Gender Equality Needs More Than Quotas
Gender Equality Needs More Than Quotas
Within the next ten years, Kazakstan plans to have 30 per cent of senior government positions occupied by women. However, experts on gender issues are warning that achieving real equality is about a lot more than political representation.
The plan is set out in a government strategy to promote gender equality in 2006-2016.
Women currently hold no more than ten per cent of seats in parliament, and 17 per cent in local assemblies, according to Laila Akhmetova, who heads the Women’s Leadership School. Of the 142 candidates running for the post of district-level local government head on October 20, only five are women.
Despite this poor showing, Akhmetova believes 30 per cent representation is an attainable goal. Apart from a desire to succeed among women themselves, success will depend on getting the right mechanisms in place to make it easier for women to enter senior positions, she said, adding that a network of women’s leadership schools consisting of 35 non-government organisations around the country will help promote women in politics.
Natalia Usacheva, who heads the Gender Information and Analysis Centre, believes additional measures are needed such as a quota system that would allow women to prove themselves through practical work and show they are “no worse than men – and maybe better”.
However, other gender experts interviewed by IWPR argue that the equal rights programme will fail if the sole emphasis is on achieving an arithmetical increase in the number of women in the state apparatus.
According to Gulira Myrzabaeva, who heads the Kazakstan office of the United Nations’ Gender and Development programme, a lot will also ride on how the sexual equality directives are actually implemented. “The ministries and department that are supposed to promote gender policy have people tasked to do so, but the general level of knowledge is very low. They are likely to need training since many of them see gender issues only in terms of promoting women in politics,” she said.
Myrzabaeva thinks there is also a need to pay more attention to rarely-addressed matters such as the sexual harassment of women in political life.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
The plan is set out in a government strategy to promote gender equality in 2006-2016.
Women currently hold no more than ten per cent of seats in parliament, and 17 per cent in local assemblies, according to Laila Akhmetova, who heads the Women’s Leadership School. Of the 142 candidates running for the post of district-level local government head on October 20, only five are women.
Despite this poor showing, Akhmetova believes 30 per cent representation is an attainable goal. Apart from a desire to succeed among women themselves, success will depend on getting the right mechanisms in place to make it easier for women to enter senior positions, she said, adding that a network of women’s leadership schools consisting of 35 non-government organisations around the country will help promote women in politics.
Natalia Usacheva, who heads the Gender Information and Analysis Centre, believes additional measures are needed such as a quota system that would allow women to prove themselves through practical work and show they are “no worse than men – and maybe better”.
However, other gender experts interviewed by IWPR argue that the equal rights programme will fail if the sole emphasis is on achieving an arithmetical increase in the number of women in the state apparatus.
According to Gulira Myrzabaeva, who heads the Kazakstan office of the United Nations’ Gender and Development programme, a lot will also ride on how the sexual equality directives are actually implemented. “The ministries and department that are supposed to promote gender policy have people tasked to do so, but the general level of knowledge is very low. They are likely to need training since many of them see gender issues only in terms of promoting women in politics,” she said.
Myrzabaeva thinks there is also a need to pay more attention to rarely-addressed matters such as the sexual harassment of women in political life.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
