls in India with the vision to demystify political processes and policy issues. In addition to working with young adults and adolescents Shevika (and Kuviraa) also undertakes research to understand how young Indians think about politics, and how this varies by gender. Earlier this year, she launched a short program aimed at introducing young girls to the landscape of Indian politics and policy-making through an intersectional lens. It ran virtually for ten days with the aim of introducing young women to themes of politics, citizen engagement, storytelling and careers in politics and policy.
At #WomenLead, we interviewed Shevika to understand this initiative and her vision and goals better. She gave us much food for thought – read what she had to say here:
Reading List
The more one learns, there’s only more to learn
“Democracy is feminist”: Time
“Sexism is not a joke: How humour is used to demoralise women in politics”: Harvard Political Review
“Slovenia’s 1st female foreign minister highlights challenges women face in diplomacy, politics”: Anadolu Agency
“How we measure women’s representation matters”: Forbes
“Sudan’s failed democracy is a disaster for women”: Foreign Policy
“Does genderwashing taint the struggle for gender equality?”: Brookings
That’s a wrap for August! Liked this edition? Then press the ❤️ button and show us some love! And please, please do share this with a friend or on your social media accounts. There’s frankly nothing quite like reader love and endorsement, so please keep it coming! Thank you!
Disclaimer: #WomenLead is a non-partisan newsletter produced in a personal capacity, and does not reflect any institutional affiliation/opinion. In case of any questions, please drop in a message at womenlead.project@gmail.com