[twitter style=”horizontal” source=”@intlpolitical” float=”left”] [fbshare type=”button”] Democracy is an ongoing concept which has redefined itself at various times throughout history. Although it is not the ideal political system, in theory (not necessarily in practice) it enables different groups (women, men, minorities) in our societies to act and gain representation in government. Bear in mind that those in power will put up a fight against this. Duverger pointed out that: ‘to give a post to a woman is to deprive a man of it…’ This author directed the pioneering study of IPSA/UNESCO: The Political Role of Women, in 1952. It was the first research which main focus was women’s political behaviour. Not only was it was an outstanding exception because of the object of analysis, but because the 1950s were considered the patriarchal apogee.
The aim of this article is to provide an insight of how the dysfunction of the concept of democracy is a failure of understanding that Democracy is a men’s’ construction. And for this we need to understand the relationship between men and women. Renowned authors in the area of Political Science such as Dahl or Sartori have claimed that: ‘they saw no diminution in the claim of democracy made by states which withheld the vote from women altogether’ (1956). And this raises questions of whether there is a link between gender inequality and the fact that it was men who established the concept of democracy and representation, and of course, the laws by which we all abide.
Women until relatively recently have been awarded the full category of citizens. And yet they affirm that we are less competitive than men as citizens. What do they expect? While white middle-class men have been exercising this right for decades, women were still confined to the domestic shores without the opportunity to act for themselves and they were made believed that their opinions were of no value. In those countries like the UK were women could vote in the 50’s, unfortunately if they were married they would vote the same as their husband. Women’s voice has been ignored and many women have been mute for too long and until the 1970 when the second feminist wave in the UK took place and proved that women had a voice.
Now we are aware that power and limited resources are one of the major reasons for gender inequality in Europe. Is not only that man is psychologically and biologically different than women but what has an immense impact on understanding why we, women, are now where we are it advocates the least admirable traits of all human beings: selfishness and greed. In other words, men do not will to share power or resources with us. So for those who reject positive discrimination such as quotas, reflex and analyze these measures and question why in those countries such as Norway or Denmark, where they applied compulsory temporary quotas, posses the lowest rates of gender inequality in political parties and in most of the government institutions. And ask how in the countries reticent towards quotas such as the UK the number of women in political institutions can even be considered antidemocratic.
So we can grasp that gender inequality is a delicate idea which is framed within the past. Unfortunately, is a wicked problem which involves a rather slow process and the main possible medication to cure it is a quite abstract concept and presents the difficulty of visibility and understanding, we are talking about: AWARENESS. Not only awareness of the problem itself but about self-consciousness and our relationship with others who we considered strange, different and why not some would agree inferior.
The fact that women have not been exercising their fully democratic rights until recently has come down to a matter of time and resources. An example of this can be seen in the Liberal Democrats party. There is a parallel organisation of women Lib Dem and they are providing training to women who wish to become leaders and participate more actively within the party. This programme is called Inspiration Days and it started Saturday 7th of July in London. This only proves that capabilities do not depend of the sex (male-female), race or class but is a question of resources: time, money, education, etc. and awareness. So next time you hear a women assuming that she cannot do something and that men will do it better, tell her that Yes, she can do it and even better than others. And this is another point that needs to be addressed, Confidence. But due to the lack of space I will present the assumptions and positions towards this characteristic in the next article.
In short, the past has marked the path the present will follow, however, with the adequate resources, women will be able to decide what they want their lives to be in the future.
I believe that we have come along way since the birth of gender equality.
Although I do realise that we are still living in a prodominatly male driven society, which in a sense can be the cause of a fragment of the female gender?
Still to this day women would rather not undertake the role of what could be classed as a stereo typical role well known with the male gender.
Even though we have come along way and yet we still have a long way to go, I truly think that women should perhaps adopt a firmer stance to see quicker results.
First of all thank you for your comment.
I would like to suggest that it is not all about adopting a firmer stance as gender is culturally rooted and to even try and modify a culture is a rather slow process because of all the variables that need to be tackled. However, there is even a more complex issue, the psychological. Some authors have noted that gender exists before any culture, is to say, it starts when you are born, and once the individual grows up, the culture reproduces and maintains gender in each of us (this is only a brief explanation but it is more complex than this).
As you can see is a rather complex and multi-layered phenomenon for which I believe there is not a fast or a unique solution. It will require time, resources and an interdisciplinary approach. And above all to make it visible,in other words, to make both sexes aware that Gender exists in every discipline and sector even in those areas where men affirm that there is gender equality.
NB if you are interested in these theme I could provide you with a list of authors that you could read, just let me know.
Dear Lina,
I would like to start by congratulating you on your article.
It is written with great complexity, in fact so complex I had to read it twice! ☺
As a firm believer that pretty much all aspects of today’s gender issues are culturally rooted we can see that it perhaps stems from what we all know as the big bang. Millions of years ago we had the first homosapians walking the lands, the men of course being the domient species. This trait has followed suit.
Looking at it from a religious perspective, everyone who believes follows and worships a man whether it be god or his son.
Women of course are well within there rights to fight for equality and on most aspects are equal, but men will always be a dominant species, always have been and always will be. From animals, humans and spirits this is something we will have to accept.