Women empowerment

In 1985, I made it to the front page of The Herald newspaper. It was a photo of me wearing a big smile, shaking President Robert Mugabe’s hand during the five-year independence celebrations. This roused my dream to one day become a politician and lead the country. 

We invite our users to read the full article published September 18 2013

Tony Abbott's cabinet in Canberra is running short on girl power, but it's the sisters who continue to run the show in the Mackay region.

With 18 blokes and only one woman, Mr Abbott's choice of LNP frontbenchers has been heavily criticised for a lack of female representatives.

Mackay Regional Council Mayor Deirdre Comerford said, regardless of the sex, time would be the only way to tell if Mr Abbott's choices were worthy.

In the year that New Zealand marks 120 years since women won the vote, the number of women vying for local body seats is stagnating.

Nationally, only 30 per cent of candidates are women, a number that has been the same since 2004 after dropping from a high of 32 per cent in 2001.

That was despite the number of women standing steadily increasing from 22 per cent in 1989, and just 3 per cent - and none elected - when records began in 1959.

Liberal senator Sue Boyce has criticised as ''shocking and embarrassing'' the appointment of only one woman to the new federal cabinet. Only foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop made it into the 19-member cabinet announced by prime minister-elect Tony Abbott on Monday.

Women in politics are treated differently. To be a good politician, you have to be capable of getting on with the job in the face of criticism. But I am deeply worried that the level of gender-based attacks female politicians have been subjected to in recent years sets the bar too high for women to want to participate in government.

We invite our users to read the full article published September 16 2013

Politician and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton once said, “Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world.”

Fictional "Parks and Recreation" politician Leslie Knope once said, “Maybe it’s time for more women to be in charge.” And then probably said something about waffles.

While perhaps the real-world influence of these two women is disparate (one a fictional television character, the other a diplomat who has traveled to and managed relations in over 112 countries), the messages of both ring true.

Rwandans will vote next week in parliamentary elections set to bring women to the forefront. Rwanda has the world’s highest proportion of female political representatives and it’s an achievement women are determined to build on.

Marie Médiatrice Izabiliza carefully lays the table in her family home in the Kabuga neighbourhood outside the Rwandan capital of Kigali, setting down china cups, teapot and fruit before settling down to talk.

A new study shows that women are less likely than men to participate in political corruption, but only in countries where corruption is stigmatized.

Researchers from Rice University in Houston found that women are less tolerant of corrupt behavior, but only in democratic governments, where political corruption is typically punished — either by the courts or by voters.

“The relationship between gender and corruption appears to depend on context,” said Justin Esarey, Ph.D., an assistant professor of political science and the study’s lead author.

Russia is known for being a patriarchal country, but despite considerable barriers, some women leaders have managed to reach high levels in the political hierarchy.

Women make up only 13 percent of deputies in the Russian State Duma (61 seats out of 450, following the 2012 national elections), and at the federal level, their representation is even lower - at 6 percent.