Political Empowerment Of Women Research Articles

Women’s Empowerment Revisited: From Individual to Collective Power Among the Export Sector Workers of Bangladesh

Summary Bangladesh has become known as something of a success in advancing gender equality since the 1990s. There have been rapid gains in a number of social and economic domains, yet by most objective standards the current condition and status of women and girls within Bangladeshi society remain low. Rapid progress has come about under conditions of mass poverty and interlocking forms of social disadvantage, political instability and under-development, overlain with persistent ‘classic’ forms of patriarchy. Mass employment of women and girls in the country's flagship export sector – the readymade garments (RMG) sector – has been one of the more visible and prominent changes in women's lives since its late 1970s' introduction. Whether and the extent to which RMG or garments employment has changed the lives of women workers for the better has been the subject of much debate, and the research and analysis it has generated offers valuable insights into the processes of economic and social empowerment for poor women in low income developing countries. Yet as this paper notes, close observers of social change in Bangladesh have become dissatisfied with the limits of a focus on individual economic empowerment. Paid work may enable some women to negotiate the ‘structures of constraint’ that shape their lives and relationships, but what of the structures of constraint themselves? In the Bangladesh context the experience of mass RMG employment has given rise to questions about whether women have gained greater recognition as citizens with rights and roles as carers in the private and political actors within the public spheres. Revisiting the question of women's empowerment in this context means interrogating whether paid employment has contributed to investments in the education and skills of women and girls, improvements in their public safety and rights to occupy public space. Given labour militancy in the sector and its partial successes in raising the minimum wage, what has the experience of labour politics meant for women's political empowerment? Drawing mainly on the rich literature available on women's RMG employment, this paper explores the wider and less well-documented effects of such employment on public policy relating to gender equality in these areas. It concludes that the overall direction of change in the industry points plainly to the need for investments in worker productivity, with a host of implications for women's work and gender equality more broadly. Factory owners have to date shown few signs of recognising their interests in supporting better state health, education and public safety for women and girls, or changing management practices to retain and raise productivity of skilled women workers. Yet with downward pressure on wages increasingly effectively resisted by workers at a time of global economic volatility and rising living costs, the tide may now be turning for the RMG workers of Bangladesh. Productivity gains require the state and the industry to treat women workers as full citizens with public policies that promote their skills and safety and respect, and which guarantee the representation of their rights and demands. RMG employment continues to be a source of empowerment for women in Bangladesh, but social and economic change means that that power now depends less on the individual economic effects of paid work on household decision-making than it once did. RMG employment is increasingly a source of power for women because of its more collective effects on women's citizenship and political agency. This matters all the more because of how this group is exposed to the volatilities of the global economy.

Political Empowerment of Women in West Bengal: Some Observations

Empowerment of women is a process aimed at changing the nature and direction of systematic forces which marginalize women in the society. Women are marginalized in decision-making due to lack of experience which affects their self-confidence and skill. Empowerment needs self-realization, self-awareness and emotional intelligence. This paper discusses on need for the participation of women in politics, their trend of participation, need for quota system and importance of Women’s Reservation Bill in West Bengal.

What are the opportunities to promote gender equity and equality in conflict-affected and fragile states? Insights from a review of evidence

This article draws on a study which reviewed current evidence and lessons on how gender equality can be effectively strengthened in the context of conflict-affected and fragile states. The study looked at women's political and economic empowerment and women and girls’ access to quality services. State-building in conflict-affected and fragile contexts has been widely regarded as an opportunity for securing greater gender equity and equality. While there has been some success in relation to women's participation in elections and formal politics and engagement in small-scale economic enterprise, inequitable gender power relations within the household and wider society have not been considered or understood, and thus opportunities have been lost.

Dalit Women's Political Empowerment Through Panchayati Raj System in India

Dalit Women's Political Empowerment Through Panchayati Raj System in India

Forest tenure reform: exclusion of tribal women's rights in semi-arid Rajasthan, India

The current trend in forest tenure reform promotes identity-based categories, such as indigenous people, on the assumption that this provides better access to forest resources for marginalized groups. India's historic Forest Rights Act of 2006 recognizes the traditional rights of the scheduled tribes and other forest-dependent people dwelling in and around forestlands. This paper examines the politics of individual and collective access to forestland and the political representation of Bhil tribal women in the semi-arid Banswara district, Rajasthan, India. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 54 informants, and two focus group discussions. A rights-based access approach was used to analyse outcomes of forest tenure reform on tribal women's access to forestland, and inclusion in, and/or exclusion from, collective decision making about forestland management. The findings indicate that the new identity-based forest tenure reform is mere tokenism and hinders rather than promotes tribal women's political empowerment and access to forest-based resources.

The Authority of Women in the Political Development of American Public Education, 1860–1930

Through a comparative historical analysis of the American states, I show how public education was the original policy field through which white American women became empowered as voters and political officials. Women's changing status within the education profession and “school suffrage” rights are an important and overlooked aspect of women's political history, and the rural orientation of state governments and women's increasing administrative authority as county superintendents and rural supervisors of education was pivotal to women's political empowerment. Women's authority, however, varied across regions and across states, with women's authority especially strong in Western states. I find that women in the field of public education were most empowered where there was a history of school suffrage rights, where administrative offices were elective rather than appointed, and where the power of the state superintendent of public instruction was weak. These findings suggest that democratic institutions, more than economic development or state capacity, were fundamental to women's increasing authority in the policy domain that commanded the largest share of state and local resources at the time.

Quotas: A Pathway of Political Empowerment?

Over the last 20 years, the problem of low levels of representation of women in political office has been mobilising women, and especially feminists, throughout the world. The adoption of quotas has become a much-used tool to address the challenge of increasing women's political representation, and as a route to enhancing women's political empowerment. In Latin America, many countries have adopted quota systems, but with widely varying effects. This article takes stock of Latin American experience and asks to what extent quota systems have served as a pathway of women into politics. Identifying challenges to implementation and factors that have contributed to their success or failure, the article seeks to explore lessons that can be learnt from this experience that can help contribute to strengthening mechanisms and processes that support the achievement of greater equality in a sphere in which women continue to be grossly under-represented.

British Pakistani Muslim Women's Political Empowerment and Boundary Crossings: Case Studies

This paper traces the ways in which three Pakistani British Muslim women traverse a series of geographical and ideological spaces in their engagement with social justice issues and electoral politics. The women, all from the northern city of Rawalpindi in Pakistan, have been politically active in Manchester and Blackburn in northern England. Drawing upon in-depth interviews and several informal conversations conducted over a period of four years, I examine how these British Muslim women have resisted some of the constraints upon their lives – including those reproduced through negative media representations – through engagement with a series of spaces: national and regional spaces, geographies of home and family, gendered spaces, racialised spaces and public sites of resistance. British South Asian Muslim women’s identities continue to be associated with veiling, forced marriages, honour killings and non-integrated lives within the dominant culture. This essay aims to contest some of these stereotypical assumptions. In doing so, the paper provides insights into varying expressions among racialised populations as well as contributing to scholarship on the confi gurations between space and racialised people.

Democracy and Leadership: The Gendered Voice in Politics

In Assam, be it in the Maomaria revolt, nationalist movement, or a more recent constitutional mandate for political participation, women have seldom transcended institutionalised patriarchy. Most often, voices of change come from agencies of male politics where the politics behind conventional definition of the 'political' is never questioned. A fuller grasp of women as political subjects or agents must, therefore, draw on a more complex conceptualisation of the field of power than is routinely encountered today. In this article an attempt is made to evaluate the political empowerment of women in Assam after the implementation of the 73rd Amendment, which facilitates the representation of women in politics.

Women's economic empowerment: realities and challenges for the future

Despite an international consensus on the importance of women's economic empowerment, expressed through such agreements as the Beijing Platform for Action, a recent study by the World Economic Forum noted that no country has yet managed to eliminate the gap between the economic participation of women and men. Even countries with high empowerment scores generally perform better in the health and well‐being, educational attainment and political empowerment of women than in their economic participation and opportunities. The research and training activities of the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women described in this article focus on remittances by migrant workers, which is one important way in which gendered economic relationships are changing, and gender and security, in which the participation of women in policy‐making is sought.

Feasibility Study for Micro Enterprises With Women SHG's in Kutch (Gujarat, India)

Involvement of women in productive activities is a very important strategy for poverty alleviation in the society and for the overall empowerment of women. Micro-enterprises by women should not be only seen as means for economic empowerment. Any Initiative related to micro-enterprises with women designed with a right frame and implemented with a right approach can prove to be an important tool also for social and political empowerment along with economic empowerment. Feasibility study for micro-enterprise with women SHG's should be understood as identification of right products/activities suitable for micro-enterprises in the specified area (Kutch for this study) with a process enabling social, economic and political empowerment of women. Therefore this study requires to be understood by studying 3 aspects: The Area (Kutch), Women and The products. The Conceptual focus of this study is on women rather than on technical and financial aspects (Though these aspects have not been relegated to back seat). The methodology has been participatory. The tools used are Informal Discussions, Participatory daily activity & seasonality Charts, Focus Group discussions with women and the NGO staff and a small questionnaire was used but was only limited for obtaining the necessary basic data. Discussions and open-ended interviews with various other stakeholders of the project including govt. officials, Entrepreneurs and other experts were also being conducted. After making an effort to learn the social intricacies, skills and capacity of women, It is found the most of the groups(of women) are on a very formative stage. Moreover the skills, exposure & level of understanding required for being entrepreneurs are relatively low at present to enable them to independently run and manage a business. Thus, it is recommended that the organization shall play a very active role in the process of forming and managing the enterprises for a short period. Considering the feasibility on the parameters described above (the area, women, and products), It is recommended that the organization shall take up following 2 activities: 1. Collective farming of Jatropha/ratranjyot. 2. Handmade Aloe Vera Shampoo/soap bar. It should be understood that the organisation will be required to extend most of the support starting from providing them technical training, to procurement of raw materials, active involvement in the management functions till marketing of the produce/product in the initial phase. A withdrawal plan consisting of an outline of The Capacity Building/Training programme spread over 3 years has been designed and suggested so as to transform the women from mere labourers to entrepreneurs. It is strongly suggested that SEWA shall adopt a cluster kind of approach for these two products/activities so as to gain the benefit of economics of scale and also this becomes important as it is mentioned earlier that a lot of focus or support in terms of technical training, procurement, management and marketing is required from the organization itself which would be very difficult for many different activities together.

Political Empowerment of Women: The Netherlands and Other Countries

Political Empowerment of Women: The Netherlands and Other Countries

In Support of Gender Quotas: Setting New Standards, Bringing Visible Gains

Are gender quotas a good idea? Yes, for two reasons: Quotas are an effective mechanism for improving women's numerical representation, and they encourage new attitudes towards women in politics. I argue that the numerical and ideational gains brought by gender quotas outweigh the potential pitfalls they might introduce. From a pragmatic standpoint, quotas constitute an imperfect means to a positive end: women's political empowerment. What is more, formal rules may become norms, reinforcing changing attitudes.I would like to thank Marilyn Dantico, Kim Fridkin, Adrian Pantoja, Becki Scola, and the editors of Politics & Gender for their constructive comments on this essay.

Political empowerment of women: the Netherlands and other countries

Political empowerment of women: the Netherlands and other countries

Political Empowerment of Women in Russia:Discourses and Strategies

The article analyzes public discourses on political leadership of women in the post-communist Russia. Based on her sociological research the author differentiates two main strategies of female politicians and women’s organizations. The first “professional” group of activists considers women’s interests or women’s rights issues as marginal for their democratic agenda. The second “maternalistic” strategy insists on the essentialist women’s political “predestination” to be responsible only for social and family policy. The analysis of these discourses gives the understanding of the perspectives for political empowerment of Russian women in the context of democratic transition.

Political Empowerment of Women in Soviet Union and Russia

The Marxist–Leninist ideology on the “women question” and the Soviet legal guarantees created the gender paradox which despite high levels of achievement in education and employment reflected lower representation of women in political institutions. This is a legacy of the Soviet system which contemporary Russia needs to address while meeting the challenges of political empowerment as part of the democratic transition. Due to international interventions and the globalization of gender mainstreaming, the Russian Government introduced measures for empowering women politically. Notably, however, the changes brought in by the democratic transition in Russia have had a negative impact on aspects of gender equality. Given the cultural/structural attitudinal changes and the problems of daily lives and the male dominated political culture, the success of these policies partly depends on the capability of Russian women to meet challenges through new forms of struggles for transforming the political process in their favour.

Political Empowerment of Women

Political Empowerment of Women

Women’s empowerment and democratization: The effects of electoral systems, participation, and experience in Africa

This article investigates four hypotheses suggested in the literature on women's political empowerment, operationalized here as increased legislative representation. These hypotheses are that (i) electoral systems manipulate women's political empowerment; (ii) the presence of larger parties in proportional representation systems enhance women's political empowerment; (iii) increased popular participation empowers women in particular; and (iv) accumulated experience gained over several electoral cycles facilitates increases political empowerment of women. In Africa, as well as in other parts of the world, majoritarian systems discriminate against women, while the effect of large parties in proportional representation systems is more ambiguous, and popular participation and repetitive electoral cycles are increasing women's legislative representation. This article demonstrates the value of studying gender relations under democratization, even with a narrow institutionalist focus using an elitist perspective. Finally, it shows that institutions can travel over diverse contexts with constant effects.

Local Government and the Politics of Decency*

Objective. Local government officials exhibit a variety of responses to morality issues involving “decency” (i.e., pornography, prostitution, sexually explicit businesses). The purpose of this research is to account for these differences.Methods. This research analyzes a subset of data from a larger study of morality policy making at the local level, that is, all cases of decision making on decency issues (e.g., pornography, prostitution, regulation of sexually explicit businesses, etc.) that occurred in the period 1994–2000 in 10 of the 52 largest cities in the United States.Results. In mayoral settings, decision making on decency cases is likely to evoke pro‐decency action from officials when a high level of issue salience is combined with high levels of church adherence, low levels of women's political empowerment, low levels of fundamentalist religious attachment, and higher levels of per capita income. Officials in city manager settings act more favorably toward decency activists if (1) higher levels of salience combine with a lower prevalence of fundamentalist religious adherents and higher levels of per capita income or (2) there is an interaction of salience and low levels of female political empowerment and high unemployment.Conclusions. Although exploratory in nature, the results confirm conventional expectations concerning the importance of salience and the prevalence of church affiliation; the results are counterintuitive with respect to the prevalence of fundamentalist forces and the extent of female political empowerment.

Women's Political Consciousness and Empowerment in Local, National, and Transnational Contexts: Guatemalan Refugees and Returnees

This study of Guatemalan refugees and returnees contributes to the small corpus of work that interrogates gender and migration/exile from the vantage points of women's political consciousness and empowerment. In taking up these issues, it also seeks to broaden feminist thinking about citizenship by engaging not only local and national contexts in which women's citizenship are forged, but also transnational ones.