Empowering women in villages: All-women village councils in Maharashtra, India

This paper critically examined the women representation in Nigerian politics with particular reference to elective and ministerial positions. The objectives of this paper are to ascertain if there has been an improvement in women representation in political position, find out if the present women representation in political position has realized the affirmative action and identify the factors undermining the rise of women representation in political position in Nigeria. The liberal feminist theory was adopted as the framework for analysis. Data were collected through secondary source using the documentary method and the content analysis and the simple percentage method was adopted for data analysis. The paper revealed that there is no improvement in women representation in elective positions and ministerial positions and the level of women representation in politics has not realized the affirmative action. In addition, it was observed that issue of funding, insecurity, culture, male domination in political parties etc. posed challenge to the rise of women representation in Nigerian politics. The paper suggested for encouragement of women participation in politics, sensitization and enlightenment of the public for support of women representation in politics, reduction of electoral violence etc.

We investigate the effect of women's political representation in the state legislative assembly and public administration on natural disaster mortality in 20 Indian states from 1981 to 2019. The paper combines two critical dimensions: political and administrative representation of women and disaster risk reduction. Results suggest that women's political representation reduces total disaster mortality after controlling socioeconomic and political covariates; however, the effects are statistically insignificant for the current and lag periods. We find that a one standard deviation increase in women's representation in public administration lowers total disaster mortality by 20.6 percentage points, which is 9.8 per cent of the sample mean. We observe the impacts of female administrative representation on gender-specific human development outcomes through reduced male and female disaster mortality, and we explain some mechanisms. Thus, women's political and administrative representation is crucial for addressing disaster mortality as it has major public health consequences.

The impact of women's political representation on child health outcomes during 1990–2020: Evidence from a global dataset

The expansion of women's formal political representation ranks among the most significant trends in international politics of the last 100 years. Though women made steady political progress, substantial country‐level variation exists in patterns of growth and change. In this article, longitudinal theories are developed to examine how political factors affect women's political representation over time. Latent growth curve models are used to assess the growth of women in politics in 110 countries from 1975 to 2000. The article investigates how electoral systems, national‐level gender quotas and growth of democracy – both political rights and civil liberties – impact country‐level trajectories of women's legislative representation. It is found: first, national quotas do affect women's political presence, but at a lower level than legislated by law; second, the impact of a proportional representation system on women's political representation is steady over time; and third, democracy, especially civil liberties, does not affect the level of women's political representation in the earliest period, but does influence the growth of women's political representation over time. These findings both reinforce and challenge prior cross‐sectional models of women's political representation.

Women's political participation and representation vary dramatically within and between countries. We selectively review the literature on gender in politics, focusing on women's formal political participation. We discuss both traditional explanations for women's political participation and representation, such as the supply of women and the demand for women, and newer explanations such as the role of international actors and gender quotas. We also ask whether women are distinctive—does having more women in office make a difference to public policy? Throughout the review we demonstrate that a full understanding of women's political representation requires both deep knowledge of individual cases such as the United States and broad knowledge comparing women's participation across countries. We end with four recommended directions for future research: (a) globalizing theory and research, (b) expanding data collection, (c) remembering alternative forms of women's agency, and (d) addressing intersectionality.

At Millennium Summit in September 2000 largest gathering of world leaders adopted UN Millennium Declaration, committing their nations a new global partnership reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets, all with a deadline of 2015, that have become known as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).2 In many ways, MDGs, eclipse goals and objectives of Beijing Platform of Action. Hence, I think of MDGs as Major Distraction Gimmicks - a distraction from much more important Beijing Platform for Action (BPA) with its 12 Priority Areas of Concern,3 which represent a much closer approximation of complexity of relationships between equality and women's empowerment (MDG Goal 3), and other MDGs and targets. In particular, these are: MDG 1: Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, Universal primary education (MDG 2), Reducing child mortality (MDG 4), Improving maternal health (MDG 5), Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases (MDG 6), and Ensuring environmental sustainability (MDG 7 (including Target 10, Access safe water). Nevertheless, MDGs are now part of an international development framework which many countries in Caribbean have signed on to. Thus this analysis addresses question of how they be made work promote equality and empowerment in Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region. The analysis here will not be limited gender equality and women's empowerment (MDG Goal 3). It will also highlight dimensions of some of other MDGs that are closely related women's equality and empowerment - as a means and as an outcome. Finally, analysis and suggestions in relation strategies to ensure that inequalities are identified and addressed in MDG monitoring process and in national policy responses from will focus on Caribbean realities, including my own experience of working in this field for over 30 years. Suggestions are made by drawing on findings and insights on linkages between global trends, development strategies (including macroeconomic policy framework of structural adjustment) and their impact on poor and ways in which we might now approach activist interventions toward goal of women's equality and empowerment. A General Critique of Millenium Development Goals First, what be said in favour of MDGs? As UNIFEM and many others point out, that MDGs be viewed within context of the new aid agenda. They provide a common framework agreed by all governments, complete with measurable targets and indicators of progress, around which governments, UN agencies, international finance institutions and civil society alike could rally. They provide a strategic talking point for assessing what barriers achievement of goals are, and provide a tool with which hold both donor agencies and governments accountable. (White, 2001, 2002, cited by Ramya Subrahmanian, 2002:3) Regarding goal on gender equality and empowerment of women, some would say it can be celebrated as symbolic of significant impact of feminist advocacy over years in making case for gender-aware development (Ramya Subrahmanian, 2002:1), despite fact that we know emptiness of rhetorical statements on 'gender.' On other hand, there is evidently widespread awareness of limitations of MDGs: * their inadequate targets and indicators; * their restriction indicators that are quantifiable when much of what is most important, such as women's equality and empowerment, is not easily quantifiable; * their omission of important goals and targets, such as violence against women and sexual and reproductive rights; * their silence on context and institutional environment in which they are be met. The Millenium Development Goals first came my attention in response exclusion of hard-won goal of women's sexual and reproductive rights from list of goals. …

This study explores the Political participation of women in Pakistan. Through the political history of Pakistan, it is apparent that the role of women in politics has not been substantial nevertheless their population size. This research paper highlights women's political participation and representation in Pakistan’s politics. Women’s role in the political process will be explored from a historical and current perspective. Historically, women's role as a representative in the legislative assemblies of Pakistan remained limited. However,during the last two decades, significant measures have been made to enhance women’s political representation in the country. In Pakistan, the voting turnout of women has always been lower as compared to the male counterpart during all the general elections held in Pakistan. The turnout of women’s voters will be explored in the general elections of the country. The research also elaborates on the factors affecting women’s political participation in the country. The research paper underscores social impediments that have posed challenges for women to become an important part of Pakistan’s political system. Political participation is not limited to get representation in legislative assemblies. It consists of a wide range of political activities such as role as a voter, become a member of a political party, etc.

Democracies are seen as synonyms for political participation and representation. With the global wave of feminism, empowerment and political representation of women were seen as essential tools for delivering gender justice; they detected vulnerability based on gender. The aspect of empowerment is necessary to define the unequal power dynamics based on social gender norms. In contrast, political representation is seen as a way to reform the vulnerability. Feminism's recent global wave pushed the government to reconsider its patriarchal policies and accommodate the representation of women. The current paper looks into the various aspects of the women's empowerment and Representation debate.

In recent decades, scholars have documented remarkable changes in women's political representation around the world. At present, however, researchers are ill-equipped to explain these changes in women's representation in politics. In this article, we introduce a broad theoretical framework for reorienting existing explanations of women's formal political representation to account for change over time. We conceptualize stasis and growth in women's political representation as the balance between forces of resistance and forces for change. We also classify forces by timing, distinguishing among those that are continuous, are episodic, and have originated from critical periods. Using data on women in national legislatures from 1945 to 2003, we find that longitudinal forces combine to produce four common trajectories of women's political representation across time. We also discuss how various approaches, including event history analysis, latent growth curve models, and the focused ethnographic revisit, are well suited for modeling the different types of forces that combine to produce these trajectories. Overall, we argue that implementing a longitudinal framework for understanding women's political representation has the power both to alter the way we think about established findings and to suggest new theories for empirical evaluation.

Advancing Female Education by Improving Democratic Institutions and Women's Political Representation

The paper provides an overview of Pakistan's achievements with regard to SDG-5, taking into account the marginal advances made in women joining the workforce and engaging politically, as well as facing remaining structural blocks. We used a mixed-method approach to embed the examined context in round data of 2019–2023 concerning three main indicators: workforce participation, political representation, and educational enrollment. Quantitative data were married with qualitative interviews and focus groups to provide a fuller view of the intricate landscape of gender in Pakistan. By contrast to the data for girls' education enrollment, and despite an incremental improvement in women's political representation within parliament, results pointed towards a marginal growth of workforce participation by women. While some important gaps remain (including in the most rigorous statistical measure available for regional comparability, creating a persistent differential in gender parity across regions), stakeholders identified sociocultural, political, and economic factors as the key barriers to empowerment, but rated current gender equality policies as only moderately effective. Pakistan is still a long way toward achieving SDG-5 and needs more focused, hard interventions. The following must be done to accelerate progress: increase the effectiveness of gender equality policies and tackle multiple barriers to women's empowerment. This study highlights the importance of concerted action from government, civil society, and international organizations in promoting both gender equality and women's empowerment across all levels of Pakistani societies.

This chapter examines different cultural, sociological and contextual issues affecting women, such as their social roles and prospects for entering the political world. Despite the fact that women have been active participants in the public sphere since the pre-state era, their power has been consistently constrained. This is true across the political, social, economic, and culture spheres. The chapter focuses on the representation of women in formal politics, since representation brings with it significant implications, extending beyond the boundaries of the political arena. The representation of women in the political institutions can serve as a mirror, reflecting and illuminating women's status in other realms of society. The analysis of women's participation and representation in formal politics opens a window for the discussion of issues that are relevant for women and their status in Israeli society in general, and not just in politics.

The Women's Liberation movement in India today is so diverse that it cannot be properly described in a brief article, so the focus here shall be on its main currents and the course they have taken over the last ten years, with occasional digressions into their history. In many ways the development of feminism in India is similar to that in Western Europe or the United States: like them, India too saw a feminist movement in the early twentieth century; like them, again, the movement gradually died away after the winning of certain demands, until, recently, a new feminist movement developed out of contemporary radical movements. The sixties and early seventies saw the development of a whole spate of radical movements in India, from student uprisings, workers' agitations and peasant insurgencies to tribal, anticaste and consumer action movements. These spanned a political spectrum from Gandhiansocialist (that is, nonviolent protest, based on explicitly moral values, over specific working or living conditions) to the far left, in particular, the Maoists. The Gandhian-socialists initiated several of the first women's movements in post-Independence India (e.g. an antialcohol agitation in north India, a consumer action and anticorruption agitation in western India, and a women's trade union, also in western India). Interestingly, however, neither they, nor others, looked upon these movements as feminist, nor did they advance any theories of women's oppression. These were advanced first by two women's groups which were formed in 1975, both of which grew out of the Maoist far left. The Progressive Organization of Women in Hyderabad offered an Engelian analysis of women's subordination, and the League of Women Soldiers for Equality, in Aurangabad linked feminism and anticasteism, saying that religious texts were used to subordinate both women and the lower castes. Although the imposition of a State of Emergency on India in 1975 led to a break in most agitational activities, there was, in many ways, an intensification of theoretical discussion. In 1977, when the Emergency

Using a dataset of women state senators from all 50 states (1978–2010) and latent growth curve analysis, this article tests two longitudinal theories of the growth of women's political representation over time. Gender salience theory posits that women increase their political representation when they explicitly campaign on their gender. Political climate theory argues that women fare better electorally during periods when domestic issues predominate as opposed to international issues. Results provide support for gender salience theory, but the evidence is too mixed for political climate theory to provide a plausible explanation for the growth in women's state-level political representation. By political party, results suggest that Democratic women were generally advantaged over Republican women; however, Republican women exclusively benefited in the 1992 and 2010 elections. This article concludes with an assessment of the two longitudinal theories and what they may tell us more broadly about women in politics.

In some areas in Sub‐Saharan Africa, a rural proletariat has emerged, mainly consisting of labourers living and working on plantations and large mixed farms. Besides these ‘full proletarians’, there are also labourers living outside the agricultural estates who perform agricultural wage labour during specific seasons only. Most of these ‘semi‐proletarians’ own a small piece of land. The study analyses the relationship between the degree of proletarianisation on the one hand, and the socio‐economic situation and living conditions of labourers on large farms in Kenya's Trans Nzoia District on the other. In doing so, a comparison is also made with a group of non‐labourers. The conclusion is that a higher degree of proletarianisation coincides with a lower income level but not necessarily poorer living conditions.