women's rights

PARLIAMENT needs to reflect the society it represents, says Fiji Women's Rights Movement's executive director Virisila Buadromo.

Explaining why it was important to support temporary special measures for women in Parliament, she said: "It is not about giving women special privileges but it is about narrowing the gap and addressing the historical discrimination women have faced in politics."

Japan's Shinzo Abe on Friday named the country's first ever female aide to the prime minister, just weeks after Caroline Kennedy arrived as the first woman US ambassador to Tokyo, AFP reports.

Makiko Yamada, a 53-year-old internal ministry veteran, will advise the conservative prime minister on policies affecting women, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.

The first time Senator Patty Murray ran for local office, she was so embarrassed to ask people for money for her campaign that she and her husband held a garage sale. But her generous husband could not stop himself from giving away an expensive lawn mower, she said, leaving the fund-raiser at a net loss.

By the time she ran for the Senate in 1992, she had gained the confidence to hold out the hat enthusiastically.

As yet another female Tory MP announces she is to stand down, the soul-searching has begun about why women still find life in the Commons so unbearable. Laura Sandys says she is leaving politics because of "family demands". But the impression given is she is part of a growing exodus of recently elected women; "rising stars" forced out tragically early by the macho posturing in parliament.

If women are to achieve equality, they need a voice and a seat at the table. It's time to set measurable goals to affect change.

When I was first elected in 1987, I was part of an increased number of women in the UK parliament, but we still comprised only 5% of MPs. Even now, more than a quarter of a century later and in a country that has long prided itself on a commitment to equality, only one in five MPs is a woman. Far from leading the way, we are languishing at the global average.

What is the appropriate role of women in political life?

Are women fundamentally different than men? How does “femininity” qualify or disqualify women from political participation?