Do women help to deepen democracy? In a meeting in New Delhi on January 13–15, 2010, a range of organizations from around the world that support women’s engagement in democratic politics will review the challenge and achievements women have faced in participating in democratic politics and decision-making.This conference is hosted by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), and the United Nations Department of Political Affairs (DPA). The UN Democracy Fund http://www.un.org/democracyfund/ has been providing grants to a wide variety of civil society organizations around the world for democracy promotion activities since 2006. The questions for the e-discussion are:

1. Do women deepen democracy? Do they help to diversify power and widen the range of institutions in which participatory decision-making occurs?
2. What do democracies deliver for women? Do women have better prospects of participating in politics, or of enjoying higher social and economic status, in democracies than in other systems?
3. What obstacles do women face in engaging in democratic decision-making? The New Delhi conference will review the experiences of grantees in addressing challenges and taking advantage of opportunities in the following areas, and your thoughts and contributions on these subjects are also welcome:

• Building women’s presence (numbers) and capacity (influence) in public decision-making: How can this be done most effectively? Do quotas undermine the perceived credibility and effectiveness of women?
• Developing constituencies for gender equality: making women’s vote matter to election outcomes, building alliances with other interest groups: Good examples of enabling women to have leverage in electoral processes so that their votes are actively solicited by competing parties.
• Reversing or reforming laws and policies that permit discrimination against women (e.g. Constitutional reform): what are the key elements of constitutional reform that must be addressed to ensure that women benefit from democratic political engagement?
• Bringing gender equality concerns into accountability systems, so that watchdog institutions watch out for abuses of women’s rights: examples of women using rights to information, court systems, parliamentary oversight institutions etc to prevent or reverse decisions or behaviors of public authorities that harm women.
• Pursuing the cultural and social revolution in attitudes and practices that deny women’s power: examples of working with the media or traditional leaders to address deep seated prejudices against women holding and exercising power.