women's rights

AP Photo/Andre Penner, Felipe Dana

Photo-Santiago Navarro F.

The emigration of men to the United States threatens indigenous systems of governance in Mexico. When men leave, the weight of activities in small towns falls on women, but despite this women are still fighting for space in the political arena.

Rebecca Naden/PA Wire

When we talk about “gender quotas”, what we really mean is quotas for women. We see the under-representation of women as the problem that needs fixing. So we try to explain why there aren’t more women in politics, then look at measures to boost women’s representation.

All too often, we measure our progress in the process of gender empowerment by counting the number of woman politicians in Parliament and Cabinet. There is also now a new dynamic in ANC politics with talk of the prospect of a woman leading the organisation and the country next. At first it looked as if President Jacob Zuma was merely being politically correct by saying South Africa could have a woman as president sooner than we think. He repeated the sentiment last week during a briefing with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.

The call for more women to participate in politics need more commitment than mere political rhetoric.

Women's role in African politics must go beyond being voters or 'airport dancers'.

Women in Parliament are better placed to fight vices like gender-based violence, child slave, sexual assault and defilement, early marriages, abortions and unfair distribution of wealth.

The population of women in Zambia is large and hence the need for fair representation in Parliament (of course not the unrealistic 50 per cent).

Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

A national meeting of Labor women has been told the government is making gender equality a tougher battle in Australia.

Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek told the convention on Saturday that a range of budget measures announced in May will work against women and used as an example the story of a single mum living in her Sydney electorate.

Women should not laugh out loud in public, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç has said while complaining about “moral corruption” in Turkey. 

Speaking during an Eid el-Fitr meeting on July 28, Arınç described his ideal of the chaste man or woman, saying they should both have a sense of shame and honor.

When 26-year-old Carol Rossetti started drawing and writing about things that bothered her, she had no idea people on opposite corners of the world would feel the same.

Her sketches of women, with accompanying stories, have gone viral in 24 languages and attracted a following of more than 91,000 people on Facebook.