Women’s Election to Public Offices: A Critical Hint For the Enhancement of Governance in Liberia By: Joey T. Kennedy; Cell: +231-886-594-158; email: josephtnkennedy@yahoo/joe.tn.kennedy@gmail Published in the Tuesday February 18, 2014 Edition of the Analyst, Heritage and New Dawn Newspapers Liberian women, like most women around the world, constitute the majority of the poor, unemployed, and the dispossessed. These constraints are enforced by political, social and cultural hurdles that have altered their quest to be mainstreamed in political activities, especially representation in parliament and other elective positions. In comparison to their male counterparts, Liberian women have up until now, been under-represented in government, especially elective public positions. This situation of women is however not endemic to Liberia given the total representation level of women in elective positions in Africa. Statistics released in November 2013 by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), an organization that monitors women’s participation in national parliaments around the world, put the total representation of women in parliaments in Africa at a marginal 20.3 %, even though they constitute more than half of the total population of the Continent. According to the statistics, Rwanda holds the Number One position in the World with 63.8% female representation in Parliament, while Andorra and Cuba take Number Two and Three Positions with women parliamentary representation rate at 50% and 49.9%, respectively. South Africa stands at 42.3 %, Uganda 35%, Ghana 10%, Sierra Leone 12.4%, Gambia 7.5%, Nigeria 6.7%, Kenya 18.6%, Morocco 17.7%, Libya 16.5%, Togo 15.5%, Cameroun 31% and the world’s newest country, South Sudan, 26.5%. The IPU figures put Liberia at the 108th place out of 188 countries. This ranking is attributable to the reduction in the representation of women in both the Houses of Senate and Representatives. Following the 2005 Legislative and Presidential Elections, women occupied 17 of the 94 seats in the 52nd Legislature. The election of 2011 however saw a reduction in the number of female representation in the Legislature to 13 seats or 11%, even though the total number of seats in the Legislature has increased to 103. This is an unwelcomed development for the women of our country because it is quintessentially noteworthy to acknowledge the importance of electing women to public offices, principally because, Female representatives are not only inclined to advancing issues of women’s rights, they also advocate for equitable distribution of community resources, including more gender-sensitive spending on programs related to health, nutrition, and education. Experience has shown that in national legislatures, women are more inclined to advancing gender and family-friendly legislation than their male counterparts. This positivism has been seen in France, Sweden, the Netherlands, South Africa, Rwanda, and Egypt. Furthermore, a number of studies from both industrialized and developed countries indicate that women in local government tend to advance social issues. The Human capabilities approach, in which individuals are empowered to choose the functioning that they deem valuable, is the notion in which women’s empowerment is rooted. Globally, the visibility of Liberian women was foreshadowed by the election, in 2005, of Africa and Liberia’s first elected female President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and the winning in 2011 of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize by two acclaimed Liberian Women (President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee). The issue of women’s participation in governance also became a concern when President Sirleaf at her acquisition of the Presidency in 2006, declared that women had a future in her administration and Liberian politics. As a result, several women have and continue to be appointed to high-profile positions in government-Finance, Commerce, Agriculture, Education, Public Works, Gender, Labor, Justice, NPA, the Supreme Court Bench, and the National Elections Commission (NEC). Female Ambassadors have also been appointed to Belgium, China, Germany, the Nordic countries, Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa while the Former and Current Mayors of Monrovia and the first post-war Inspector-General of the Liberia National Police are women. Currently, 6 of the 15 county superintendents of Liberia (Nimba, Bong, Bassa, Grand Kru, Montserrado and Maryland) are women while the former Chairman of the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission and Former Acting Chairman of the NEC are women. Even though women are seemingly acquiring visibility in government in our country, the challenge and ultimate predicament are contained in the conspicuous fact that these are positions of appointment rather than elective positions. If Liberian women must be given much space and visibility, their participation in the political process must be dependent on the will of the people and not the will of governments or appointing authorities. This is the principle that must guide all Liberians in the petition to ensure gender equality and equity in all spheres of public life in our country.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Feb 2014 09:49:50 +0000
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