WOMEN AND WORK
Women and work
Emily Foster
The underrepresentation of women in politics is implicit with more focus driven towards their physical appearances than the agenda put forward. The U.S falls behind in the area of gender parity in its democratic institutions due to historical and psychological perceptions on the potential of a woman in leadership and hence, the requirement to work twice as hard as their male counterparts. A look at the Nordic nations denote a fair representation of women leaders in parliament with Sweden (45 percent), Finland (42.5 Percent), Denmark (39 percent), Netherlands (39 percent) and Germany (36.5 percent) a clear depiction of gender parity and increased women representation (Hill, 2014).
The primary reason quoted behind the success is the utilization of proportional representations election systems and positive quotas amongst political parties that form part of legal reform (Hill, 2014). The legal reform insinuated incites on increase in women leadership not only to reduce the gender disparities in leadership but to alleviate positivity as concerns the potential of women leadership(PewResearchCenter, 2015).A legal change in electoral systems such as proportional representations and statutory quotas would catalyze women representation. Kenya made a step towards gender balance by initializing constitutional change to ensure reservation of women seats in parliament (Prof. Nzomo, 2014). Legal reform is a critical step towards gender parity and from examples (Rwanda and Nordic countries), it can occur before an augmentation in women representation.
Jonathan Talbert
The slow change in women representation in the U.S is appalling as compared to other countries such as the Netherlands. Such countries have implemented policy, structural and legal changes to their electoral system to promote the addition of more women in parliament. An augmentation is women’s representation would reduce tantrums as progressed by communities with the view that women are supposed to act in a particular manner and therefore, judged more harshly. The challenges facing women continue to persist though Americans find women indistinguishable as concerns leadership qualities (PewResearchCenter, 2015). Structural change in governments to include more women representation is deserving in order to achieve gender equality and a change in perception of women’s capabilities inclusive of their roles in society.
WOMEN AND WORK
References
Hill, S. (2014, March 7). Why does the US still have so few women in office? Retrieved from Thenation.com: http://www.thenation.com/article/why-does-us-still-have-so-few-women-office/
PewResearchCenter. (2015, 1 14). Women and Leadership. Retrieved from pewsocialtrends.org: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/01/14/women-and-leadership/
Prof. Nzomo, M. (2014, 1). Impacts of political leadership in Kenya: Struggle for participation in governance through affirmative action. Retrieved from ke.boell.org: https://ke.boell.org/sites/default/files/uploads/2014/01/affirmative_action-impacts_of_women_in_political_leadership_in_kenya_by_prof_maria_nzomo.pdf