“Gender” should not be another label for women’s issues. As gender analyses of government budgets and other studies have been discovering, programmes can unintentionally impact negatively or unfairly on men just as they can on women: Australia has taken steps to ensure parental support programmes do not discriminate against fathers who are the primary child carers, while Caribbean initiatives to promote post-secondary education have had to focus on recruiting young men because young women are flooding into universities on their own.
In terms of representation in
Parliament, however, “gender” has meant more representation by women and it looks certain to continue to mean that for the foreseeable future. Many Parliaments and Legislatures now have the composition they will have going into 2015, the Commonwealth Heads of Government deadline for 30 per cent of seats being held by women, or more precisely, the second such deadline after the 2005 deadline was missed. Only a handful of Commonwealth national Parliaments have now reached the target, while most are a
considerable distance from it and, in some cases, recent elections have moved them further away still.
We therefore focus on women in Parliament in this issue by looking at the goal of increasing the role of women in Parliament and by publishing articles from women Members on non-gender subjects and from men on women’s representation to help remove the stereotype that gender is only a subject for women MPs.
Rt Hon. Rebecca Kadaga,
MP, Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament and Chairperson of the African Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians, opens the issue with an assessment of the role that women should play in all Parliaments. Commonwealth Africa has two of the world’s leaders in the representation of women in Rwanda and South Africa, but also some of the world’s lowest levels of female representation. Ms Kadaga, however, argues that female representation is not just about numbers; women must also hold their fair share of important positions within Parliament if electing more women is to have real meaning, and if electing women is ever to become common enough to no longer attract special attention.
A truly representative female presence in Parliament will help ensure fair female participation in all areas of society outside Parliament, notes Ms Kadaga. Fair
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treatment of all citizens is a goal of all MPs, regardless of gender, so the Ugandan Speaker urges all Parliamentarians to examine their Parliaments’ performance from this perspective rather than from a male-female adversarial point of view.
Government finance and macro-economic questions are not usually characterized as “gender” issues; so publishing an article on these subjects from a female MP helps to make the point that women should not be stereotyped either in Parliament or outside it. Ms Shelley Glover, MP, the Parliamentary Secretary to Canada’s Minister for Finance, explains here some of the policies that have been instrumental in the success her country has had in dealing with the effects of the global financial crisis. Canada is held up as an example of an economy with the appropriate balance of government regulation and free market activity.
Considering how well its economy is performing despite being closely intertwined with the struggling United States market, Ms Glover’s account of regulation, financial management and economic stimuli provides valuable indicators to those seeking a prudent path to economic success.
Another path to economic success not normally associated
with gender can be found in the pursuit of oil and gas extraction. Exploration is currently under way in the South Atlantic off the Falkland Islands and the Member of the Islands’ Executive Council responsible for its development, Hon. Jan Cheek, MLA, writes here on the care her British overseas territory is taking to maximize the benefits of oil exploration for Falklanders and to minimize possible adverse effects on the environment and the Islands’ people and its economy. Moving into a new industry, especially one as highly technical and developed as the oil industry, can be daunting for any jurisdiction unfamiliar with the way it works, so the Falklands have brought in outside advice. Despite being small and isolated, the Falklands are very familiar with the problems that new industries can bring, having experienced the ups and downs of selling licences to fish its waters. Ms Cheek reports therefore that the Falkland Islands are not rushing into oil exploration with unrealistic expectations, although Islanders are strongly asserting their right to develop their offshore resources in the face of Argentina’s continuing claims to sovereignty.
Making more women agents of parliamentary change is examined by a male Tasmanian