User login
 
Leadership

Women often make natural leaders at home, in business and in the community. However, there are skills that women can gain to help them understand various styles of leadership, as well as allow them to build and perfect their own effective leadership techniques.

From the Library

Making It magazine issue on the economic empowerment of women

Charles Arthur's picture

Fourth quarter of 2011 issue of UNIDO's Making It magazine is devoted to the issue of women's economic empowerment. Articles by Michelle Bachelet, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, Zoe Elena Horn, Jan O'Sullivan, and many more.

‘Women hold up half the sky’ is a Chinese proverb affirming women’s equal contribution to the human experience but it is an aspirational, rather than a factual, claim. In developed and developing countries alike, gender gaps persist in education, health, work, wages and political participation. For this issue of Making It, the theme is gender equality and the economic empowerment of women.

As Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General, pointed out, “There is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women”.

Women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours but women earn only 10% of the world’s income, and women own less than 1% of the world’s property. Women lag far behind men in access to land, credit, and decent jobs, even though a growing body of research shows that enhancing women’s economic options boosts national economies.

Electoral System and Quotas in Nepal

The Women and Constitution Building Initiative in Nepal was initiated (June 2008) in the spirit of a newly formed Constitution Assembly (CA) which saw the election of a high percentage of women. International IDEA, together with its partners, identified a need for a greater understanding of how a constitution affects women’s lives and how women can contribute to the process of making a new constitution. Strategies were needed to support the creation of an inclusive political environment in a crucial period of Nepal’s history.

The discussion paper topics are identified by a national group of experts. These focus on the following topics: agenda setting, rules of procedure, electoral quotas and participation. Expert groups with the ability to draw on international expertise are established at the national level.
The member represents CA members, political parties, lawyers, civil society and academicians.  These groups both draw on and inform International IDEA’s gender work.

From Words to Action: Best Practices for Women's Political Participation in Latin American Political Parties

Even though women represent more than half of the voting population in many countries and have been widely incorporated into the economic sphere over the last decade, reality tells us that there is still an important gap between these advances and women's access to elected or political party positions. While considerable improvements have taken place in women's participation in political decision-making bodies, the numbers continue to show substantial levels of underrepresentation. In the eighteen Latin American countries examined in this study, there is an average of two women representative for every ten male mayors, and those countries with an Upper Chamber have less than two women Senators for every ten men.

In oder to resolve this asymmetry, and in response to the demands of socially and politically organized women - as well as the international consensus supporting them- several countries have chosen to include quota mechanisms in electoral regulations. These quotas have been functioning with greater or lesser effectiveness depending on the context and regulatory framework in which they are applied.

This manual provides political party members and leaders with the means to implement concrete strategies for achieving equality for women within party organizations and to access positions of power and representation.

More than a year of research and field work in 18 Latin American countries is condensed in this publication, which describe 95 "good practices" implemented by party organizations. It also analyzes the progress and the challenges still facing women in politics, both in the region and in each of the countries studied.

The production of an English version was undertaken by UNDP and was made possible through the generous support of the United Nation’s Development Programmes Gender Team, in the Bureau for Development Policy.

Women’s Representation in Local Government in Asia-Pacific: Going beyond National Targets in Monitoring Status for MDG 3 on Women’s Political Empowerment

More Asia Pacific countries than ever before have elected local governments and national parliaments. Despite the progress made in establishing democratic institutions in the Asia Pacifi c, women continue to participate unequally both as voters and as candidates. Equality of opportunity in politics is a human right. Despite international eff orts to strengthen the conduct of free and fair
elections throughout the world, insuffi cient attention and resources have been devoted to addressing the gap between male and female political participation.

By not measuring the percentage of women represented in sub-national governments with any MDG target, national strategies risk ignoring one of the most important arenas for women’s political participation. As part of the Millennium Project, the Task Force on Education and Gender Equality has identifi ed increasing women’s share of seats in national and local government bodies, as
one of the seven strategic priorities needed to achieve MDG 3 on gender equality2. To this end, the Task Force proposed the inclusion of an indicator (additional to the numbers of women in national parliament) on the percentage of seats held by women in local government bodies.

The local governments, through their national associations and global umbrella body, have expressed their commitment to the development, promotion and support of gender equality. The International Union of Local Authorities (IULA) sets out its Worldwide Declaration on Women in Local Government.

It is on this basis that the fi rst ever status report on Women’s Representation in Local Government in the Asia Pacific has been developed. This will contribute to the monitoring of the achievement of MDG 3 with the objective of deepening the understanding of the progress made towards goals set within the Millennium Declaration at all levels of government and all other commitments on gender equality, including international human rights obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) CEDAW and BPfA.

Sub-regional (ECOWAS) Consultation on Gender Parity in Decision Making Structures/Institutions

The African Union Commission and International IDEA launched a 5 year Joint Activity Plan (JAP) in 2008.  The Joint Activity Plan is designed to support the African Union Commission in implementing its mandate related to the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance that was adopted by the African Union in 2007. One of the stated objectives of the AU African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance is to ‘promote gender balance and equality in the governance and development processes’.   This gender component is to be implemented in line with the defined JAP objectives. 

The overall objective of the Sub-Regional Seminar is to leverage for effective measures to promote equal access in political processes and participation in decision-making by both men and women.  This concept note provides the background as well as the organizational details for this consultation and seeks to provide entry points for the discussions to be held.  The consultation will take place in November 2010 in Dakar, Senegal.

Gender, Citizenship and Governance

The information portal on Gender, citizenship and governance is an interdepartmental initiative. It is developed and managed by KIT Information and Library Services with support from KIT Development, Policy & Practice, area Social Development and Gender Equity. The target audience is formed by the global community of professionals (researchers, practitioners) involved in gender, citizenship and governance.

The information portal on Gender, citizenship and governance provides a unique entry point to free, full-text electronic publications, e-journals, e-newsletters, e-discussion groups and forums, websites, bibliographic databases, and directories of organizations and projects.

The portal brings together theoretical and practical perspectives on the interrelationships between gender, citizenship and governance. The information resources offered deal with the theory and practice of gender justice and citizenship, the responsiveness and accountability of governmental institutions to citizens, women in particular, and women’s capacity / ability to claim their rights. Themes addressed include political participation & representation, including quota's, decentralization & local government, women's rights, gender institutional mainstreaming, and gender-responsive budgeting.

One Size Does Not Fit All: Lessons Learned from Legislative Gender Commissions and Caucuses

This guide demonstrate that women’s collective efforts in the legislature are crucial not only because of their impact on public policies that effectively respond to citizens’ demands and interests, but also because of their effect on the consolidation and progress of women’s leadership. Nonetheless, cross-party work within the legislative branch faces many challenges: building consensus while maintaining equilibrium between commitment to gender issues and party visions; keeping gender issues on the public agenda; and creating a sustainable critical mass of women legislators committed to advancing a gender equality agenda.

Women in legislatures worldwide have used diverse practices to make progress on priority issues and decrease the gender gaps in their countries. This should serve as an incentive to increase the number of women in parliaments and support their efforts so they can propose actions that ensure the continuation of the achievements of their predecessors.

Gender, Poverty and Employment: Information, analysis and strategies for poverty reduction through decent work for women and men

This course, based on the ILO “Gender Poverty and Employment” approach, will help you gain a better understanding of the dimensions of poverty, and formulate gender sensitive strategies to address them. Gender-based inequalities differentiate the processes that lead women and men into poverty and out of it, and interact with race, ethnicity and other possible grounds for discrimination. Poverty can also be traced to problems in the world of work - unequal access to employment opportunities, poor working conditions, powerlessness, and economic and social insecurity.

This programme will lead you through the linkages between poverty, lack of access to and control over productive assets, and gender-based discrimination. You will see how the gender-based inequalities and discrimination in the world of work play a role in the circle of poverty and how their elimination has to be part of an integrated poverty reduction agenda.

Women's Empowerment Principles: Equality means Business

This set of Principles is intended to offer practical guidance to business and other stakeholders on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. Developed through a year-long multi-stakeholder consultation process led by UNIFEM and the UN Global Compact, the Principles are informed by actual business practices and expertise gathered from across the globe. They are designed to support companies in reviewing existing policies and practices – or establishing new ones – to realize women’s empowerment. Subtitled Equality Means Business, the Principles emphasize the business case for corporate action to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. They also reflect the interests of governments and civil society and serve to support interactions among stakeholders, as achieving gender equality requires the participation of actors at all levels.

The new wave of sexism against today's women leaders

maawuli's picture

There are still men, in this day and age, who believe that women are less competent than men and that men are superior to women. This new wave of refined sexism especially in today’s politics does not typically take the form of a 1960 blatant sexism that is deliberate, direct and visible, but comes in more subtle and covert ways. This shows that it is not only critical to enhance women’s access to opportunities and positions, but it is extremely important that solidarity mechanisms are put in place to support women in leaderships when they come under unjust attacks.