Gender equality

Gender equality in decision-making processes

Gender equality in decision-making processes affects two areas: women's political participation and representation of women in companies’ leadership.

The fight for the political participation of women, as well as access to paid work is grounded in the very first wave of the feminist movement. It is based on the belief that women should have the right to decide for themselves about their lives – even through political decision-making. To achieve this right it is essential to have a share in political power.

The glass ceiling and glass elevator also play an important role in decision-making processes.

Quotas are one of the ways to achieve equality in the representation of women and men in decision-making processes.

Quotas are a mechanism that was previously shown to be most effective. It must be noted that quotas for women are only a temporary measure that is intended to overcome barriers resulting from Gender stereotypes.

However, quotas are commonplace in politics. Each political party provides a certain "reserved" position for representatives of different areas - there are national, regional, educational quotas and so on. This is due to the efforts of political parties to get the most electoral votes. It is striking that quotas based on sex cause frequent rejection. The quotas themselves do not ensure the enforcement of Gender policies. They only ensure representation of women (ideally) in elected positions. However, it is reasonable to assume that women, who get elected positions, will also, based on their own experience, support policies that will contribute to a more balanced representation of women in all spheres of social and political life.

When talking about quotas, there are several ways to enforce them. This may be a statutory quota, but also voluntary quotas when individual entities themselves determine certain minimum limits of representation of women and men in decision-making structures. The ideal model is a "zipper" - when one sex is always substituting for another. Based on experiences from different countries, the limit of 30% representation to promote the interests of a particular group (in this case mainly women) has proven to be critical. In addition to the statutory quotas, political parties or companies can be motivated to set voluntary quotas - whether in support of their prestige or to make concessions or subsidies.

The most common objection to the representation of women on lists of candidates of political parties, or in the top management is the argument that "women themselves do not go for it – simply they just do not want to join politics". For each party leader, the indifference of some social groups to participating in politics for their party should be more of a reason to think (what kind of party are we, that women refuse to stand for us - what are we doing wrong?) rather than an argument for rejecting their support.

Task

• Find out how many women held elected positions in the political parties in your country who got into Parliament.
• Learn what topics were connected to Gender equality in the electoral program of the winning political party in the last election in your country and which have become part of the Government program.
• What actions would you propose to increase women's interest in cooperating with a company / organization / political party?