SHARING EXPERIENCES TO GENERATE INTEREST AND ACTION IN THE GENDER FIELD
As you will read in this issue, the 58th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference
held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in September discussed “Engaging Political Parties to Improve Gender-Responsive Governance” as the topic of one of the eight workshops. Further, “Strategies to Increase Women’s Representation in Parliaments in Small States” was discussed at the Small Branches Conferences which preceded the main conference. The conference period also included business meetings of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) and the CWP Steering Committee and a full CWP session on the topic “Is there such a thing as women’s agenda in Parliament? If not, why not? If so, what should it be?” My Dominican parliamentary colleague, Sen. the Hon. Tammy Jean-Jacques who attended the Sri Lankan meetings with me and helped me to write this CWP View, joined me in the discussions. We found them and the networking with other women Parliamentarians extremely valuable in promoting the advancement of women in Parliament. Sen. Jean-Jacques and I also attended meetings
in Colombo of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Executive Committee. When one considers that the huge continent of Africa with a population of over one billion has six Members on the Committee and a small country such as Dominica with a population of 71,000 had two at this meeting, both us of women, it says a lot for the opportunity Dominica and its women Parliamentarians have had to help influence the direction of this prestigious international body. I chaired the CWP discussion session in my capacity as Chairperson of the
There were differing views on whether or not there should be a women’s
agenda in Parliament. On the one hand, Members from the African region felt that a women’s agenda was of paramount importance in Parliament. In many of their countries, women are not elevated to positions of leadership in society and are oppressed as the weaker and lesser sex with men being superior. Women who choose to elevate themselves are sexually, physically and emotionally intimidated and sometimes even violated. Legislation was one proposal put forward to ensure that a certain percentage of parliamentary seats are reserved for women. There was the view that we women are sometimes
Hon. Alix Boyd Knights, MHA Speaker of the House of Assembly, Dominica, and Chairperson of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians.
our own worst enemies in the struggle to increase female parliamentary representation in that female constituents often favour male candidates over candidates of our gender. The majority in each of our electorates is female, yet men are victorious in many of the elections where there are also women candidates. On the other hand, the accomplishments of women
in politics and other positions of authority was felt to be undermined by the suggestion that a woman’s agenda should be separate and distinct from a man’s in Parliament. The view was expressed that, on the contrary, a woman and a man should share the same agenda in Parliament since we
all are aiming for equal rights and privileges and the opportunity to compete on a level plain. In instances where issues affect women directly, male Members of
CWP and I shared with colleagues news of my recent book Women in Politics in Dominica: Past and Present, which was very well received. The publication highlighted the role that women in my small Caribbean island have played in our country’s development and strengthened the view that the Millennium Development Goal set by the United Nations and the Commonwealth Heads of Government goal of 30 per cent representation of women in Parliament by 2015 is realistic and so should be achievable. The consensus was that every Commonwealth country should be encouraged to compile such a publication with a view to highlighting the achievements of their country’s women in politics as well as using such a publication to encourage more young women to enter politics. The CWP should spearhead this initiative.
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Parliament should be made to understand that such issues affect them indirectly and so from that point of view should adopt these issues and agendas as their own. Delegates from the Canadian and Caribbean regions shared this view. This and other debates at the 58th
Commonwealth Parliamentary
Conference were very enlightening and highlighted the fact that irrespective of size and geographic location, many countries of the Commonwealth share similar problems in the gender field as well in other matters under discussion. The threat of terrorism, for example, transcends the borders of the Asian region. Social ills such as youth unemployment and limited access to health care and education are not unique to the Caribbean region. There is much work still to be done to allow women fair opportunities to succeed in family life, the business environment and politics.