Women and Politics

Photo by Desi Anwar In the recent legislative elections I had trouble picking the candidates because I was not familiar with any of them. However, since choices must be made I had to create a system that would ensure that my contribution to the country's democracy was based on a responsible if not informed decision.

For this I resorted to a gender-based choice. I figured out that since women overall were under represented in this whole exercise (there were only five women candidates for the provincial representatives in my area while for the regional parliamentary representatives often only one) the most politically correct thing would be to vote for them.

This was not only to fulfill the desired 30% female quota and increase the number of women in parliament who could be expected to fight more for women's causes and gender friendly regulations, but because I
genuinely feel that given the opportunity, women in the long run would make better representatives and show better concern for the welfare of the people than the men.

It's nothing to do with intelligence or intellectual capacity or even political skills but more to do with why people choose to become politicians to begin with.

Except for a notable few it could be said that most of the people (that is to say, the men) entering the race for parliament, do so for motives that are far from any desire to represent anything other than their own interests. These motives most likely range from status, power, opportunity to amass fortune, wield influence or simply to get
a job.

With very little educational qualifications or leadership skills required to become a legislative candidate other than the ability to garner some support for the party, practically anybody from all walks of life, educational and economic backgrounds could become candidates and dream of having the distinguished appellation of 'Honorable Members' and make decisions on how the country is run.

Honour however, is often far from being the candidates' salient feature. The thing is, seeing that our society defines the role of men in terms of power, wealth and status, therefore any pursuit for achievement in most men who are still far from possessing any of these symbols of success - be it material comfort, position and social
influence - would be motivated first and foremost by these things.

For instance, the first thing an unemployed or economically disadvantaged candidate would likely do when he gets voted in, is not to improve the people's welfare but his own, then his family's and friends and everyone else to whom he is indebted before it would occur to him to think of the well being of his constituents.

He would not care a jot whether he would get re-elected after five years or not as while the term is too short for him to make any significant good to the public, five years is sufficient enough time in which to multiply his wealth and earn him a sizable pension that would set him up for life.

The overriding importance for this type of candidate is to inflate his ego. That's why when he does not succeed the effect is either a big blow to his self esteem or self delusion if he's invested all his resources to achieve it, or a denial that his failure is related to who he is or his performance.

When women enter politics however, it is most likely for a different reason. To begin with, without the burden of having to succeed or the pressure to be somebody in society, any achievement made outside the domestic area for a woman is usually viewed as a bonus, a by the way or an anomaly.

Society after all does not measure her in terms of wealth, power and status. If she has any of these, the chances are either she has inherited it or overcame a lot of challenges in order to attain it which makes her probably smarter than her peers. Either way, when she decides to enter politics it's probably because she wants to
accomplish something greater than fanning her ego or carve a living for herself or her family.

This is probably wishful thinking on my part, but given the opportunity and the support, women entrusted with public
responsibility are more likely to shoulder it with an attitude of 'what can I do with it? as opposed to 'what can I get out of it?'. In other words the same attitude as she would with domestic responsibility in which she would put her family's interests before her own.

Unfortunately politics is still very much a men's world of unscrupulous wheeling and dealing requiring entrenched cynicism, a very thick skin and very little principles or values of any kind other than serving the party's or the self's personal interests. A world most women regard as too dirty and too competitive.

Fortunately more and more bright young women nowadays see competition and difficulties not as something to be avoided but as challenges to be welcomed as part of her personal development.

And when these women do manage to beat their male counter part in the race fair and square, the chances are they would use their power and influence not as an end in themselves but as a means to achieve a greater good and make a positive difference to their communities.