women's rights

WINDHOEK - The National Secretary of the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) Women’s League is of the view that corruption will drastically decrease if more capable women occupy leadership positions.

Speaking to New Era just after the official proceedings of the RDP Women’s League Central Committee meeting on Saturday, Judith Melekie said: “Women are not impulsive spenders and know how to manage finances.” 

In the world of politics today, women are still not taken seriously. 

Since 1920, our nation has come such a long way, but in what areas are we still lacking in our ability to acknowledge women as worthy opponents in the political battleground?

Watching what goes on in the world of politics, it is easy to see why women would not typically get involved.

Photos-AP and Reuters

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's appointment of a record number of women to his cabinet highlights efforts to power the economy by boosting the female workforce -- but he faces myriad challenges turning that vision into reality.

On Wednesday, Abe gave key jobs -- including the justice ministry and oversight of the embattled nuclear power sector -- to women, who now make up more than a quarter of the 18-strong cabinet.

Somali women have been facing formidable challenges and complain about marginalization in politics but they in turn played a pivotal role in securing peace deals between warring forces on the ground. Among the stumbling blocks are cultural and strict religious beliefs, lack of distant goal, psychological backwardness, rape and domestic violence.  

Following Somali state collapse in 1991, women braced up for arduous tasks by putting their lives on the frontline to make urgently pressing priorities possible and shape their own destinies.

Photo-Al Jazeera

After years of activism, Amal Basha's demands for guarantees of greater representation for women in the political system has finally edged closer to reality.

"Women have been fighting for it for a long time," said the prominent Yemeni human rights advocate, referring to the more than decade-long battle she and others have waged to secure women representation in public office in Yemen.

Photo-AFP

Some accused it of being predictable and even boring - a presidential election in which the incumbent was all but guaranteed of being re-elected without, perhaps, even the need for a second round of voting.

But then tragedy intervened and changed everything.

We simply do not know what kind of president Eduardo Campos, the presidential candidate for Brazil's Socialist Party who was killed in a plane crash last week, would have been.

A REGIONAL research body, Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU), has said although Zimbabwean women are largely marginalised, they still exerted a lot of influence through voting even in the face of serious fears about violence during elections.

STAFF REPORTER