Women In Decision-making Positions Research Articles

Gender gap in medicine: only one woman councilor in the Japan Surgical Society.

Japan ranks low in the global gender gap index. Academic promotion is difficult for women doctors, and the leaky pipeline of women doctors is evident in academic medicine. The Japan Surgical Society (JSS) has 2,874 (7.2% of total membership) female members as of April 2014. The total number of councilors in JSS has increased, but there is still only one female member on the Council. The fact that there are so few women in decision-making positions makes it challenging to fight for equality. The Japanese Association of Medical Science (JAMS) is an association with exclusive institutional membership comprising the major medical societies in Japan, and currently has a membership of 122 specialist medical societies. It is essential to have at least one female committee member in each committee of the JAMS, which would provide opportunities to establish career paths for women doctors, to make rules that suit the lifestyle of women doctors, and to improve work-life balance.

Managing football organizations: a man’s world? Comparing women in decision-making positions in Germany and Norway and their international influence: a contextual approach

This research examines the representation of females in the executive committees of the national football associations of Germany and Norway and their international influence. Pettigrew’s contextual approach to change is used to identify the change process in governance, with a focus on pressures from outside and within sport in general and especially within football, the key actors, their values and legitimacy, and the structures and the strategies of the organizations. The analysis is based on secondary sources and interviews. The women’s football teams in these two countries have been relatively successful and while the national football associations may appear similar and also atypical of most countries; important differences between them are to be found in the speed of the changes associated with different cultures and the different ways in which the two football federations elect their executive boards. In Europe, the big clubs see the added value of having women’s teams.

Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling: Strategies to Enhance the Advancement of Women in Ghana’s Public Service

Ghanaian women have made, and continue to make, considerable progress on their journey to the upper echelons of the decision-making institutions of the country. However, the overall number of women in decision-making positions, especially in the civil service, is distressingly small. At the end of 2011, for example, of 36 positions available only six were filled by women, as chief directors of a ministry. What is being witnessed in the civil service, then, is what has been described in the academic literature and popular press as the glass ceiling. This paper examines what has been and is being done by government, and what sort of strategies will be necessary to deal with the problem. The questions addressed are what are the strategies; and how effective are they in breaking down the glass ceiling that appears to exist in the civil service and which prevents women from progressing into senior management. What is the way forward – or up – in breaking through the glass ceiling?

Gender mainstreaming in integrated rural water supply and sanitation project in Mzimba, Malawi

Gender mainstreaming in the water sector in Malawi was analyzed using the Mzimba Integrated Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (IRWSS) project as a case in point. Information required for the study was obtained through interviews, administering a set of questionnaires and data collecting from existing documents. The results show that women in decision-making positions at head office of the Ministry responsible for water affairs only constitute about 11.1%. Assessment of the budget allocations has revealed that previously no budgetary allocations were made for gender issues, and that since the 2006/07 fiscal year about US$14,286 was allocated for gender mainstreaming. Women's involvement in local governance institutions and project activities in Mzimba is generally high. Most local water committees have 60% women and 40% men, whereas participation in project activities is highly rated at 97.2%. To improve gender balance, the Ministry responsible for water has to work with stakeholders in the education sector. Besides, great disparities still exist between men's and women's participation in water projects at a local level (97.2% for women) and a person's socioeconomic position greatly affects their inclusion in the local governance structures. Addressing these issues would, therefore, result in better gender integration in the water sector.

Gender Equality and Local Government Elections: Gender Mainstreaming, Party Manifestos, Party Lists and Municipal Planning

Women's representation and participation in political parties and governance processes require examination. South Africa is a signatory of the 2008 SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, which commits member states to put in place measures to bring about 50% representation for women indecision-making positions by 2015. This article draws on research findings and interventions undertaken by the South African Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) to raise issues relating to gender equality, women's political representation and municipal gender mainstreaming and service deliveryin relation to the May 2011 local government elections in South Africa. CGE research findings include an analysis of political party lists in terms of women's representation, the gender mainstreaming in a sample of political party manifestos and an analysis of gender mainstreaming in a sample of municipal integrated development plans (IDPs). The CGE enquiry focuses on the extent to which the gendered needs of communities, and constitutional and legislative prescripts, inform and are prioritised in these IDPs. TheCGE's interest centres on the gendered aspects of poverty, inequality and local social and economic development. CGE research points to poor representation of women in positions of leadership, despite the country's commitment to the 2015 protocol. In addition, there is evidence of gender insensitivity and a lack of gender transformation within political partiesand inadequate internal policies and programmes to promote and support women and address issues such as sexual harassment. Recommendations point to the need for legislation on the 50% quota to compel parties to enactmeasures to encourage and promote womenâ??s participation and leadership and ensure their equitable representation on party lists.

Women at Work: journalism as en-gendered practice

This paper explores the salience of gender in the working lives of women journalists. It draws on data from a small-scale postal survey of members of a British network of women journalists—Women in Journalism—conducted in 1999 and suggests that gender is important in the newsroom for some women but not others and that its impact is often felt in negative ways. Journalists pointed to some of the problems associated with working in an industry still dominated by men, such as the low priority given to coverage of "women's" issues and the male-ordered culture which can be hostile to women with family responsibilities. Most of the women surveyed believe that more women in decision-making positions would have a positive impact on developing a more women-friendly news agenda although there were significant ambiguities about the salience of gender in determining a specifically en-gendered journalistic practice.

Women in Politics in Post-Transitional Democracies: the chilean case

This article looks at women's participation in formal political institutions in posttransition politics. Employing the case of post-dictatorship Chile, it outlines the barriers to women's participation in the formal political arena; discusses the various strategies that Chilean women are currently employing to overcome their exclusion; and finally, examines the challenges that political women confront in promoting 'women's interests' in political institutions. Throughout the article two main arguments are advanced. First, where women's movements do not demand institutional reforms during the transition period - a time when movements enjoy influence and parties are in flux - then the barriers to women in political institutions re-emerge. In Chile, the fact that women did not demand institutional reforms, such as quotas for women in decision-making positions, is linked tothe broader strategy of the movement tomake citizenship demands based on women's 'difference'. This strategy inhibited women from demanding power (i.e. access to institutions as individuals) because this conformed to a masculine-defined notion of politics inconsistent with women's 'different' style of practising politics. A second,related argument is that a strategy based on women's 'difference' hinders women in politics frompromoting feminist goals,especially in the climate ofsocial conservatism that characterizes post-transition Chilean politics. Despite these constraints and the many challenges Chilean women in politics confront, gains are being made, as women recognize the need for, and begin to demand, institutional reforms to expand their presence in formal politics.

Women's Challenge to Higher Education

changes and challenges in American education today is the increased significance of women at all levels. While studies bemoan the predominance of female teachers in elementary classrooms and the resulting lack of male role models for young students, in higher education, traditionally, it is women who have been missing from the ranks of faculty and administration. Today, increasingly, that situation is changing, and with important implications. Gradually, often subtly, women have been mounting a tripartite attack on the traditions of higher education in this country. As students, administrators, and faculty members, women are challenging fundamental assumptions about teaching and learning. Women's enrollment in higher education has increased steadily in the past twenty years, and today, they make up more than half some 54 percent of undergraduate students in American colleges and universities. Similarly, women have in recent years gradually increased their numbers among administrators in American universities. With more women in decision-making positions and with budgetary authority to implement programs and policies that address the inequities in women's lives on campus, substantial improvements have been and will continue to be achieved. A more dramatic increase in the number of female faculty members, many of whom engage in scholarly work on the contributions and concerns of women in their disci-

Mass Media Use by Women in Decision-Making Positions

Mass Media Use by Women in Decision-Making Positions