Governing in a Global World: Women in Public Service 2017031373, 9781138925632, 9781138297784, 9781317406877, 9781317406860, 9781315683676

Citation preview

GOVERNING IN A GLOBAL WORLD

Governing in a Global World captures the panorama of women governing around the world. Even though the modern era marks history’s greatest advancements for women, worldwide they hold fewer than 30 percent of decision-making positions in government and are often missing from negotiating tables where policies are made and conflicts resolved.The opening chapters present trends and context for studying women in public service by focusing on path-setters across the globe, the status of women in the world’s executive and legislative bodies, and their participation in public service across several nations. Later chapters examine power, leadership, and representation of women in public service, with several chapters looking at women governing from a regional perspective in the Middle East, Sub Sahara Africa, Latin America, and China. The final chapter presents empirical evidence that shows how policies to increase women’s representation in the public arena reduce gender inequality more than any other policy intervention. Taken together, the chapters illustrate the worldwide importance of, and challenges to, promoting gender equality and women governing. Maria J. D’Agostino is Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Public Management at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She is also a member of the UNDP roster of experts in Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Public Administration and co-founder of Women in the Public Sector at John Jay College. She is the guest editor of the Women and Public Administration Symposium recently published in Administration & Society and is a recipient of the Faculty Mid-Career Research Award. Marilyn Marks Rubin is a professor at John Jay College of the City University of New York and is Director of the College’s MPA Program. She has been a consultant on fiscal policy, economic development, and strategic planning for US municipal, state, and federal entities and has authored several publications on fiscal policy and budget-related issues. Rubin is a Fellow in the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA).

GOVERNING IN A GLOBAL WORLD Women in Public Service

Edited by Maria J. D’Agostino and Marilyn Marks Rubin

First published 2018 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Taylor & Francis The right of Maria J. D’Agostino and Marilyn Marks Rubin to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: D’Agostino, Maria J., editor. | Rubin, Marilyn M. (Marilyn Marks), 1940- editor. Title: Governing in a global world: women in public service / Maria J. D’Agostino and Marilyn Marks Rubin, editors. Description: New York, NY: Routledge, 2018. Identifiers: LCCN 2017031373| ISBN 9781138925632 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138297784 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781317406877 (epub) | ISBN 9781317406860 (mobipocket/kindle) Subjects: LCSH: Women in public life. | Women public officers. | Women legislators. | Women–Political activity. | Women politicians. Classification: LCC HQ1390.G68 2018 | DDC 320.082–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017031373 ISBN: 978-1-138-92563-2 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-29778-4 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-68367-6 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Sunrise Setting Ltd, Brixham, UK

CONTENTS

List of figures List of tables List of contributors Preface 1 Women in Public Service: A Long Slow Path to Gender Equality Marilyn Marks Rubin

vii viii x xiv

1

2 A Global Comparison of Women in the Workforce: Moving toward Innovative Solutions Helisse Levine and Maria J. D’Agostino

19

3 Changing Perspectives on Women in Public Service: A Short History of Attitudes and Practices Camilla Stivers

33

4 Breaking the Mold: Women as International Leaders Mary E. Guy and Samantha J. Larson 5 Gender Equality and the Ballot Box: The Global Situation of Women Legislators Silvana Koch-Mehrin

48

75

vi

Contents

6 Women as Public Sector Leaders: A Long Way from Gender Parity Uschi Schreiber

88

7 Equality for Women in Sub Sahara Africa: Still a Long Road to Travel Sebawit G. Bishu

109

8 Latin American Women in Public Service: Progress, But Not Yet Equality Melissa Gomez Hernandez

125

9 Women in Leadership Positions in the Middle East: A Region of Gender Equality Paradoxes Ghada Barsoum

143

10 Women Governing: The Egyptian Perspective

155

Laila El Baradei 11 Women Governing in China: Not Yet Holding Up Half the Sky Marilyn Marks Rubin and Wenxuan Yu

168

12 Women in International NGOs: Status, Challenges, and Opportunities Shamima Ahmed

189

13 Time to Care: Paid Family Leave as Baseline Support for Gender Equality in Employment Deborah Brennan and Sue Williamson

199

14 Institutional Mechanisms for Advancing Gender Equity in Educating for the Public Service Nadia Rubaii

213

15 Gender Equity Worldwide: Where We Are and Where to From Here? Sharon Mastracci

231

Appendices Index

244 264

FIGURES

1.1 2.1 4.1 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 9.1 11.1 11.2 11.3

Portfolios Held by Female Ministers, 2015 Public and Private Sector Employment, 2010 History of United Nations and Women Path Setters The Six Megatrends G20 Members, Percentages of Women in Senior Public Sector Roles and All Women in Public Sector Roles, 2015 Cluster 1 Countries: Percentage of Women across Four Leadership Indices Cluster 2 Countries: Percentage of Women across Four Leadership Indices Cluster 3 Countries: Percentage of Women across Four Leadership Indices Female and Male Labor Market Participation across the MENA Region Gender Representation in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, 1956–2012 Gender Representation: National People’s Congress, 1954–2013 Gender Representation in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, 1954–2013

9 25 52 91 93 94 96 98 146 174 176 178

TABLES

1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 2.1 2.2 4.1 5.1 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 8.1 8.2 8.3 11.1 13.1

Women’s Share of US Federal Government Employees Selected Years, 1964–2015 Gender Parity Index by State, 2015 Women’s Share of US State Government Employees, Selected Years, 1964–2015 Woman’s Share of US Local Government Employees Selected Years, 1964–2015 Women in the Labor Force in the US Selected Years, 1900–2014 Women as a Percentage of the US Labor Force Selected Years, 1900–2014 Characteristics of Path Setters Percentage of Countries with Gender Quotas, by Type of Electoral Rules Human Development Index SSA Country Ranking, 2014 Gender Inequality Index SSA Country Ranking, 2014 Female Labor Force Participation Rate SSA Countries, 2014 Women in Ministerial Positions, SSA Countries, 2015 Women in Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament, SSA Countries, 2016 Female Ministers in Latin America, 2016 Women in Parliament: Lower or Single House, 2016 Increases Over Time in Legislative Representation of Women Gender and Administrative Ranks in Hangzhou City, 2011 Level of Paid Parental Leave in the Australian Public Sector

3 5 6 7 21 23 50 80 110 113 114 117 118 132 133 135 179 209

Tables

14.1 14.2 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 A1.1 A1.2 A5.1 A5.2 A5.3 A10.1 A12.1 A15.1 A15.2 A15.3

Public Service Program Accreditors and Gender-Related Criteria Accreditation Mechanisms to Promote Gender Equity: Comparison among Professions Indicators of Women in Public Service, Sub Sahara Africa Countries, 2015 Health, Education, and Economic Indicators for Women in Sub Sahara Africa Countries, 2015 Indicators of Women in Public Service, Latin America Countries, 2015 Health, Education, and Economic Indicators for Women in Latin America Countries, 2015 Indicators of Women in Public Service, MENA Countries, 2015 Health, Education, and Economic Indicators for Women in MENA Countries, 2015 Chronological List of Elected Women Presidents (1940–2016) Chronological List of Women Prime Ministers (1960–2016) World Chronology of Recognition of Women’s Right to Vote, by Country Women in National Parliaments as of June 2016 Gender Quotas Around the World Women in Egypt: Statistics and Figures Summary Findings from Phase 1 Variables in Regression Analysis Descriptive Statistics in Regression Model Regression Results

ix

222 227 234 235 237 238 239 240 244 246 248 251 255 257 258 259 261 262

CONTRIBUTORS

Shamima Ahmed is Professor and Chair in the Department of Political Science, Criminal Justice, and Organizational Leadership, North Kentucky University, USA. Her teaching and research interests lie in nonprofit management, NGOs, and human resource management. She has published in a wide range of peerreviewed journals and is the author/co-author of two books on nonprofit organizations. She serves on nonprofit boards and has authored technical reports for government and nonprofit agencies. Ghada Barsoum is an assistant professor at the Department of Public Policy and Administration at the American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt. Her current research interests include youth employment, gender, and higher education. She is the author of a book on the employment crisis of female graduates in Egypt and of more than 20 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports. Sebawit G. Bishu is an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Denver, USA, School of Public Affairs (SPA). Her research interests include equal employment opportunity and diversity in public sector human resource management, gender and representation in public organizations, and social justice and equity issues in urban transformation. Deborah Brennan is Professor in the Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC), University of New South Wales and adjunct Professor in the Centre for Children and Young People (CCYP), Southern Cross University, Australia. Her research focuses on gender and public policy, especially the history and politics of family policy. Much of her research is international and comparative and she has active research collaborations with partners in several countries.

Contributors

xi

Maria J. D’Agostino is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Public Management at John Jay College of the City University of New York, USA, where she is a co-founder of Women in the Public Sector. She is co-editing the forthcoming Administration & Society Women and Public Administration symposium and is a recipient of ASPA’s Section for Women in Public Administration Distinguished Research Award. She is on the UNDP roster of experts in Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Public Administration. Mary E. Guy is Professor of Public Administration in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado, Denver, USA. Her research focuses on public administration in general and on the human processes involved in public service delivery. Author of numerous books and articles, she has written widely about the difference that gender makes. She is past president of the American Society for Public Administration and a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Melissa Gomez Hernandez is a PhD candidate in Public Administration at Florida International University, USA. She is a political scientist and has a master’s degree in Political Studies. Originally from Colombia, she is a Fulbright scholar with a Fulbright-Colciencias scholarship, cohort 2013. She studies inequalities regarding gender, sexual orientation, socio economic status, and race. Laila El Baradei is Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research for the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (GAPP) and Professor of Public Administration at the Public Policy and Administration Department, the American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt. Her research interests include public administration reform, governance, child labor, downsizing, and accountability. She has been a consultant to several international organizations including the World Bank and UNDP. Silvana Koch-Mehrin is the Founder of the Women in Parliaments Global Forum (WIP), the worldwide network of female politicians. She was a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2014, and Vice-President of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2011. She is a Member of the Advisory Board of the Council of Women World Leaders (CWWL), EU Representative to the Executive Board of W20, and Alumni of the Young Global Leaders Network of the World Economic Forum. Samantha J. Larson is a PhD candidate and research assistant in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado, Denver, USA. Her research interests include social equity, community resilience, and the impact of policy and implementation on women and minorities. She also works as a research analyst for the Department of Labor Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant Program.

xii

Contributors

Helisse Levine is Associate Professor and Director of the MPA Program at Long Island University’s School of Business, Public Administration and Information Sciences in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She has contributed to many public and health administration and finance journals and is co-editor of the Handbook of Local Government Fiscal Health, and Women in Public Administration: Theory and Practice. She is a receipient of ASPA’s Section on Women in Public Administration (SWPA) Distinguished Research Award. Sharon Mastracci is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Utah, USA. Her research has focused on women in public administration and gendered organizations, emotional labor in public service, and human resource management. She was a 2014–2015 Fulbright Scholar to the UK and is a faculty fellow at the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah. Nadia Rubaii is Associate Professor of Public Administration in the College of Community and Public Affairs at Binghamton University, State University of New York, USA. She has served as president of NASPAA in 2010–2011 and as chair of the Commission on Peer Review and Accreditation. Her research focuses on governance challenges and educating for the public service to meet those challenges, and it regularly appears in several journals and edited volumes with professional and university presses. Marilyn Marks Rubin is a professor at John Jay College of the City of New York, USA, where she was Director of the MPA Program for 25 years. She has authored several publications on fiscal policy and budget-related issues, and was an advisor to the Korean Woman’s Development Institute on gender-budgeting. She is a Fellow in the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) and a recipient of ASPA’s Section for Women in Public Administration Distinguished Research Award. Camilla Stivers has had a multi-decade career as a practitioner and academic in public administration. She has published numerous articles and books including Bureau Men Settlement Women (2000) and Governance in Dark Times (2008), a co-winner of the NAPA Brownlow Book Award. She is editor of a public administration book series for University of Alabama Press, entitled “Public Administration: Criticism and Creativity,” and she is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Uschi Schreiber is EY’s Global Vice Chair for Markets and Chair of its Global Accounts Committee. She is recognized as a diversity and inclusiveness leader globally and is the founder of EY’s Worldwide Women’s Public Sector Leader Network, with more than 1,500 members. She is an advisory board member of

Contributors

xiii

the Women in Parliaments Global Forum initiative and sits on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government. Sue Williamson is a Lecturer in Human Resource Management at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Her recent research has focused on work and family issues, including paid parental leave in the public sector. She has also examined collective bargaining, examining impacts on working conditions and employees as well as the role of public sector unions, and published widely on these areas. Yu Wenxuan is an assistant professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU). He is the former chair of ASPA’s Section on Chinese Public Administration (ASPA) and associate editor of the Chinese Public Administration Review. His research interests include comparative public administration, public sector performance management, open government information, and women in public administration. He has published in several international journals.

PREFACE

Women are entering government and assuming political roles in growing numbers worldwide. Yet, while comprising about half the population, they account for just 22 percent of national legislatures, and only 147 women have been elected President or Prime Minister in countries around the world since 1940. In almost all countries, women are significantly outnumbered by men in leadership positions at every level of government and are often missing from negotiating tables where conflicts are resolved despite the fact that the modern era marks history’s greatest advancement for women in governance. As a result of this gender gap, women are not fully participating in decisions that affect their lives and livelihoods, and nations are not capitalizing on the potential of half their citizens. Governments around the world are grappling with increasingly complex, systemic issues resulting from globalization, interconnected economies, increasing inequality, urbanization, demographic shifts, threats of global pandemics, and climate change. It is generally recognized that diversity in experience and thinking stimulates innovation and enhances problem-solving and decision-making with regard to these and related issues. It is, however, also generally recognized that there is a long road to travel before leadership in public service reflects the gender diverse societies in which governments and nonprofit organizations operate and serve. The importance of advancing women’s leadership in the public service continues to gain traction. This is especially true for women’s participation in the political arena and the status of women in political leadership positions. The same level of attention has not, however, been given to the role and impact of women’s participation in non-elected positions in the public service. A critical mass of women in public administration, especially in senior decision-making positions, is important not only for equity reasons, but also because it brings diversity in perspectives to policy and the decision-making process.

Preface

xv

The book will contribute to an understanding of (1) the evolution of the role of women in public service; (2) the current status of, and challenges to, women’s participation in governing worldwide; and (3) steps taken and that still need to be taken for women to achieve gender parity in governing, globally. Each chapter in the book takes a unique look at women in the public service. It begins with Rubin’s overview of women’s long slow path to gender equality in governing. Levine and D’Agostino then provide the context in which women in public service can be studied. They show that worldwide, women are underrepresented at top levels of government and continue to hit glass ceilings and walls preventing their equal participation in the decision-making process. Stivers follows with an overview of changing perspectives on women and highlights how gender has shaped the evolution of women’s participation in public service. The next chapter by Guy and Larson gives women’s contributions to public service a personal touch, presenting the lives of ten legendary women who have been path-setters across the globe. Koch-Mehrin’s chapter provides a comprehensive look at the status of women in legislative bodies around the world and discusses the challenges to women’s political participation. Schreiber broadens the discussion by measuring the extent of women’s participation in public service across several nations. The next segment of the book focuses on women governing in different regions and countries. Taken together, these chapters illustrate the challenges to promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, worldwide. Bishu writes about women leaders in public service in Sub Sahara Africa and how the region is rapidly becoming a leader in women’s parliamentary representation. Gomez looks at women in leadership positions in Latin America, focusing on how quotas have helped women to gain political traction in countries with long histories of patriarchal rule. Barsoum identifies several paradoxes related to women governing in Arab countries despite similarities of religion and language. El Baradei provides insight on women in leadership positions in Egypt, the most populated Middle Eastern country. Writing about China, Rubin and Yu conclude that women do not even hold up one-quadrant of the sky despite numerous proactive laws adopted by the government to promote gender equality. The role of women in INGOs is outlined by Ahmed who provides evidence that although women account for close to 75 percent of all nonprofit workers, they are nowhere near gender parity at either the executive or board levels. Brennan and Williamson contribute an overview of the nature, scale, and extent of paid parental leave across OECD countries. Providing a different but related perspective, Rubaii looks at organizations that accredit public administration programs and how they can advance women’s opportunities for leadership in governance on a global scale. Finally, Mastracci poses the question, where to from here? She reviews the status of women’s equality in countries and regions discussed throughout the book and identifies the most important factors contributing to women’s participation in governing around the world.

xvi

Preface

We hope you enjoy this book and that it provides a lens through which to view the status of today’s women with regard to governing worldwide. We also hope that the book gives you a telescopic view that sees a rosier perspective for women governing in the future.

1 WOMEN IN PUBLIC SERVICE A Long Slow Path to Gender Equality Marilyn Marks Rubin

Women are entering government and assuming political roles in growing numbers worldwide.Yet, in almost all countries, they are significantly outnumbered by men in leadership positions at every level of government and are often missing from negotiating tables where conflicts are resolved. To coin a well-used description, women continue to get stuck on sticky floors and to bump up against glass ceilings and walls preventing their equal participation in decisions affecting their lives and those of their families, their communities, and their countries. This chapter provides an overview of women in the public service in the US and in other countries around the world. It begins with a brief history of women in governance with a focus on those in elected positions in the US. The next section looks at women in elected positions globally, followed by a discussion of women in non-elected senior positions in governments in selected countries.The final section looks at international initiatives to increase women’s participation in public service leadership. The chapter concludes with observations related to the progress of women over time and whether their growing political involvement makes a difference.

Women in Governance: A Brief History of the US Experience Until the beginning of the 20th century, with few exceptions, governments did not permit women to vote, neither were they permitted to run for political office. In the US, women were not given the right to vote under the US Constitution until 1920.1 This did not, however, mean that women were uninvolved in governance before then, first in voluntary activities and then as paid government employees. As far back as the late 18th century, women were forming voluntary associations to assist in the Revolutionary War effort (Ahrendt, 2014). John Adams

2

Marilyn Marks Rubin

failed to heed the advice of his wife,Abigail, to “remember the ladies” when drafting the Declaration of Independence. But, the Continental Congress remembered them when it selected Mary Goddard, Postmaster in Baltimore, Maryland, to print the first edition of the Declaration with her signature on it. She and another female Postmaster are generally cited as the first women to be employed by the US federal government (Rubin, 1990). But, as the Civil Service Commission (CCC) describes in its history of federal careers for women: Although there were a few women postmasters appointed before 1800, the employment of women by the Government was generally looked upon with great disfavor until after the Civil War . . . the mere presence of women in public offices was regarded by many as a gross affront to propriety. (US Civil Service Commission, 1964, p. 4) During the civil war, ladies’ aid societies were organized once again to assist in the war effort on both sides of the conflict. Women also joined volunteer brigades – some disguised as men – and worked as nurses for the Confederate and Union armies. Women also acted as spies for the North and the South. Their civil war involvement marked “the first time in American history that women played a significant role in a war effort” (MacClean, 2015). Most women returned to domestic life after the war, but not all. Informed by the growing suffrage movement, many began to see the possibility of working outside of the home. It was during this time that the first statutory recognition of the employment of women by the federal government came with a law establishing a maximum salary of $600 a year for women clerks – about half the salary for men (Rubin, 1990).This was the position for which the Department of the Treasury had pioneered in hiring women beginning in 1862 (US Civil Service Commission, 1964). Greater opportunities for women’s employment in the federal government would not really come until the enactment of the Pendleton Act of 1883, establishing merit as a foundation for civil service employment (Rubin, 1990). The Act “made it possible for women to compete for employment on equal terms with men . . . A young woman, a graduate of Vassar, was the second person to be appointed from a civil service examination” (US Civil Service Commission, 1964, p. 4). During World War I, women again participated in voluntary organizations to aid the war effort.They also served in the Navy and Marines and as nurses, as well as in low level government positions vacated by men who left to serve in the armed forces. During the war, the US Department of Labor (DOL) created the Women in Industry Service that would later become the Women’s Bureau in 1920. DOL gave the Bureau “the authority to investigate and report . . . upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of women in industry” (DOL, n.d.).The Bureau was, and still is, the only federal agency whose sole focus is women. During its first year, the Bureau investigated:

Women in Public Service

3

[t]he extent to which women were permitted to take examinations for federal government positions, finding that only 40 percent of the examinations were open to women, with the prevailing entrance salaries much lower than those paid to men . . . Within ten days of the bureau submitting its report Women in the Government Service (1920) to the Civil Service Commission, the Commission passed a ruling opening all examinations to both men and women. (Manzano-Diaz, 2010) By 1939, just before the onset of World War II, women accounted for 19 percent of all federal employees.The proportion of women in federal government employ tripled from June 1941 to June 1943 as women filled the jobs vacated by men who were fighting the war. By 1945, women accounted for 37 percent of the total federal government workforce (Rubin, 1990). But, most so-called “government girls” had to relinquish their jobs when the war ended because the men they replaced had the right to reclaim their vacated positions (National Woman’s History Museum (NWHM), 2007). By 1947, two years after the war ended, the proportion of women in the federal workforce dropped back to less than 25 percent (Rubin, 1990). In 1964, almost 20 years later, women continued to account for 22 percent of all federal government employees (see Table 1.1). It was not until the mid-1970s that women as a proportion of all federal government workers would pass 30 percent. By 1985, women accounted for 41.5 percent of all federal employees. This proportion increased marginally over the next three decades, with women comprising 44.3 percent of the federal workforce in 2015.

TABLE 1.1 Women’s Share of US Federal Government

Employees Selected Years, 1964–2015 Year

% of total

1964 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

22.2 22.5 26.2 29.0 37.9 41.5 43.1 43.6 43.0 43.1 44.5 44.3

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

4

Marilyn Marks Rubin

Women in US Subnational Governments The participation of women in state and local government employment in the US also dates back to the early decades of this country’s history (Rubin, 1990). But it was not until the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified in 1920 – giving women in all the states the right to vote – that significant numbers of women began to enter the employ of state and local governments. The first woman governor of a US state was Nellie Taylor Ross who served as governor of Wyoming from 1925 to 1927, completing the term of her husband who died while in office (CAWP, 2016). Interestingly,Wyoming was the first state to give women the right to vote even before it gained statehood in 1890. Since Ross, 36 other women have served as state governors (CAWP, 2016). In 2015, six of the 50 state governors were women. Arizona is the first state where a woman succeeded another woman as governor, and the first state to have had four women governors. Of the 37 women governors, 25 were first elected in their own right; 3 replaced their husbands, and 9 became governor by constitutional succession, three of whom subsequently won full terms. The record number of women serving simultaneously, achieved in 2004 and again in 2007, is 9. (CAWP, 2016) In addition to serving as governors, women also hold other high level elected positions in state government such as lieutenant governor and attorney general. But they continue to lag behind men in their representation in these positions.The lack of gender parity in state government has been documented in the “Gender Parity Index.” The Index was constructed by Representation 2020 – a women’s advocacy group – to measure women’s representation in state elective offices. If a state has a score lower than 50, women are underrepresented in elected office in that state, and if it has a score above 50, men are underrepresented. A state with a score of 50, which means that men have earned 50% of the points and women have earned the other 50%, has reached gender parity in elected office. (Representation 2020, n.d.) In 2015, New Hampshire was the one state scoring above 50 on the Index (see Table 1.2), making it the only state with gender parity for women in elected office. Of note, the ten states with the lowest gender parity scores include some of the more liberal states as well as some of the more conservative states as identified in a 2010 Gallup poll (Jones, 2010). The Gender Parity Index does not reflect the substantial lack of gender parity in non-elected state positions. In 2015, women held the following positions in the

Women in Public Service

5

TABLE 1.2 Gender Parity Index by State, 2015

New Hampshire Washington California Minnesota Arizona New Mexico Hawaii Maine Massachusetts Connecticut Michigan Alaska North Carolina New York Oregon Rhode Island Colorado

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

57.0 43.8 35.0 31.1 30.8 30.4 30.2 28.3 26.8 26.5 25.8 25.3 18.8 23.8 23.3 23.1 20.3

Oklahoma Illinois Maryland South Dakota South Carolina Indiana Kansas Missouri Wyoming Wisconsin Montana Florida Nevada Iowa New Jersey Nebraska Delaware

18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34

20.3 19.7 19.1 18.8 18.8 18.7 18.6 18.3 17.9 17.9 17.7 17.7 17.3 16.4 16.4 15.0 14.9

Ohio Arkansas North Dakota West Virginia Louisiana Alabama Vermont Texas Tennessee Kentucky Utah Pennsylvania Idaho Virginia Georgia Mississippi

35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

14.6 14.2 13.6 12.9 12.9 12.5 11.5 11.2 10.7 10.2 10.2 9.6 9.4 8.5 7.8 7.0

Source: www.representation2020.com/gender-parity-index.html.

50 states: “14 secretaries of state, seven treasurers, two comptrollers, nine state auditors, nine chief education officials, one commissioner of insurance, one commissioner of labor, and one commissioner of agriculture and commerce” (Horne, 2015). In 2015, women accounted for 24.3 percent of the seats in state legislatures (Horne, 2015) – far below their population proportion but five percentage points above their representation in the US Congress.

Female State Government Employees It was not until 1964 that consistent data are available reporting the proportion of women employed in US state governments. At that time, women accounted for 38.5 percent of all state government employees (see Table 1.3). By 1975, 43.4 percent of all state and local government employees were female. By 1990, this proportion had increased to 49.6 percent. In 2015, women’s share of all state workers stood at 53.2 percent – almost ten percentage points greater than their 44.3 percent representation in federal government employment.

Women in US Local Governments In 1887, Argonia, Kansas became the first local government in the US to elect a female mayor, Susanna Madora Salter. Her father had been the first mayor of Argonia, at the time an incorporated area with fewer than 500 inhabitants (Billington, 1954).“Nominated . . . by several Argonia men as a joke, Salter surprised the group and received two-thirds of the votes . . . The 27-year-old woman knew

6

Marilyn Marks Rubin TABLE 1.3 Women’s Share of US State Government

Employees, Selected Years, 1964–2015 Year

% of total

1964 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

38.5 38.8 42.5 43.5 45.5 46.6 49.6 50.2 51.5 51.2 51.4 53.2

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

more about politics than her detractors realized” (Kansapedia, n.d.). In 1926, Seattle became the first large US city to elect a woman, Bertha K. Landes, as mayor.To this day, she remains Seattle’s only female mayor (Brunner, 2013). A different picture can be painted for the State of Washington. In 2005, it became the first state to have a female governor and two female US senators serving contemporaneously. In 2014, of all US cities with populations over 30,000, there were 18.8 percent with female mayors (iknowpolitics, 2014). Of the largest 100 cities in the US, 13 had women mayors. Of the ten largest cities, just one had a female mayor – Ivy Taylor in San Antonio, Texas. New York City, the largest US city, has never had a female mayor although several have sought the office.

Local Government Employees As with state governments, no consistent data are available reporting the proportion of women employed in local governments until 1964. In 1965, they represented 47.2 percent of all local government employees (See Table 1.4). By 1975, the proportion had inched up to 49.2 percent. Moving forward to 1990, the proportion of women jumped to 58.1 percent. In 2015, it stood at 61.2 percent – significantly above women’s 53.2 representation in state governments and almost 20 percentage points above their 44.3 representation in the federal government. The greater representation of women at the local level is primarily due to the inclusion of teachers in the database. Male educators account for just 2.3 percent of pre-K and kindergarten teachers, 18.3 percent of elementary and middle school teachers, and 42 percent of high school teachers (Association of American Educators (AAE), 2012). When teachers are removed from the database, women accounted for 46.4 percent of local government employees in 2015.This proportion

Women in Public Service

7

TABLE 1.4 Woman’s Share of US Local Government Employees Selected Years,

1964–2015 Year

Total Local Government

Local Government Education

Local Government, Excluding Education

1964 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

46.5% 47.2% 49.5% 49.2% 53.8% 55.8% 58.1% 59.8% 61.5% 61.5% 61.7% 61.2%

60.7% 61.2% 60.7% 59.9% 64.7% 66.0% 69.1% 70.9% 72.2% 72.4% 73.2% 73.1%

n.a. n.a. n.a. 36.7% 41.9% 44.0% 45.1% 46.5% 48.1% 47.7% 47.1% 46.4%

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

is somewhat greater than women’s federal government representation but below their 53.2 percent proportion of state government employment.

Women Governing Around the World Similar to the US, women’s representation in public service employment has been increasing in most countries. In 2013, “In the OECD2 countries for which data are available, women represented, on average, 58 percent of the total public sector workforce . . . going from more than 70 percent in Sweden to 42 percent in Japan” (OECD, 2015). Although women account for more than half the public sector workforce in most countries, they are significantly outnumbered by men in leadership positions across branches and through levels of government.

Women as Heads of State and Government There have always been female rulers. China had a female emperor during the Tang Dynasty (618–907). “Egyptian Queens are believed to have governed from around 3000 BCE, and the first to be named . . . without any doubt is Ku-baba, who ruled the Mesopotamian City-State of Ur around 2500 BCE” (Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership (WGWL), n.d.). Jumping ahead several millennia to the 20th century, from 1940 until mid-2016 there have been just 147 women to serve as their nation’s head of state or head of government3 (see Appendices 1.1 and 1.2). Having a woman as head of state or head of government is more common in some regions of the world than others. This is especially the case in the Nordic

8

Marilyn Marks Rubin

countries with the exception of Sweden where there has never been a female leader. Women leaders have also become somewhat more prevalent in South and Southeast Asia as well as in South America. The Diplomatic Courier reports that “since 1970 eight of 29 women elected as heads of state around the world have come from Latin America or the Caribbean – an impressive 27.5 percent” (Montealegre, 2014, p. 1). Looking at North America, Mexico has never had a woman leader and Canada’s first and only female prime minister served for just four months. In the US, two women have been nominated to run for vice president on a major party ticket; neither was elected. In the race for the presidency, in 2016, Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be nominated to run for this office by a major political party.Although she won the popular vote, Clinton did not become president due to the unique way in which US voters choose their president.Voters do not directly elect the president or the vice president. Instead, they vote for members of what is called the “electoral college” that apportions a fixed number of votes to each state based on its population size. Members of the electoral college, in turn, usually pledge to vote for particular candidates. In the 2016 election, Clinton’s opponent received more votes for the electoral college.

Women as Ministers Nina Bang (1924–26) of Denmark was the first woman to be appointed as a minister in a democratically elected parliamentary government (WGWL, n.d.). As of January 2015, almost a century later, women accounted for 18 percent of all government ministers (United Nations, 2015) and several countries have no woman in a ministerial role. At the other end of the ministerial spectrum, in 2015 “Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made headlines . . . when he announced that half of his Cabinet ministers are female” (Alter, 2015). When women are appointed to ministerial positions, they tend to be given responsibility for areas related to education, caring, and working conditions (see Figure 1.1) conforming to traditional gender roles.These positions are usually seen to be “less central to the traditional core functions of a state” (Galligan & Buckley, 2010). In the US, for example, of the 30 women who have served in a cabinet (ministerial) position, seven have been Secretary of Labor and five, Secretary of Health and Human Services (CAWP, 2015). Although three women have been Secretary of State, no woman has ever been Secretary of the Treasury. Just one woman has held the position of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB, a cabinet level position) since its creation in 1921. This is the office responsible for preparing and monitoring the president’s budget, the single most important government document in almost all countries.

Women in Parliaments As discussed in detail in Chapter 5 of this book, women are under-represented in national parliaments/legislatures in all but two countries – Rwanda and Bolivia.

Portfolios Held by Female Ministers, 2015

Source: www.ipu.org/pdf/publications/wmnmap14_en.pdf © IPU/UNWomen.

FIGURE 1.1

10

Marilyn Marks Rubin

As of June 2016, women accounted for 22.8 percent of parliamentarians, worldwide (Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU), 2016). There were 38 countries where fewer than 10 per cent of parliamentarians in single or lower houses were women (IPU, 2016) and four countries with no female representatives (IPU, 2016). In 147 of 193 countries, women accounted for less than 30 percent of lower or single house national parliamentarians (IPU, 2016). This 30 percent proportion is “widely considered an important benchmark for women’s representation” (UNWomen, 2014, p. 119). Among individual countries, Rwanda ranked number one with women accounting for 64 percent of its lower house. This high proportion reflects the electoral system adopted after the country’s 1994 civil war that killed more than one million people, most of them men (Bennett, 2014). The new system established quotas for reserved seats in the Chamber of Deputies (the country’s lower house) and legislated candidate quotas for openly contested seats. As of June 2016, the US ranked 96th on female representation in national legislatures. In the 114th Congress (2015–16), they accounted for 104 members – 84 of the 435 members of the House of Representatives and 20 of 100 senators. Women’s overall 19 percent share of Congressional members is significantly below the 30 percent threshold discussed earlier. Of note, there are still three states that have never elected a woman to Congress: Delaware, Mississippi, and Vermont. Across the globe, as few women as there are in Congress and parliaments, there are even fewer in leadership positions. In 2015, women presided in the lower or single houses of parliament in 28 out of 191 countries (15 percent), and in 15 out of 76 countries (20 percent) in the upper house or senate (United Nations, 2015, p. 127).

Women in Subnational Governments Similar to the national level of government, women are far from parity in leadership positions in subnational governments. In 2013, they accounted for less than 5 percent of mayors and an average of 20 percent of councilors (United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), 2013), worldwide. There are, however, a number of countries with a much higher representation of female mayors. For example, in Mauritius, women accounted for 40 percent of all mayors; in New Zealand and Serbia, 26 percent; and in Latvia, 25 percent (iknowpolitics, 2014).

Women in Non-Elected Senior Positions Gender parity is not only an issue for elected officials; it is also an issue for women in senior positions in government. The gap between women and men in these positions has been documented in the Worldwide Index of Women as Public Sector Leaders described in detail in Chapter 6 of this book.The Index shows the proportion of non-elected senior executives across central governments filled by women in G20 countries.4 In the Index, public leaders are defined as non-elected senior

Women in Public Service

11

executives or those in the executive ranks of the core civil service in central government. This group constitutes approximately the most senior 10 percent of public officials, worldwide. In 2015, among the 19 countries that are members of the G20, women held at least one-third of public sector leadership roles in only six. Canada ranks highest with its 46.1 percent of leadership positions filled by women, followed by Australia (40.1 percent), South Africa (39.8 percent), the United Kingdom (38.7 percent), Brazil (35.4 percent), and the United States (34 percent).

Increasing Women’s Political Participation As discussed throughout this book, many countries have implemented policies to increase women’s representation in decision-making bodies. Numerous advocacy groups, such as Emily’s List5 in the US, have also worked to help get women elected to public office. On the international level, there have been myriad initiatives adopted in an effort to close the gender gap in the political arena.While it is beyond the scope of this chapter to discuss them all, they can be illustrated by steps taken to close the gender gap by the United Nations (UN) since its inception in 1946. Building on the work done by Eleanor Roosevelt during the UN’s early years, the organization has played a significant role in increasing women’s leadership in the public service. Roosevelt served as chairperson of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) Committee. As Guy and Larson write in Chapter 4 of this book, the “Declaration was unique in that it used gender inclusive language, rather than using the word ‘men’ as synonymous for all humanity. Adopted in 1948, the document still serves as the basis for most constitutions nearly 70 years later” (Guy & Larson, Chapter 4 of this book). Roosevelt also influenced the UN’s creation of the Commission on the Status of Women in 1946. The Commission was instrumental in drafting the Convention on the Political Rights of Women adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1953. This was the first international legal instrument to make explicit women’s right to vote and to stand for elections on an equal basis with men (iknowpolitics, n.d.).The Commission was also responsible for drafting the “Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)” adopted by the General Assembly in 1979.

CEDAW CEDAW is often described as an international bill of rights for women. It mandates that signees to the Convention ensure women’s equal access to, and equal opportunities in, political and public life – including the right to vote and to stand for election. According to Article 7: State Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the political and public life of the country and, in particular,

12

Marilyn Marks Rubin

shall ensure to women, on equal terms with men, the right: (a) To vote in all elections and public referenda and to be eligible for selection to all publicly elected bodies; (b)To participate in the formulation of government policy and the implementation thereof and to hold public office and perform all public functions at all levels of government. (UNWomen, n.d.) As of July 2016, of the 194 UN member nations, 187 countries had ratified CEDAW (CEDAW, n.d.). Joining Iran and Sudan, the US has not, to date, done so. In fact, the United States is the only country in the western hemisphere – as well as the only industrialized nation in the world – that has not yet ratified the treaty. CEDAW was first signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980 and has been approved by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations twice. The US Senate, however, has never voted for its ratification.6

UNWomen In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UNWomen as part of its reform agenda. UNWomen merges and expands the work of four previously separate parts of the UN system that focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment. They are: Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW); International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW); Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI); and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

UN Conferences on Women The UN has organized four world conferences on women: Mexico City in 1975, Copenhagen in 1980, Nairobi in 1985, and Beijing in 1995. The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing marked a key turning point for women’s fight for equality, worldwide. Its Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted unanimously by representatives of 189 countries, is often seen to be: [t]he most progressive blueprint ever for advancing women’s rights. As a defining framework for change, the Platform for Action made comprehensive commitments under 12 critical areas of concern. Even 20 years later, it remains a powerful source of guidance and inspiration. (UNWomen, 2014) “And, the mission continues” (Guy & Larson, Chapter 4 of this book). As the Beijing Platform for Action turned 20 years old in 2015, UN Women released a document, “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality” calling on

Women in Public Service

13

national governments to address the challenges that prevent women and girls from reaching their full potential.The question is: can the world really move fast enough to be Planet 50-50 by 2030?

UN Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals In 2000, the UN held a Millennium Summit at which eight “Millennium Development Goals” (MDGs) were declared with support from all UN members. The third goal was to promote gender equality and empower women. An assessment of the MDGs by the UN in 2015 reported that the goals, including Goal 3, were not met for a wide range of reasons including gender. The data presented in this chapter and throughout the book document this finding. Women are still systematically under-represented in leadership positions in just about every country, worldwide. In 2015, the UN adopted 17 “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs) and 169 targets (objectives) to build on the MDGs and to complete what they failed to accomplish. SDG Goal 5 is to “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” (United Nations, n.d.). Target 5.3 specifically states: “Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life” (United Nations, n.d.). As with “UNWomen’s Planet 50-50 by 2030,” only time will tell if this goal has been met.

Conclusion In 1976, Nesta Gallas – the first female president of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA)7– edited a symposium published in the Public Administration Review on Women in Public Administration (Gallas, 1976). She observed that “the spectrum of beliefs and concerns about the status of women in the profession” could be summarized as “discrimination against, underrepresentation of, and underutilization of women” (1976, p. 347). Rethinking Gallas after 40 years, the information presented in this chapter raises two fundamental and related questions. They are: (1) does the assessment of women’s progress made by Gallas still apply, and (2) has the increased involvement of women in public service made a difference, and if so, how? To answer the first question regarding the progress of women in public service, the US and most other nations now have laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender. However, as this chapter and the entire book document, although women are making progress toward achieving parity in the political arena, they are still under-represented at all levels and across all sectors of government. This is especially true for women in the highest elected political positions.This phenomenon is succinctly described by the International Knowledge Network of Women in Politics (iknowpolitics).

14

Marilyn Marks Rubin

Significant challenges to women’s election to senior decision-making positions such as mayors include patriarchal notions of women’s role and place in society and the discriminatory attitudes and discourse of political opponents. The combined effect of socio-political constraints and socio-cultural biases hampers the emergence of a structured political empowerment dynamic which is often also coupled with widespread reluctance to nominate women (political parties) or vote for them (constituencies). Women perceive the electoral environment as biased and discriminatory against female candidates, a perception that is aggravated by harsh media coverage of women politicians. (iknowpolitics, 2014, p. 1) Responding to whether the increased involvement of women in public service makes a difference would take more than one chapter and even more than one book. Since it is beyond the scope of this chapter to review the extensive literature on the subject, I use illustrative input and outcome measures to provide a brief response to the question. Looking at inputs, i.e. numbers, women have had a measurable impact on public administration. At the beginning of the career ladder, more women than men are now earning degrees that prepare them for careers in public service. For example, as discussed in Chapter 14 of this book, in the US, of all students in public administration and related programs, about 60 percent are women. And, as discussed in Chapter 11, available data show that better than half of the students enrolled in China’s more than 225 MPA programs, are women. As women climb the career ladder, more are filling higher levels of federal, state/local government jobs in most countries. Their numbers, however, are few compared with their representation among the rank and file. And women continue to get stuck on sticky floors and to hit glass ceilings and walls across all levels and branches of government. Their increasing presence in senior level positions does, however, send a positive signal of women’s growing influence and allows more of them to act as role models and mentors.This represents an encouraging change from 20 years ago when Guy wrote: There are so few women who hold management positions that senior women mentors are hard to find. Although women benefit from having male mentors, they also need mentors who have successfully forded the barriers that confront women but which men may not even be aware exist. (Guy, 1993, p. 290) In the US, more women are also having their accomplishments recognized. This is evidenced by their increasing share of elected fellows in the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA). NAPA is the pre-eminent public affairs association in the US. Its 800+ members include “former cabinet officers, Members

Women in Public Service

15

of Congress, governors, mayors, and state legislators, as well as prominent scholars, business executives, and public administrators” (NAPA, n.d.) At the close of the 20th century, of the 534 NAPA fellows, 105 (20 percent) were women. In 2014 and 2015, women accounted for 30 percent of newly inducted NAPA fellows. Regarding outcomes, i.e. results, “women’s political participation results in tangible gains for democracy, including greater responsiveness to citizen needs, increased cooperation across party and ethnic lines and more sustainable peace” (Markham, 2012, p. 2). In reflecting on why having more women in elected positions matters, Nicholas Kristoff, a well-know contributor to the New York Times’ opinion page, writes: [j]ust as the struggle for women’s rights isn’t a battle between men and women, it’s also not the case that the only beneficiaries will be women. When girls get educated, when women enter the formal labor force, when female talent can be realized, then all society benefits, men along with women. That’s because, put simply, the most effective way to fight global poverty, to reduce civil conflict, even to reduce long-term carbon emissions, is typically to invest in girls’ education and bring women into the formal labor force. Investment in women is an idea that is gaining ground lately because it is a proven strategy that works. (Kristof, 2011, p. 1) Stivers has observed that during the Progressive movement in the US that ran from the late 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century, the impact of women on public administration was eclipsed by the predominant male culture (Stivers, 2000). Women’s voices concerning the importance of social justice and related “softer” objectives of government were but whispers then and in decades to follow. These low voices have become increasingly audible as more women enter and advance in public service organizations and in the institutions teaching for the public service. For these voices to become loud roars, more women will have to assume positions of power and more will have to become leaders in the decision-making process. The growing pipeline of women in public administration and the movement toward more participatory, collaborative, and nonhierarchical organizations in the public service may help to create the “perfect storm” for the loud roars to be heard in the US and around the world.

Notes 1 2

When the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution was formally adopted in 1920, women already had full voting rights in 15 states (National Constitution Center, n.d.). The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was established in 1961. Currently, it has 35 member countries in Europe, North and South America, and the Asia-Pacific Region.

16

3

4

5 6 7

Marilyn Marks Rubin

In a parliamentary form of government such as the UK, the head of state and the head of government are two separate positions with different responsibilities. The head of state generally has more ceremonial duties, while the head of government is responsible for running the government. In a presidential form of government such as the US, the president is both. The G20 is made up of the finance ministers and central bank governors of 19 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States of America. The 20th member is the European Union. EMILY’s List (Early Money Is Like Yeast) is a national advocacy group in the US that works to elect pro-choice female Democrats. For a UN convention, resolution, or treaty to become US law, it must be ratified by 67 of the 100 members of the US Senate and signed by the president. The House of Representatives does not vote on international agreements. The American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), founded in 1939, is a membership association of more than 8,000 practitioners and academics from the US and several countries, worldwide.

References Ahrendt, E. J. (2014). Ladies going about for money: Female voluntary associations and civic consciousness in the American revolution. Journal of the Early Republic, 34(2), 157–186. Alter, C. (2015, November 15). Here’s what happens when you put more women in government. Time. Retrieved July 2016 at http://time.com/4101749/justin-trudeauwomen-cabinet-parliament-government/. Association of American Educators (AAE). (2012). The teacher gender-gap. Blog.AAE. Retrieved June 2016 at www.aaeteachers.org/index.php/blog/757-the-teacher-gender-gap. Bennett, E. (2014). Rwanda strides towards gender equality in government. Kennedy School Review. Retrieved July 2016 at http://harvardkennedyschoolreview.com/rwanda-stridestowards-gender-equality-in-government/. Billington, M. (1954). Susanna Madora Salter first woman Mayor. Kansas History, 21(3), 173–183. Retrieved July 2016 at www.kshs.org/p/kansas-historical-quarterly-susannamadora-salter/13106. Brunner, J. (2013, February 2). Bertha Landes, Seattle’s first, last female mayor. Seattle Times. Retrieved July 2016 at www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/bertha-landesseattlersquos-first-last-female-mayor/. CAWP. (2015). Women appointed to presidential cabinets. Retrieved July 2016 at www.cawp. rutgers.edu/sites/default/. . . /womenapptdtoprescabinet. CAWP. (2016). History of women governors. Retrieved July 2016 at www.cawp.rutgers.edu/ history-women-governors. CEDAW. (n.d.) CEDAW at a glance. Retrieved July 2016 www.cedaw2015.org/index.php/ about-cedaw/cedaw-at-a-glance. Gallas, N. (1976). Symposium:Women in public administration. Public Administration Review, 36(4), 347–349. Galligan,Y., & Buckley, F. (2010). Women’s political leadership in the European Union. In K. O’Connor (Ed.), Gender and women leadership: A reference handbook (pp. 354–363). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Guy, M. E. (1993).Three steps forward, two steps backwards:The status of women’s integration into public management. Public Administration Review, 54(4), 285–290.

Women in Public Service

17

Horne, J. (2015). Women in State Government 2015. Council of State Governments Knowledge Center. Retrieved July 2016 at http://knowledgecenter.csg.org/kc/content/womenstate-government-2015. iknowpolitics. (n.d.). Convention on the Political Rights of Women adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1953. Retrieved July 2016 at http://iknowpolitics.org/en/knowledgelibrary/convention-political-rights-women-adopted-united-nations-general-assembly1953. iknowpolitics. (2014). Women mayors, women elected as head of villages, towns and cities. Retrieved July 2016 at http://iknowpolitics.org/en/discuss/e-discussions/womenmayors-women-elected-head-villages-towns-and-cities. Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU). (2016). Women in national parliaments. Retrieved July 2016 at http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm. Jones, J. M. (2010, February 3). Ideology:Three deep south states are the most conservative. Politics. Retrieved July 2016 at www.gallup.com/poll/125480/ideology-three-deepsouth-states-conservative.aspx. Kansapedia. (n.d.). Susanna Madora Salter: First woman mayor in the U.S. 1860–1961. Retrieved July 2016 at www.kshs.org/kansapedia/susanna-madora-salter/12191. Kristof, N. (2011, March 8). Do women leaders matter? Retrieved August 2016 at http:// kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/do-women-leaders-matter/. MacClean, M. (2015). Civil rights women: Women of the civil war and reconstruction eras 1849– 1877. Retrieved July 2016 at http://civilwarwomenblog.com/womens-rights-afterthe-civil-war/. Manzano-Diaz (2010). The Women’s Bureau: A continuous fight against inequality. Human Rights, 37(3). Retrieved June 2016 at www.americanbar.org/publications/human_ rights_magazine_home/human_rights_vol37_2010/summer2010/the_womens_ bureau_a_continuous_fight_against_inequality.html. Markham, S. (2012). Strengthening women’s roles in parliaments. Parliamentary Affairs, 65(3), 688–698. Montealegre, O. (2014, March 19). Latin America’s leading ladies. Diplomatic Courier. Retrieved July 2016 at www.diplomaticourier.com/2014/03/19/latin-america-s-leading-ladies/. National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA). (n.d.). Who we are and what we do. Retrieved August 2016 at www.napawash.org/. National Constitution Center. (n.d.). Retrieved July 2016 at http://constitutioncenter. org/timeline/html/cw08_12159.html. National Woman’s History Museum (NWHM). (2007). Retrieved June 2016 at www. nwhm.org/online-exhibits/partners/12.htm. OECD. (2015). Government at a glance 2015. Paris: OECD Publishing. Retrieved June 2016 at www.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/government-at-a-glance-2015/women-in-publicsector-employment_gov_glance-2015-23-en. Representation 2020. (n.d.). Gender Parity Index. Retrieved July 2016 at www. representation2020.com/gender-parity-index.html. Rubin, M. (1990). Women in ASPA: The fifty-year climb toward equality. Public Administration Review, 50(2), 277–287. Stivers, C. (2000). Bureau men, settlement women: Constructing public administration in the progressive era. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press. United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). (2013). Women leadership and development. Retrieved July 2016 at www.uclg.org/en/resources/publications?page=1. United Nations. (n.d.). United Nations sustainable knowledge platform. Retrieved July 2016 at https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld.

18

Marilyn Marks Rubin

United Nations. (2015). The world’s women 2015:Trends and statistics. Retrieved July 2016 at http://unstats.un.org/unsd/gender/chapter5/chapter5.html. UNWomen. (n.d.) Facts and figures: Leadership and political participation. Retrieved July 2016 at www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/leadership-and-political-participation/factsand-figures#sthash.qpv4OiBC.dpuf . UNWomen. (2014). The Beijing Platform for Action Turns 20. Retrieved July 2016 at http:// beijing20.unwomen.org/en/about. US Civil Service Commission. (1964). Federal careers for women. Pamphlet 35. Retrieved July 2016 at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=ufl1.ark:/13960/t4pk13862;view= 1up;seq=4. US Department of Labor (DOL). (n.d.). Retrieved July 2016 at www.dol.gov/wb/info_ about_wb/interwb.htm. Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership (WGWL). (n.d.). Retrieved July 2016 at www. guide2womenleaders.com/.

2 A GLOBAL COMPARISON OF WOMEN IN THE WORKFORCE Moving toward Innovative Solutions Helisse Levine and Maria J. D’Agostino

Women’s participation in the labor force in most countries around the world has increased over recent decades. However, despite their increasing presence in the workplace, women continue to hit glass ceilings and glass walls that prevent their equal participation in decision-making positions in the private sector and in public administration. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a global comparison of women in the labor force, with a specific focus on the public sector workforce, and to identify innovative solutions to address the continuing gender gap. The chapter begins with an overview of the issue. The next two sections present an historical perspective of women in the workforce in the US and globally.This is followed by a discussion of legislative initiatives that have been taken to improve access to women seeking to participate in the labor force.The chapter concludes with a look at innovative approaches adopted to break down workplace barriers to women.

Overview The significance of this chapter is twofold. First, based on the scope and size of government, public services and public administration represent a substantial part of most world economies. Public services account for between 40 percent and 55 percent of GDP in European countries, 32 percent of GDP in the United States, 26 percent in Japan, 16 percent in China and 17 percent in India (OECD, 2011). Public service-related employment accounts for between one-quarter and one-third of the total EU working-age population, and public employment (civil servants) represents more than 15 percent of total employment in the EU (OECD, 2011). Second, according to Cooper, Gable and Austin (2012), in 2011 women comprised 48.3 percent of overall employment and accounted for 59.5 percent of employment in US state and local government, significantly more than their

20

Helisse Levine and Maria J. D’Agostino

46.7 percent share of private sector employment. But women remain significantly underrepresented in the senior public service of the US and most other countries in parliaments and in ministerial positions. Indeed, women’s under-representation in government work throughout the US and beyond remains an important economic, social and public policy issue that cannot be overlooked.Without a critical mass of women, public administration is not tapping into the full potential of a country’s workforce, capacity and creativity (UNDP, 2014). As discussed in Chapter 1 of this book, on average, women occupy only 22 percent of seats in national parliaments, and account for an average 18 percent of ministers across the globe. And just 147 women have ever served as head of state/government since 1940 (Rubin, Chapter 1 of this book). The situation is similar at the local level of government. Females elected to local government leadership positions (e.g., councilors) are underrepresented in all regions of the world and female mayors even more so (United Nations, 2010). Given the importance of public administration as a key employer in many countries, the attainment of equal participation in public administration can have a significant impact on women’s economic empowerment (UNDP, 2014). The continuing problem is that progression of women in the public service workforce remains inconsistent across different levels of government in the US and globally. Also, women in leadership positions continue to face an uphill battle oftentimes placed in positions that set them up for failure, coining the expression “the glass cliff ” (Sabharwal, 2015).

Women in the Workforce: The Historical Context More than two decades ago, Beijing hosted the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 where representatives of 189 countries gathered with the sole purpose of promoting gender equality and the empowerment of all women. What resulted was the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (the “Platform”) called “the most progressive blueprint ever for advancing women’s rights” (UNDP, 2014). The Platform developed comprehensive statements of commitments under 12 critical areas of concern including women in power and decision-making, women and the economy, and institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women. In 2015, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in collaboration with the Clinton Foundation’s No Ceilings Initiative (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation & Clinton Foundation, 2015), reported on the progress of women and girls since the Beijing Conference. Several key areas of improvement were identified, including improvement of women and girl’s health over the past 20 years and the closing of the primary education gender gap. Despite the positive movement toward equality for the world’s women and girls, there is still much work to be done (Tarr-Whelan, 2010). Several measures, including women’s participation in the labor force, document remaining challenges. Their presence in the workplace is important not only because it reduces the disproportionate levels of poverty among women, but also because it is an important

Global Comparison of Women in Workforce

21

component of economic development. Moreover, around the world, women’s path to equality in the workforce is closely connected to their path to political equality. Women’s presence in the workforce is generally measured by their labor force participation rate (LFPR). In the US, the labor force is defined as the percentage of persons 16 years of age and over who are currently working plus those who are unemployed but actively seeking work. Thus, segments of the population are excluded such as those engaged in unpaid family work or domestic activities and those who are unemployed but not currently seeking work. Other countries define the labor force differently. For example, in Sri Lanka, all female unpaid family workers are defined as “economically active” (Sri Lanka Department of Census and Statistics, n.d.), and are included in the definition of the labor force.

Women in the Labor Force in the US In 1900, the LFPR for women in the US stood at 18.8 percent (see Table 2.1). It inched up to 19.9 percent by 1910. Just a few years later,World War I (1914–1918) would bring a rapid influx of women into the labor force. [f]or many women the war was “a genuinely liberating experience” that made them feel useful as citizens but that also gave them the freedom and the wages only men had enjoyed so far. Approximately 1,600,000 women joined the workforce between 1914 and 1918 in Government departments, public transport, the post office, as clerks in business, as land workers and in factories, especially in the dangerous munitions factories. (First World War, n.d.) TABLE 2.1 Women in the Labor Force in the US Selected Years, 1900–2014

Year

Number in Thousands

Labor Force Participation Rate (%)

1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2014

5,319 7,445 8,637 10,752 12,845 18,389 23,240 31,543 45,487 56,829 66,303 71,904 73,039

18.8 19.9 21.4 22.0 25.4 33.9 37.7 43.3 51.5 57.5 60.2 58.6 56.9

Source: www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104673.html.

22

Helisse Levine and Maria J. D’Agostino

Most women would drop out of the workforce when the war was over. By 1920, the LFPR of women stood at 21.4 percent, just marginally above the 19.9 percent ten years earlier.The rate slowly climbed to 22 percent in 1930 and to 25.4 percent in 1940, the year before the US entered World War II. The war would have a profound impact on the female LFPR as women entered the workforce in unprecedented numbers to take the jobs of men who were either drafted or enlisted in the armed forces. During the war, women filled jobs previously held only by men in government, aircraft plants, shipyards, manufacturing companies and other parts of the economy producing for the war effort. In fact, “Rosie the Riveter” is still one of the most renowned icons from World War II. Most women dropped out of the workforce after World War II, either voluntarily or because men came back from the war to reclaim their jobs. But, more women stayed in the workforce than after previous wars. By 1950, women’s LFPR had risen to 33.9 percent, almost ten percentage points above what it had been in 1940. Two primary factors that explain this increase are the growing white collar sector with its demand for clerical workers and rising education levels for women. But what had not yet changed in the 1950s were public perceptions about women’s roles. These impressions are illustrated in television commercials of the time (Alcantara, 2011) that generally portrayed women in the home – cooking, cleaning and taking care of children. Men were portrayed as being out on their jobs earning income to support their families. It should, however, be noted that there were scattered commercials that did not present such bifurcated roles (Catalano, 2002). By 1960, the LFPR of women in the US had climbed to 37.7 percent. By 1970, the rate had increased to 43.3 percent and by 1980, to 51.5 percent. During this time, as discussed later in the chapter, several pieces of federal legislation were enacted to eliminate legal barriers to women’s employment and gender related pay discrimination. Women’s increasing participation in the labor force was also stoked by the feminist movement with its emphasis on women’s equality in the economic and political spheres. In addition,“Adults’ attitudes toward working mothers became more egalitarian between the 1970s and the early 1990s” (Donnelly et al., 2015). In the year 2000, the female LFPR in the US peaked at 60.2 percent (Toosi, 2002). Since then, the rate has declined in most years and by 2014 stood at 56.9 percent. But, while the LFPR of US women has dropped back from its 2000 high, their representation in the US workforce continues to grow (see Table 2.2). In 1900, women accounted for 18.3 percent of the US labor force aged 10 and over. This proportion increased slightly to 20.4 percent by 1920 and to 22 percent by 1930. By 2000, women accounted for 46.6 percent of the US labor force 16 years of age and over and increased steadily year over year, reaching 57 percent by 2014. So, while women’s LFPR in the US has been declining, that of men has been falling faster (Morin, 2013). In fact, the LFPR of men has been declining since 1950 when it peaked at 86.4 percent. By 1970, it had dropped to 79.7 percent and by 1990 to 76.4 percent. In 2014, the male LFPR stood at 69.2 percent – more than 17 percentage points below the 1950 high.

Global Comparison of Women in Workforce

23

TABLE 2.2 Women as a Percentage of the US Labor Force Selected Years,

1900–2014 Year

Number in thousands

% of labor force population aged 16 and over

1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2014

5,319 7,445 8,637 10,752 12,845 18,389 23,240 31,543 45,487 56,829 66,303 71,904 73,039

18.3 19.9 20.4 22.0 24.3 29.6 33.4 38.1 42.5 45.2 46.6 53.6 57.0

Source: www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104673.html.

The decline in both female and male LFPRs in the US can primarily be explained by structural changes in the labor market, especially the aging of the workforce. As “baby boomers” born between 1946 and 1964 retire, they push down LFPRs. The decline is also due to the lower participation rate of young people who are staying in school longer. “Total undergraduate enrollment in degree-granting postsecondary institutions increased 31 percent from 13.2 million in 2000 to 17.3 million in 2014. By 2025, total undergraduate enrollment is projected to increase to 19.8 million students” (NCES, 2016). Declines in LFPRs not explained by long-term structural changes are largely the result of business cycle effects associated with the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009. Job growth in this recovery period has been slower than that in business cycles over the past few decades (National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), 2011). When women are in the labor force, they earn less than men. In 2014, women working full time typically were paid 79 percent of what men were paid, a gap of 21 percent (AAUP, 2014). The gap is even wider for African American and Hispanic women, who earn 62 cents and 54 cents, respectively, for every dollar paid to their non-Hispanic white male counterparts (NWLC, 2012). Research suggests that differences in education and other measurable factors explain part of the difference in earnings between racial and ethnic groups. However, as is the case with gender, part of the racial/ethnic pay gap cannot be explained by factors known to affect earnings and is likely due, at least in part, to discrimination. (NWLC, 2012)

24

Helisse Levine and Maria J. D’Agostino

Women in the Workplace, Globally The decline in the LFPR for women in the US is not a worldwide phenomenon (Blau & Kahn, 2013). For example, women’s participation rates in Latin America rose by nearly 20 percent between 1995 and 2013. In Colombia, once one of the Latin American countries least open to female workers, the female labor force climbed by more than 50 percent over this period (Blau & Kahn, 2013). In Europe, most countries have experienced incremental annual increases in the labor participation rates of women. As of mid-2014, six OECD nations – all in Europe – had female labor participation rates of at least 85 percent: Slovenia, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland, Austria and Switzerland (Globalist, 2015).

Public vs Private Employment Women are more likely to work in the public sector than are men (Schumann, 2014). On average, 52 percent of the government workforce in 2010 were female, compared with 41 percent in the private sector (Schumann, 2014). There is, however, a wide variation among countries (see Figure 2.1). The widest divergence between men and women is in Denmark, where 68 percent of government workers were female, compared with only 37 percent of workers in the private sector. The Danish government is seeking to increase the number of women leading Danish enterprises, since the percentage of Danish women in management is well below the European Union’s average. Globally, women have had comparatively greater success climbing to leadership positions in the public sector than in the private sector. Nearly 10 percent of member countries in the United Nations are led by female heads of state/government whereas just 3 percent of the top 1,000 multinational companies have a female president or CEO (Schumann, 2014).

Women in Leadership Positions In the US and across the world, women are still largely outnumbered by men in decision-making positions, especially at the highest levels, in both the public and private sectors. As discussed in Chapter 1 of this book, in 2015, women accounted for 22 percent of members of parliament and 18 percent of ministers. And, as described in Chapter 6, among the 19 countries that are members of the G20, women hold at least one-third of public sector leadership roles in only six. In the private sector, women accounted for an average of 18 percent of board members in the largest EU listed companies and just 4 percent of women were members on the Council of Presidents (European Parliamentary Research Service, 2013).

Legislating for Employment Equality The US still remains a place where it is difficult to embrace both work and family. This is true despite the numerous laws enacted since the 1960s to protect women

Public and Private Sector Employment, 2010

Source: International Labour Organization ILOSTAT database, http://www.ilo.org/ilostat/faces/home/statisticaldata?_adf.ctrl-state=6h88rz055_4&clean=true&_afrLoop=359777472427919.

FIGURE 2.1

26

Helisse Levine and Maria J. D’Agostino

from discrimination and to guarantee benefits in the workplace. In 1963, then President John F. Kennedy established the President’s Commission on the Status of Women, with Eleanor Roosevelt as chair, to make recommendations for the improvement of the status of women.The Commission found that discrimination against women was a serious problem and made recommendations as to how to provide for their more equal treatment. Just three weeks before his assassination in November 1963, President Kennedy signed an executive order establishing the Interdepartmental Committee on the Status of Women and the Citizens’ Advisory Council on the Status of Women to facilitate the implementation of the recommendations made by the Commission. In 1963, Congress also passed the Equal Pay Act requiring equal pay for equal or substantially equal work without regard to gender. But it was in 1964 that perhaps the most important legislation for women in the workforce would be enacted with the passage of the Civil Rights Act – an act more commonly associated with efforts to stop racial discrimination. Regarding gender and the workplace, Title VII “Outlawed employment discrimination by businesses affecting commerce with at least twenty-five employees on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” (“Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” 2016). Under the Civil Rights Act, women who had been fired because they became pregnant, or were not hired because they had small children, now had recourse. As a result of Title VII, for the first time, “male only” job notices became illegal. Title VII of the Act also created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as an independent regulatory body to implement the new law. Other federal workplace anti-discrimination laws specifically impacting women include: •

•

•

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 that amended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of (1964) to prohibit sex discrimination on the basis of pregnancy. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 that addressed unequal pay of men and women. According to the NWLC (2013), The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act served to ensure that individuals subjected to unlawful pay discrimination may assert their rights under the federal anti-discrimination laws. Under the Act, each discriminatory paycheck (rather than simply the original decision to discriminate) resets the 180-day limit to file a claim. Section 4207 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 allowed break time for nursing mothers. However, it did not require compensation for break times spent for this purpose. The law does not extend to employers that employ less than 50 women. This size exemption applies to most other workforce related laws.

The US Supreme Court has also weighed in on discrimination in the workplace. In addition to addressing other personal characteristics such as race and age, since the 1970s the Court has also ruled on issues related to gender in the workplace.

Global Comparison of Women in Workforce

27

For example, the Court has disallowed arbitrary weight and height requirements (Dothard v. Rawlinson, 1977) and did away with mandatory pregnancy leaves (Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur). The Supreme Court has also upheld several state and local laws to prohibit workplace discrimination based on gender. Although the US continues to make progress on issues of place-of-work discrimination, it lags behind other countries, especially on workplace benefits. Several EU and Latin American countries offer protection and workplace benefits that go well beyond what is offered in the US, especially for working parents. According to Heymann, Earle and Hayes (2007), the US is one of just four countries – the others are Swaziland, Liberia and Papua New Guinea – that does not offer paid leave in connection with childbirth. There are often unintended consequences of legislative initiatives regardless of the range of benefits. Chilean law requires employers with 20 or more female workers to provide and pay for childcare for women with children under the age of two, in a location nearby where women can go and feed them. The intention of Chile’s law was to ease the transition of going back to work and increase the labor force participation of women – one of the lowest rates in Latin America at less than 50 percent. However, the laws have had unintended consequences. In Chile, women are paid less and their starting salaries have decreased between 9 percent and 20 percent (Prada, Rucci, & Urzúa, 2015). Similarly, Spain enacted a law in 1999 giving the right to workers with children younger than seven years of age to ask for reduced work hours. The majority of workers that took advantage of the policy were women. Over the last decade, Spain has experienced a 20 percent increase in women of childbearing age not being employed. In addition, 6 percent of companies were less likely to hire women of childbearing age, 37 percent less likely to promote them and 45 percent more likely to dismiss them (Fernández-Kranz & Rodriguez-Planas, 2013).

Innovative Approaches to Addressing the Gender Gap UN Women, created in 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women, cautions that for public sector reforms to be fully effective, they need to adopt gender equality as a major objective (UN Women, n.d.). The key, we believe, to achieving gender equality and empowerment is for women to embrace and harness the power of innovation, “through new ideas, products and practices increasingly seen as a force for social change” (Malhorta, Jennifer, Payal, & Patt, 2009, p. 3) Take family friendly policies as an example. Arguably, one of the more important drivers of women’s ability to manage family and career responsibilities, and remain in and/or return to the workforce, Miller (2015b) notes, is the importance of innovative approaches to the oftentimes unintended consequences of workplace benefits. One innovative solution has

28

Helisse Levine and Maria J. D’Agostino

been to implement “Daddy Quotas.” For example, Sweden and Norway have parental leave policies that encourage both men and women to take time off for a new baby, emphasizing that this is what ‘humans’ do – not just women.This type of legislation strengthens the role of women in the workplace and at home. Sweden provides 480 days of leave, with 60 days reserved for each parent, which is not transferable. If the father does not take the allocated 60 days leave, the family loses the time. The remaining days may be split as the parents choose. Similarly, in Norway each new parent has 14 weeks of non-transferable post-natal leave. The remaining 18 weeks may be divided as chosen by the parents and may be taken by either mother or father. Another, innovative approach is to address the 24/7 work culture that has developed for both men and women instead of focusing on the narrow solution of family friendly policies that, as noted earlier, may have unintended consequences (Ely, Stone, & Ammerman, 2014). The average time Americans spend at work has increased approximately 9 percent from 1,687 hours in 1979 to 1,836 hours a year in 2007 (Mishel, 2013). According to Padavic, Ely and Reid (2013), the problem is not only women’s competing demands, long working hours and stalled paths to advancement to top leadership positions, but also that these practices remain unchallenged. Padavic et al. (2013) found that men were as likely as women to say that work interfered with family life. However, the cultural expectations about how men and women should act contributed to managing the pressure differently. Miller (2015a) adds that women have an out because society expects them to be devoted to their families. As a result, they are more likely to take advantage of flextime and take less demanding positions that ultimately contribute to slowing their advancement. On the other hand, Blair-Loy (2003) suggests that men are expected to be devoted to their work. Men tend to work the hours they want without asking for permission, conduct meetings via telephone, create a local client base and informally arrange for colleagues to cover for them. Although these practices have worked for men and have not slowed their career advancement, they have not worked for women (Padavic et al., 2013). Some round-the-clock-professions have begun to develop alternatives. For example, doctors work in shifts so patients can see whomever is available and some law firms are sharing work in a similar manner. A consulting group has given one team the weekend off while covering for them (Miller, 2015b). Another innovation to note in New York City is the establishment of the Commission on Gender Equity that replaced the Commission on Women’s Issues. This change reflects the City’s commitment to expand and increase opportunity for all New Yorkers – regardless of gender or sexual orientation.The new Commission will support City agency initiatives and use a gender lens that will include women, transgender and intersex individuals, and men to achieve greater gender fairness (NYC, 2015). The UK has been experimenting with ‘gender innovation,’ i.e., using the power of social innovation to address gender equality. Social innovations are new

Global Comparison of Women in Workforce

29

solutions (such as products, services, models, markets and processes) that simultaneously meet a social need (more effectively than existing solutions) and lead to new or improved capabilities and relationships, and better use of assets and resources. In other words, social innovations are both good for society and enhance society’s capacity to act (Ross & Goddard, 2015). The goal of gender innovation is to develop policies that directly and deliberately focus on tackling the structural roots of inequality.Although social innovation and gender equality still mainly operate in parallel worlds, Ross and Goddard (2015) identified existing gender innovation projects in the UK that are taking root. For example,Women Like Us was founded in 2005 to address the challenges faced by many women with children seeking to return to skilled jobs that they could balance with caring responsibilities. In 2012, the UK launched Timewise Jobs and Recruitment to provide online-job search and recruitment for highquality part-time and flexible opportunities for both women and men. Women Like Us and Timewise address the roots and effects of inequality in relation to the labor market by challenging the assumption that part-time or flexible working are only low quality positions, and that those with caring responsibilities cannot make valuable contributions to the workplace. The Gender Data Revolution is an innovative approach to dismantling the glass ceiling in public service. For example, the UNDP’s 2014 Gender Equality in Public Administration Initiative (GEPA) has documented that important gender information may not be captured due to lack of data concerning women’s access to decisionmaking positions. Results of phase one of the GEPA initiative, focusing on in-depth case studies of 13 countries, revealed that women held 30 percent of decision-making positions in public administration. But the results also revealed the lack of data which compromises goal setting, advocacy and monitoring progress.To address this data gap, GEPA is developing a global tracking tool for women in public administration. The goal is to have data that respond to the questions: how many women are employed in public service? How many of them occupy decision-making positions? The data would be collected at the national and local levels of government and stored centrally with the objective of developing standard indicators alongside the number of women in parliaments, ministerial positions, the judiciary and the private sector.

Conclusion Over recent decades, women have made significant gains in the labor force, in general, and in the public service workforce, specifically. However, achieving gender parity in the workforce, especially in decision-making positions, remains an ongoing challenge. Traditionally, the approach to addressing the progress of women in the workforce has been to enact new legislation. Although necessary, most legislation is limited in scope and has sometimes resulted in unintended consequences, such as what occurred in Chile where women are actually paid less and starting salaries have decreased.

30

Helisse Levine and Maria J. D’Agostino

We are moving beyond creating and implementing formal policies to more innovative solutions to address long-lasting problems such as the Gender Data Revolution and Gender Innovation. What these solutions offer are tools to tackle the structural roots of the problem and to provide long-term substance and voice to women as decision makers and innovators in the present and future workplace. At a time when two roads diverge between acknowledging the importance of women in the global workforce to the social well being and economic growth of our society on the one hand, and, failure to do so on the other, will indeed make all the difference.

References AAUP. (2014). The simple truth about the gender pay gap. Retrieved June 25, 2016 from www. aauw.org/files/2014/03/The-Simple-Truth.pdf . Alcantara, I. (2011). Baruch College, “1950s ads/commercials aimed at women.” Retrieved April 8,2016 from http://blsciblogs.baruch.cuny.edu/familysummer2011/2011/07/31/ 1950s-adscommercials-aimed-at-women/. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, & Clinton Foundation. (2015). No ceilings: The full participation report. Retrieved May 5, 2016 from http://noceilings.org/report/report.pdf. Blair-Loy, M. (2003). Competing devotions: Career and family among women executives. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Blau, F., & Kahn, L. M. (2013). Female labor supply: Why Is the United States falling behind? American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings, 103(3), 251–256. Catalano, C. (2002).“Shaping the American woman: Feminism and advertising in the 1950s,” Constructing the Past, 3(1). Retrieved March 15, 2016 from http://digitalcommons. iwu.edu/constructing/vol3/iss1/6. Cooper, D., Gable, M., & Austin, A. (2012). The public-sector jobs crisis: Women and African Americans hit hardest by job losses in state and local governments. Briefing Paper No. 339: Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute. Donnelly, K.,Twenge, J., Clark, M., Shaikh, S., Beiler-May, A., & Carter, N. (2015). Attitudes toward women’s work and family roles in the United States, 1976–2013. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 40(1), 1–14. Ely, R., Stone, P., & Ammerman, C. (2014, December). Rethink what you “know” about high-achieving women. Harvard Business Review. European Parliamentary Research Service. (2013). Women in politics background notes on 12 countries. Retrieved September 12, 2016 from: www.europarl.europa.eu/eplibrary/ EPRS-Background-Notes.pdf. Fernández-Kranz, D., & Rodriguez-Planas, N. (2013). Can parents’ right to work part-time hurt childbearing-aged women? A natural experiment with administrative data. IZA Discussion Paper No. 7509. Bonn, Germany. First World War (n.d.). Retrieved August 4, 2017 from www.firstworldwar.com/features/ womenww1_four.htm. The Globalist. (2015).Women in the workforce: A global perspective. The Globalist. Retrieved January 12, 2017 from www.theglobalist.com/women-in-the-workforce-a-globalperspective/. Heymann, J., Earle, A., & Hayes, J. (2007). The work, family, and equity index: How does the United States measure up? Montreal: Project on Global Working Families. Retrieved August 15, 2016 from www.mcgill.ca/files/ihsp/WFEI2007.pdf.

Global Comparison of Women in Workforce

31

Malhorta, A., Jennifer, S., Payal, P., & Patt, P. (2009). Innovation for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality. Washington, DC: International Center for Research on Women. Retrieved February 27, 2017 from www.icrw.org/publications/innovation-womensempowerment-and-gender-equality. Mishel, L. (2013, January, 30).Vast majority of wage earners are working harder, and for not much more: Trends in U.S. work hours and wages over 1979–2007. Issue brief #348: Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved March 12, 2017 from www.epi.org/files/2013/ ib348-trends-us-work-hours-wages-1979-2007.pdf . Miller, C. (2015a, May 26). When family-friendly policies backfire. The New York Times, p. A3. Retrieved February 12, 2017 from http://nyti.ms/1BmJNo. Miller, C. (2015b, May 28). The 24/7 Work culture’s toll on families and gender equality. The New York Times. Retrieved October 25, 2016 from http://nyti.ms/1eBvyb9. Morin, R. (2013). The disappearing male worker. Pew Research Center. Retrieved July 15, 2016 from www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/09/03/the-disappearing-male-worker/. NCES (2016). Highlights from the Condition of Education 2016. Retrieved July 15, 2016 from https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2016/2016144_highlights.pdf NWLC. (2011). Second anniversary of the recovery shows no job growth for women. Retrieved August 12, 2016 from https://nwlc.org/resources/second-anniversary-recoveryshows-no-job-growth-women/. NWLC. (2012). Closing the wage gap is especially important for women of color in difficult times. Retrieved August 15, 2016 from www.nwlc.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/ womenofcolorfactsheet.pdf . NWLC. (2013). Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Resource. Retrieved September 15, 2016 from http://nwlc.org/resources/lilly-ledbetter-fair-pay-act/. NYC. (2015). Mayor DeBlasio establishes commission on gender equity. NYC Office of the Mayor. Retrieved April 15, 2016 from www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/43815/mayor-de-blasio-establishes-commission-gender-equity. OECD. (2011). Government at a glance 2011. Paris: OECD Publishing. doi:10.1787/gov_ glance-2011-en. Padavic, I., Ely, R., & Reid, E. (2013). The work-family narrative as a social defense. Boston, MA: President & Fellows of Harvard College. Retrieved November 12, 2016 from www.hbs.edu/faculty/conferences/2013-w50-researchsymposium/Documents/ Gender_and_work_web_update2015.pdf . Prada, M. F., Rucci, G., & Urzúa, S. S. (2015). The effect of mandated childcare on female wages in Chile (No. w21080). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. Ross, F. J., & Goddard, C. (2015). Unequal nation:The case for social innovation to work. London: The Young Foundation. Sabharwal, M. (2015). From glass ceiling to glass cliff: Women in senior executive service. Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory, 25(2), 399–426. Schumann, M. (2014). Workforce resilience: An international comparison of the public and private sectors. Westlake,TX: Deloitte University Press. Retrieved November 30, 2015 from http://dupress. com/articles/workforce-resilience-international-comparisonpublic-private-sectors/. Sri Lanka Department of Census and Statistics. (n.d.). Labour force participation rate Retrieved August 15, 2016 from www.statistics.gov.lk/Indicators/htdocs/index.php?usecase= indicator&action=Detail&indId=006. Tarr-Whelan, L. (2010). The impact of the Beijing Platform for Action: 1995 to 2010. Human Rights Magazine, 37(3). Retrieved November 24, 2015 from www.americanbar. org/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/human_rights_vol37_2010/ summer2010/the_impact_of_the_beijing_platform_for_action.html.

32

Helisse Levine and Maria J. D’Agostino

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (2016, August 1). Retrieved August 15, 2016 from www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/titlevii.cfm. Toosi, M. (2002). A century of change: the U.S. labor force, 1950–2050. Monthly Labor Review (May, 2002). Retrieved August 10, 2017 from www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2002/05/ art2full.pdf . United Nations. (2010). The world’s women 2010 trends and statistics. Sales No. E.10.XVII.11. New York: Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Retrieved August 15, 2016 from http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/Worldswomen/WW_full%20 report_color.pdf. United Nations Development Programme. (2014). Global report on gender equality in public administration. New York. Retrieved August 15, 2016 from www.undp.org/content/ dam/undp/library/Democratic%20Governance/Women-s%20Empowerment/ GEPA%20Global%20Report%20May%202014.pdf . UN Women. (n.d.). Engaging in public sector reform. Retrieved September 14, 2017 www. unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/governance-and-national-planning/engaging-in-publicsector-reform.

3 CHANGING PERSPECTIVES ON WOMEN IN PUBLIC SERVICE A Short History of Attitudes and Practices Camilla Stivers

Throughout the course of Western civilization, women’s presence in the public sphere has been an anomaly. In fact, it is no overstatement to say that beginning with ancient Greece, the space of politics, of public life, was defined by the absence of women. Over the centuries, women managed to infiltrate this space, yet only within the last two centuries has women’s political participation become an actively debated issue.Women simply do not fit easily in the public sphere the way men do—or so it seems. Throughout history, what women actually did in public space often outstripped attitudes about proper female behavior.Yet despite political gains such as the right to vote, women’s place in the public sphere still must be justified. A major problem is that the concept of public space depends on distinguishing it from the household, to this day still associated primarily with women. This chapter traces the history of Western thinking about women in the public sphere and its implications for public service. Concentrating on the US, it explores the connections between attitudes about women’ supposed fitness for public life and the actual patterns of their participation. The discussion emphasizes the difficulty women face in attaining political freedom equal to that of men and highlights how gender has shaped the evolution of women’s participation in public administration.

Public vs Private Since ancient times, political philosophers have glorified the state by contrasting it with the household. Aristotle praised the polis (the state) as the locus of political dialogue and debate that defined what it meant to be human. In his view, “man” is above all a political animal. This makes political space more worthy than the household, where survival needs are taken care of.The essence of politics is to rise

34

Camilla Stivers

above this necessity, to demonstrate one’s unique contributions and points of view (Arendt, 1958; Aristotle, 1981). Machiavelli made a similar distinction. Political virtue (from vir, man) consisted in statecraft: achieving control over matter (from mater, mother), and over fate or fortune (he famously said, “Fortune is a woman”). Here again, affairs of state are defined as distinct from and superior to womanly things (Pitkin, 1984). Western philosophy continued to develop in this vein. For Locke, the chief objective of government is to protect the property rights of individuals. Yet, he postulates the “natural” political inferiority of women (who are presumably also individuals) based on the burdens of childbearing (Clark, 1979). Rousseau’s ideal state depends on the existence of the home as a refuge to which the male citizen can retreat from the demands of public life to have his physical and emotional needs met by his woman (Lange, 1979). Early feminists, such as Mary Wollstonecraft, argued that the liberation of women required expanding civil and political rights as they had been defined in theories such as those articulated by the above-cited philosophers. Wollstonecraft and others pointed out that the exclusion of women from public life contradicted political principles such as equality among citizens and universal voting rights. Yet, the contradiction between liberal values and the actual political position of women remained firmly in place (Young, 1987). Even today, despite women having won the right to vote almost a century ago, and despite public bureaucracies having long been open to women, discontinuity between formal rights and actual opportunities persists. Feminist theories at the dawn of the twenty-first century argue that the very terms of modern publicness contain masculine biases about human nature, the meaning of masculinity versus femininity, and the nature of society and the state. This protracted debate may mean that simply granting women equal opportunity to enter the public sphere is not enough to ensure equality, since the goal of numerical parity confronts entrenched attitudes that somehow women’s “nature” is out of sync with the values, duties, and responsibilities of public life (Benhabib & Cornell, 1987; Landes, 1988; Stivers, 2002).

Women in the History of American Public Life The framers of the new American government briefly considered the political role of women. As discussed in Chapter 1 of this book, Abigail Adams cautioned her husband John to “remember the ladies” when designing the new nation. She declared that if women were not included in the public conversation about the Constitution, they might not consider themselves bound by what men came up with. John Adams responded with a verbal pat on the head, but to his male colleagues he indicated that he knew this issue was serious: Whence arises the right of the men to govern the women, without their consent? . . .You will say, because their delicacy renders them unfit for . . . the

Women in Public Service

35

arduous cares of state . . . But will not these reasons apply to others? . . . New claims will arise; women will demand a vote; . . . and every man who has not a farthing, will demand an equal voice. (quoted in Rossi, 1973, pp. 10–15) Despite legal restrictions (or perhaps because of them), in late eighteenth-century America, a uniquely feminine idea of public virtue began to emerge: republican motherhood.Women’s place in public life, it was said, was to encourage public spirit in their husbands and foster it in their sons. The home became seen as the wellspring of public virtue. By offering a version of virtue tied to the home rather than to actual participation in public space, republican motherhood gradually shifted the meaning of public political action to a more self-interested, competitive model—one more consistent with prevailing ideas of masculinity (Bloch, 1987). Instead of opening politics to women, republican motherhood reinforced the divide between women’s and men’s roles by setting up two distinct gender-based models of public life. Masculine public life became associated with rational selfinterest, whether in business or government, and feminine public life with the domestic roots of public virtue. It should be noted that republican motherhood and related notions of “true womanhood” had clear race and class bias. White women dismissed the idea that virtuous womanhood was attainable by Black women, even after emancipation. True womanhood was only open to relatively privileged women, or “ladies.” The need to make a living required working-class women to mesh employment, homemaking, and child care (Deutsch, 2000, pp. 287–288). Thus, they could hardly be seen as guarding domestic virtue. For their part, African-American women’s activities in public space were pursued in a post-emancipation Black public sphere situated in the church and in mass public meetings (Brown, 1994).These class and race constraints are important because they help to clarify the elite base from which evolved today’s understandings of public service within public administration.

Two Modes of Public Life The upshot of the above discussion is that the gendered division of social and political responsibilities in early American society gradually produced not just a public/domestic split but also a split within public life, with men involved in party politics and women in charitable work. Nineteenth-century American politics, fraught though it was with ethnic, racial, and regional issue conflicts, expanded rapidly to White men of all economic classes. Men’s public life before the Civil War was concentrated at the local level; public spirit expressed itself in political clubs and outdoor mass meetings. The masculine rhetoric of the political arena was striking: metaphors of warfare, cockfighting, and boxing abounded. Debate was raucous, and participation was direct and visible. Speakers derided their opponents as “grandmas” and “eunuchs” (Edwards, 1997; McGerr, 1986; Wiebe, 1995).

36

Camilla Stivers

During the same period, women were excluded from politics. As one man noted, “The presence of women would make us slaves and convert the temple of wisdom into that of love” (Ryan, 1992, p. 266). Some women played symbolic roles at public celebrations, lending the masculine rough-and-tumble of politics notes of virtue and refinement:“The ‘angel of the home’ legitimized the machinery of politics, and the machine validated the angel” (Edwards, 1997, p. 4). Genderrelated differences justified arrangements that otherwise had nothing to do with sexuality. Male politics defined itself in terms of the simultaneous presence and exclusion of women (Scott, 1989). Prior to the Civil War, the role of elite women as protectors of society’s virtue gave them openings into a differently understood public space, through charitable work and through involvement in causes such as temperance and abolition. Arguing that their duties could not be restricted to the household, well-to-do women took upon themselves the responsibility of caring for the poor and the dependent.They established orphan asylums and societies to care for widows, then expanded to relief and charitable associations developing the practice of “friendly visiting” (carrying food baskets and advice to poor families)—the precursor of today’s casework. Ultimately, by creating institutions that provided education, vocational training, and moral guidance to the poor, female volunteers constructed a private system of public welfare (Ryan, 1997). In an era when governments were relatively small and weak, this work met a public need through private means.Thus, gender kept in place the public-private dichotomy so central to classical liberalism. The onset of the Civil War afforded fresh ways for women to act publicly. Men left government jobs to join the fight, and the federal government for the first time opened jobs to women that were previously held by men. The Treasury Department hired women to clip and count paper currency at $600 per annum, or half the lowest male salary (Stivers, 2002).The simultaneous presence of women and men in government offices breached the public-private divide as had the economic sphere—the world of factories and stores—that included both sexes almost from the day “work” began to move outside the household. Women’s entrance into public employment was justified differently from their volunteer charitable work. Women took government jobs because “federal offices needed cheap labor and middle-class women needed good jobs” (Aron, 1987, p. 182), not because the government was thought to need “true womanhood.” By 1870, there were nearly 1,000 female federal employees. When the Civil War broke out, northern White women took the first steps establishing the United States Sanitary Commission to get food, supplies, and medical care to troops on the battlefield. Although the Commission itself had an all-male membership, women were its main supporters and a key part of the volunteer workforce. They ran local relief efforts as well as 12 regional offices, coordinated regional supply networks, joined in the Commission’s decision making, and volunteered equally with men to deliver services to the battlefields (Attie, 1998; Giesburg, 2006).

Women in Public Service

37

After the war, women’s civic associations continued to expand, as did men’s. Both women and men, though their organizations were usually separate, engaged in fund-raising, teaching, visiting the needy, and administration. Both men and women sat on committees, prepared reports and leaflets, wrote letters, organized meetings, lobbied for legislation, and sought funds for their organizations. Thus, elite White women were in the forefront of activity that set the stage for the time when the need for government to take a larger role would be undeniable (Stivers, 2002). Men generally supported women’s benevolent work because they saw it as consistent with true womanhood. As nonvoters, women were legally outside the public sphere, so men regarded female benevolence as above politics (Baker, 1990). The mid to late nineteenth century saw a growing assortment of new activities. Women founded industrial schools, and allied themselves with state boards of charity. White women’s clubs established libraries and trade schools for girls, and supported laws to outlaw sweat shops and child labor. Black women were generally barred from White clubs. They set up their own clubs, established kindergartens, nursery schools, day-care programs, and old folks’ homes, and in general tried to make up for the lack of such institutions available to the Black community, particularly in the South (Brooks-Higginbotham, 1993; Giddings, 1985). Despite the many activities and important services they established, the charitable activities of elite women produced little change in beliefs about the proper role of women in general. Female benevolence was still seen as private (by most women as well as by men) and an expression of domestic rather than citizen-like virtue.

The Progressive Era In the early nineteenth century, before paid employment became common, the typical White husband and wife worked at home, doing various kinds of craftwork and farming. There was a division of labor, the wife cooking, cleaning, sewing, weaving, and doing child care, and the husband raising food crops and doing farm and craft work. Yet their labor was woven together within the same setting and a conceptual division between men’s and women’s work was not necessary (Cott, 1977). Once industrialization began, and paid employment became common, “work” turned into something one did outside the home for pay so that household chores no longer qualified as “work.”This change deepened the perceived divide between men’s and women’s roles, and further split ideas about what was masculine or feminine. This was so even though White women of modest means worked in factories or taught school. Gender roles were more bifurcated during this period than at any time in American life, and as discussed earlier, the charity work of well-to-do “ladies” under the banner of true womanhood did nothing to disturb the split. These stereotypes were, however, always more ideology than reality, and

38

Camilla Stivers

conformed more to the lives of the White elite than to working, minority, and/or immigrant peoples. The Progressive era thus dawned in a time of sharp gender disparities, shaping every aspect of society, including public service and government. Not surprisingly, the notion of public administration as a profession evolved as distinctly masculine, even as women’s benevolent activities expanded in ways that brought them increasingly into the public sphere. Nevertheless, Progressive reform continued to be rife with gender paradoxes and contradictions.

Womanhood Goes Public The roots of the administrative state in women’s public-spirited activities with the poor, and their deepening interest in curing urban ills, were overlooked (then and now) because of the feminine image their charitable work had taken on. Many historical accounts have shown, however, that women’s philanthropic activities, together with their understanding of its public significance, directly influenced the rise of the US administrative state and the expansion of its administrative capacity (Sklar, 1995; Skocpol, 1992; Stivers, 2000). As reformers advocated a stronger role for government, women were in the vanguard, arguing that social problems could not be solved by charity alone. They thus played a significant role in weaving together threads of virtue, competence, and public spirit in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and to the eventual expansion of the role of government itself. Two institutions structured their efforts. Women’s clubs attacked a wide range of urban problems, while social reformers, most of them women, founded settlement houses in city neighborhoods mainly inhabited by poor immigrants. Both groups aimed at better living conditions in a wide range of areas including tenement housing, sanitation and public health, garbage collection, child labor, working conditions in factories, and criminal justice.They referred to their efforts as “municipal housekeeping,” justifying their involvement in city problems as a form of true womanhood, arguing that protection of society’s virtue required them to contribute their efforts outside the home as well as inside it (Stivers, 2000). As Mary Ritter Beard, a Progressive reformer, put it: In years gone by, women would have stood by the tub or faucet and thanked bountiful providence for water of any amount or description; but now . . . their minds reach out through the long chain of circumstances that connect the faucet and tub with the gentlemen who sit in aldermanic conclave. (Beard, 1915, p. 206) Reform women were beginning to blur the sharp line between private and public that kept their public-spirited activities from being seen as political. Settlement leader Jane Addams (1902, p. 223), of Chicago’s Hull House, declared that, in

Women in Public Service

39

contrast to women, well-to-do men of the community thought of politics as “something off by itself.” Men’s reform efforts were aimed at “the correction of political machinery” instead of at living conditions and the welfare of the people. In contrast, settlement women and clubwomen saw that politics was not simply a matter of structures and mechanisms, but of the quality of life for everyone. Reform women sought to walk a fine line, using their distinctively virtuous and “feminine nature” to justify their entry into public space, and at the same time conducting their activities in what they argued was an efficient and businesslike manner. As events unfolded, women’s efforts to help, to improve, to change society, came up against growing demands in government for objectivity, cost-effectiveness, and a scientific approach, and were changed by them. Benevolent work was pressed to become systematic and professionalized to justify the expense and effort devoted to it. This was particularly the case as city governments, seeing the results of women’s work, began to assume responsibility for various innovations. The positive aspects of women’s supposed differences from men, such as benevolence, that could legitimate their work in the public sphere, were in danger of being overwhelmed by less positive stereotypes. These included weakness and emotionality that were deployed to justify restricting the role of women. A sort of coup de grâce truncated women’s efforts to perpetuate true womanhood in public space. Ironically, the blow came in the form of winning the franchise in 1920. Once women could vote, men could maintain that women were now formally equal and their distinctive contributions no longer necessary. With the franchise, social advocacy based on women’s different viewpoints was far less compelling than it had once been. Women could no longer justify their public participation on the basis of unique skills that the polity otherwise lacked. In 1914, the first woman to head a New York City agency promised to run her department “exactly as a man would” (Stivers, 2000, p. 102).The question then facing women was whether this was the best they could hope for.

Administration as Man’s Work Because public administration developed during a time in American history when virtue was seen as a feminine quality, male Progressives felt compelled to make their own approach to reform appear masculine. Because of their claim to be nonpolitical, people they thought of as party hacks accused male reformers of being sissies, calling them “Miss Nancys,” and “the third sex of politics” (Stivers, 2000, p. 10).The men of public administration fought back by trying to divest reform of the slightest shred of sentimentality, making sure it was seen as tough-minded, rational, scientific, and businesslike. Leaders of the New York Bureau of Municipal Research, a pioneering organization that offered the first professional training for careers in public administration, aligned themselves with the dictates of Frederick Taylor’s (1911) scientific management. “Science” suggested disinterestedness (as opposed to benevolence),

40

Camilla Stivers

and “management” connoted mastery, firm guidance, and executive leadership. The bureau men insisted they were not “volunteers” (a term linked to women), but expert scientists. Volunteers were emotional amateurs, in contrast to professionals armed with real knowledge (Stivers, 2002). In addition, the fact that cities were corporations prompted male reformers to view municipal government as a “great business enterprise whose stockholders are the people,” as Dayton industrialist John H. Patterson declared (Weinstein, 1968, p. 93). Frederick Cleveland (1909), a leader of the New York Bureau, argued that managing a municipal government was essentially the same as managing a private corporation, an argument that persists to this day. The power of scientific management lay partly in these masculine connotations. Management had developed out of engineering, which in its early days styled itself as a sort of industrial priesthood wielding the power of mind over matter (recall that “matter” comes from mater, mother), echoing ideas of the male conquest of female nature (Strom, 1992). The cultural power of business in the early twentieth century was based on “adulation of strength . . . the transformation of the rugged frontiersman into the financier” (Karl, 1974, p. 53). In addition, scientific efficiency was the magic ingredient in the manager’s masculinity, connoting objective skill rather than emotions, discipline rather than sympathy (Haber, 1964). The ideological power of science and business was sought by men and women alike (as noted earlier with regard to women). But the benefits of this ideology for public administration were greater than was possible for social reform and settlement work. Masculinity was already culturally consistent with science and business. There was little, if any, need for reforming men to reconcile what they did with who they were, only to lay claim to the masculine image. Thus, the idea of public administration evolved to justify the work of an almost exclusively male membership, proving itself free of femininity by claiming neutral expertise. Female reformers tried to adopt images of scientific efficiency, but being businesslike clashed with their commitments to social justice and neighborliness. They could not resolve the conflict, since social needs sometimes required strategies of questionable efficiency. Femininity was condemned to seem sympathetic rather than tough, despite its best efforts (Stivers, 2000).

From the Vote to the Second Wave Women’s success in winning the vote ended the first wave of American feminism; the arrival of the second wave took more than 40 years. Neither the so-called “Jazz Age” of the 1920s, nor the Great Depression of the 1930s followed by World War II, nor the “Fifties,” with its relative economic abundance and cultural complacency, came close to dethroning gender stereotypes as they had solidified in the post-Progressive era. The consensus about appropriate masculine and feminine behaviors and the yawning divide between the public sector (government and

Women in Public Service

41

business) and the private (domestic) sphere were as pervasive in 1960 as in 1920. True, World War II and the departure of American men for the battlefields of Europe and Asia brought women into factory and other employment in droves. But after the war, a deliberate “Togetherness” advertising campaign encouraged women to go back to their proper places as housewives and mothers, and shrank their expectations about possibilities for “a career outside the home,” as it was called. In the decades between the wars, the public service ethos crafted by Progressive male reformers solidified around efficient management and strong executive leadership, pursuing scientifically-determined strategies carried out by professional experts—all easily understood, though seldom expressed, in masculine terms. Visible traces of the social welfare ethos remained, however, particularly in the New Deal era, when economic collapse produced crisis-level hardship among ordinary Americans. President Franklin Roosevelt’s policies set about providing immediate relief and long-term security, including the establishment of a minimum wage and the right to unionize. Eleanor Roosevelt convened White House conferences to discuss what she called the human side of government. A network of women administrators, spearheaded by former settlement workers, pressed for relief for women (Burnier, 2008). Thus for a time, the nearly-lost Progressive social welfare efforts bore real fruit in the face of economic disaster. As Chambers (1963, p. 267) has noted, the New Deal drew from Progressive reform “both its methods of analysis and its spiritual inspiration.” At the same time, then President Roosevelt convened a committee on administrative management to justify the vastly increased executive authority he had already exercised de facto. The committee’s product—the well-known Brownlow Report—gave him what he wanted, reflecting the strong executive values that reform men had pushed. In retrospect, the policies and administration of the New Deal can be considered a rare balance in American government between gendered understandings of public service. For a time, at least, feminine benevolence seemed to achieve a fragile synthesis with masculine authority around the idea that, as Labor Secretary Frances Perkins said, “Government in a democracy is a social service agency” (Burnier, 2008, p. 417).

The Second Wave Breaks The second wave of feminism hit American shores in the 1960s, with the publication of books such as Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, the stirrings of protest against unfair treatment of women in employment, rejection of the idea that women’s work necessarily meant housework and childcare, and challenges to beliefs about proper behavior for women and men. Over the course of the second wave and its continuing impact, gender debate continues. Two general perspectives emerged. One, typical of liberal feminism, addressed the dichotomy in gender roles by trying to wipe it out to various degrees. This

42

Camilla Stivers

perspective sees observed differences in the behavior of men and women as largely a product of cultural consensus about appropriate sex roles, and argues that by opening up opportunities to women, gender differences will become less important. Existing liberal values such as individual rights, procedural justice, and social equity are the value framework within which policies are devised to correct gender imbalances in, for example, job opportunities, hiring practices, and pay and promotion.The basic argument is that the nation is not living up to its own values by restricting women’s lives to outmoded patterns. Equal opportunity is simply a matter of justice. The second perspective, which emerged somewhat in reaction to the one above, takes the position that perceived differences between men and women matter, whether or not they are innate. Existing systems and norms are seen as gendered rather than neutral, that is, they are lopsided products of male experiences and values, and therefore biased. Women’s experiences and values are not only different but worthy in their own right, and their influence needs to be strengthened. In contrast to the liberal view, it is not only individual women who need access to the public sphere but their values and practices as well. Unlike liberal feminism that simply opens the existing system to women, this second, “essentialist” perspective seeks to improve the system by introducing women’s different qualities—much like the claims made by Progressive-era women. Arguably, equal opportunity feminism perpetuates the male insistence that public service has no gender, whereas the “difference” variety preserves the reform idea that women have something unique and valuable to bring to public life. In the early 1990s, yet a third perspective came into prominence, insisting that the gender debate glosses over real differences among women produced by race, class, history, and culture. From this viewpoint, the experiences of poor, minority group women and elite, White woman may be more different than similar. Thus, sweeping generalizations about women’s experiences or women’s values may be as biased, in their way, as are men’s generalizations about human nature or neutral objectivity. This framework means that it may not be correct to assume that women’s values (or anyone’s, for that matter) are what they might have been if the course of history and culture had been different. In other words, do we know what women’s values or behavior would be like if they had not been barred from public life through time immemorial? The question then becomes whether there is a form of feminism that neither idealizes nor cancels out women’s varied experiences. Recent work on “intersectionality,” pioneered by Crenshaw (1991), is developing theories along this line that examine how identity categories such as race and gender intersect to influence lives and attitudes in public service (Bearfield, 2009).

The Gender Dialogue in Public Service Today The second wave of feminism changed the dialogue around women’s place in society. In the US and elsewhere, long-held assumptions came into question,

Women in Public Service

43

though new understandings took a long time to emerge, and are still doing so. In public service, two trends seem noteworthy. The first is new attention to the extent of the entry of women into public service occupations; the second is examination, largely for the first time, of ways in which viewing the profession through the lens of gender requires practitioners and academics to think differently about key concepts and practices. Debra Stewart (1975) broke ground with a discussion in the Public Administration Review of four books on women’s role in public space and on policies affecting it. Stewart observed a common theme of opportunity expansion, and noted that none provided a persuasive answer to the question of why women’s opportunities had been thus far constrained. She suggests that culture is a major factor: gender roles define occupational roles, and the roles assigned to women are the same as have been imposed throughout history upon subordinate groups. She concludes that equal opportunity is unlikely to make progress unless public administration recognizes the need to change some of its basic assumptions. Stewart’s analysis pioneered in critiquing equal opportunity and its concentration on the sheer numbers of women entering and advancing in public service. A year later, Public Administration Review featured a symposium on women’s issues. Not surprisingly, most of the articles, thoughtful though they were, focused on the numbers: on the status of women in the profession, on their entry into professional roles, on their advancement to the top, and on the need for affirmative action. For the purposes of the present discussion, the most noteworthy article pioneered the issue of how feminism calls into question key concepts in the professional field. Robert B. Denhardt and Jan Perkins’s article “The coming death of administrative man” (1976) remains a landmark. The authors attacked Herbert Simon’s argument that “administrative man,” with his [sic] dedication to the goals of the organization and his habit of doing whatever is necessary to achieve them, takes his place beside “economic man.” This use of the word “man” has long been regarded as a neutral synonym for “human being.” Denhardt and Perkins, however, ask us to take the term literally, and notice the masculinity of Simon’s “man” and the organization he inhabits: linear rationality, efficiency, domination through hierarchical authority, and the sacrifice of family and other emotional affiliations to agency needs. To this instrumental model of the organization, the authors contrast feminist values as demonstrated in women’s rights organizations of the time: group activity, a balance between task and process, non-hierarchical leadership, and the mutual adjustment of work with family. Perceptively, Denhardt and Perkins note that simply increasing the numbers of women in administrative agencies will not by itself bring about the death of administrative man, since women will be pressured to conform to the model. They recommend mutual aid groups among organizational women, consciousness-raising, and resisting hierarchical domination with the authority of personal experience.The implication is that the arrival of non-sexist organizations is going to take some time.

44

Camilla Stivers

In 1993, Stivers argued that “like other public sector activities, public administration is structurally male.” The administrative state depends on women bearing a disproportionate social burden, to take care of domestic functions without which life and society would not be possible. Thus, the administrative profession and its institutions rely on the relative subordination of women to a set of duties that may be necessary to survival but are nonetheless regarded as less valuable and significant than work in public. Their lopsided share of home and family responsibilities, by keeping in place stereotypes about their “nature,” limits women’s life chances as well as the time and energy they have to devote to public service (Stivers, 1993, p. 5). This arrangement is paradoxical because the state depends on the household to take care of basic human needs, yet does not acknowledge the political relevance of stereotypes that maintain a split between the two. This contradictory foundation makes it possible for people within the professional field to take for granted the supposed objectivity and neutrality of central values such as science, efficiency, management, leadership, and indeed professionalism itself, despite their historical and cultural masculine roots. Since the late 1990s, critical examination of gender in public administration has changed the conversation in the professional field, supporting claims based on equity and justice with analysis into the sources of resistance to them, especially the persistence of outdated stereotypes. In general, written work and professional activities in the field continue to give preferential attention to classical liberal strategies aimed at increasing the numbers of women in public service and at breaking through glass ceilings and glass walls that limit their access to greater authority and influence within public bureaucracies (Alkadry & Tower, 2006; Dolan 2004; Meier & Wilkins, 2002). In addition, scholars are researching the question of whether men and women manage or lead differently from one another (Guy & Newman, 2004; Portillo & DeHart-Davis, 2009). A few contributions have shown how gender analysis reveals unnoticed masculine bias in apparently neutral ideas. Four brief illustrations are as follows: •

•

•

Connell (2006) critically analyzes the shortcomings of the “glass ceiling” metaphor and offers instead the notion of “gendered institutions.” Whereas the glass ceiling fits within a classical liberal framework that simply requires adding more women to public organizations, the concept of gendered institutions reveals why an additive approach will fail to destabilize fundamentally gendered ideologies like “administrative man.” Burnier (2006) performs a gender analysis at three levels of the National Performance Review report.Whereas words in the report in isolation may be genderinclusive, sentences unthinkingly perpetuate masculine privilege. Two distinct discourses, masculine market and feminine care, remain in fundamental tension. McKay and Rhodes (2013) examine the gendered organizational dynamics of British departmental courts to show how beliefs enacted in organizational practices constrain women to act according to masculine models.

Women in Public Service

•

45

Gabriele (2015) argues that ubiquitous research on networked governance in recent years neglects the origins of the network idea in the work of Progressive-era women reformers, including non-bureaucratic service delivery models, public-private partnerships, and values of mutual accountability and democratic management.

The Next Wave? The story of gender’s effect on the theory and practice of public service and public administration remains unfinished. The “add women and stir” approach to gender equity continues, along with analyses of the sources of persistent gender discrimination, and explorations of new ways of thinking. In some circles of Western society, it is said that we are entering a “post-feminist” era. Feminism is supposedly dead, or at least we have achieved all that equity and justice require. Equal opportunity is not only all we need, but we have accomplished it.Yet, given centuries of women’s subordination, this is likely to be an overly optimistic conclusion. It may be that a third wave of feminism is about to break. According to Hutchinson and Mann (2006), second-wave thinking has stalled in the face of a stubborn social reality: women have two jobs now instead of one, prompting both women and men to think anew. One element in this new wave is that gender discrimination is losing its either/ or quality now that sex/gender is increasingly understood as a spectrum rather than a dichotomy. The location of individuals all along this spectrum has sparked new attention to the construction of individual identities. Categories like “woman” and “man” no longer seem adequate to fragmented and fluid subjectivities. Instead the next wave may be a form of “gender anarchy . . . the effort to dismantle common assumptions about gender and sex, starting with our own gender identities” (Hutchinson & Mann, 2006, p. 411). Feminists have long argued that our understanding of gender is culturally and politically produced. Gender anarchy, especially if race and class intersect at parity with gender, moves another level deeper, seeing identity itself as not only multi-faceted but something produced rather than born into. This move strongly signals the need for democratic contestation—arguing and negotiating, rather than attempting to settle questions and trying to sink our disputes once and for all into new foundations. Such a move may enable those who care about public service to go beyond the second wave’s ebbing tide to new sources of energy, imagination, and freedom.

References Addams, J. (1902). Democracy and social ethics. New York: MacMillan. Alkadry, M. G., & Tower, L. E. (2006). Unequal pay:The role of gender. Public Administration Review, 66, 888–898. Arendt, H. (1958). The human condition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

46

Camilla Stivers

Aristotle. (1981). The politics. (T.A. Sinclair, Trans.). Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. Aron, C. S. (1987). Ladies and gentlemen of the civil service: Middle class workers in Victorian America. New York: Oxford University Press. Attie, J. (1998). Patriotic toil. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Baker, P. (1990). The domestication of politics: Women and American political society, 1780-1920. In L. Gordon (Ed.), Women, the state, and welfare (pp. 55–90). Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. Beard, M. R. (1915). The legislative influence of unenfranchised women. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 41, 54–61. Bearfield, D. (2009). Equity at the intersection: Public administration and the study of gender. Public Administration Review, 69, 383–385. Benhabib, S., & Cornell, D. (Eds.). (1987). Feminism as critique: Essays on the politics of gender in late-capitalist societies. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Bloch, R. H. (1987). The gendered meanings of virtue in revolutionary America. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 13, 37–58. Brooks-Higginbotham, E. (1993). Righteous discontent: The women’s movement in the black Baptist church, 1880–1920. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Brown, E. B. (1994). Negotiating and transforming the public sphere. Public Culture, 7, 107–146. Burnier, D. (2006). Masculine markets and feminine care: A gender analysis of the National Performance Review. Public Administration Review, 66, 861–872. Burnier, D. (2008). Frances Perkins and the emergence of care-centered public administration. Administration & Society, 40, 403–422. Chambers, C. (1963). Seedtime of reform: American social service and social action, 1918–1933. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Clark, L. M. G. (1979). Women and Locke: Who owns the apple in the Garden of Eden? In L. M. G. Clark, & L. Lange (Eds.). The sexism of social and political theory:Women and reproduction from Plato to Nietzsche (pp. 16–40). Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press. Cleveland, F. A. (1909). Chapters on municipal administration and accounting. New York: Longmans, Green. Connell, R. (2006). Glass ceilings or gendered institutions? Mapping the gender regimes of public sector worksites. Public Administration Review, 66, 837–849. Cott, N. F. (1977). The bonds of womanhood: Women’s sphere in New England, 1780–1830. New Haven, CT:Yale University Press. Crenshaw, K. (1991). Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43, 1241–1299. Denhardt, R., & Perkins, J. (1976). The coming death of administrative man. Public Administration Review, 36, 379–384. Deutsch, S. (2000). Women and the city: Gender, space, and politics in Boston, 1870–1940. New York: Oxford University Press. Dolan, J. (2004). Gender equity: Illusion or reality in the Federal Executive Service? Public Administration Review, 64, 299–308. Edwards, R. (1997). Angels in the machinery: Gender in American party politics from the Civil War to the Progressive era. New York: Oxford University Press. Gabriele, K. R. (2015). Lessons from a buried past: Settlement women and democraticallyanchored governance networks. Administration & Society, 47, 393–415. Giddings, P. (1985). When and where I enter: The impact of black women on race and sex in America. New York: Bantam. Giesburg, J. (2006). Civil War sisterhood. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press. Guy, M. E., & Newman, M. (2004). Women’s jobs, men’s jobs: Sex segregation and emotional labor. Public Administration Review, 64, 289–298.

Women in Public Service

47

Haber, S. (1964). Efficiency and uplift: Scientific management in the Progressive era, 1890–1920. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Hutchinson, J., & Mann, H. (2006). Gender anarchy and the future of feminisms in public administration. Administrative Theory & Praxis, 28, 399–417. Karl, B. (1974). Executive reorganization and reform in the New Deal:The genesis of administrative management, 1900–1939. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Landes, J. (1988). Women and the public sphere in the age of the French revolution. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Lange, L. (1979). Rousseau and the general will. In L. M. G. Clark, & L. Lange (Eds.), The sexism of social and political theory: Women and reproduction from Plato to Nietzsche (pp. 41–52). Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press. McGerr, M. E. (1986). The decline of popular politics: The American North, 1865–1928. New York: Oxford University Press. McKay, F., & Rhodes, R. A. W. (2013). Gender, greedy institutions, and the departmental court. Public Administration, 91, 582–598. Meier, K. J., & Wilkins, V. M. (2002). Gender issues: Gender differences in agency head salaries: The case of public education. Public Administration Review, 62, 405–411. Pitkin, H. F. (1984). Fortune is a woman: Gender and politics in the thought of Niccolo Machiavelli. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Portillo, S., & DeHart-Davis, L. (2009). Gender and organizational rule abidance. Public Administration Review, 69, 339–347. Rossi, A. S. (Ed.). (1973). The feminist papers from Adams to de Beauvoir. New York: Columbia University Press. Ryan, M. P. (1992). Gender and public access: Women’s politics in nineteenth-century America. In C. J. Calhoun (Ed.), Habermas and the public sphere (pp. 259–288). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Ryan, M. P. (1997). Civic wars: Democracy and public life in American cities during the 19th century. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Scott, J.W. (1989). Gender: A useful category of historical analysis. In E.Weed (Ed.), Coming to terms: Feminism, theory, politics (pp. 81–100). New York: Routledge. Sklar, K. K. (1995). Florence Kelley and the nation’s work: The rise of women’s political culture, 1830–1900. New Haven, CT and London:Yale University Press. Skocpol,T. (1992). Protecting soldiers and mothers:The political origins of social policy in the United States. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Stewart, D. (1975).Women and the public service. Public Administration Review, 35, 641–646. Stivers, C. (1993). Gender images in public administration: Legitimacy and the administrative state. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Stivers, C. (2000). Bureau men, settlement women: Constructing public administration in the Progressive era. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. Stivers, C. (2002). Gender images in public administration: Legitimacy and the administrative state (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Strom, S. H. (1992). Beyond the typewriter: Gender, class, and the origins of modern American office work, 1900–1930. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. Taylor, F. (1911). The principles of scientific management. New York: Harper. Weinstein, J. (1968). The corporate ideal in the liberal state, 1900–1918. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Wiebe, R. (1995). Self-rule: A cultural history of American democracy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Young, I. M. (1987). Impartiality and the civic public. In S. Benhabib, & D. Cornell (Eds.), Feminism as critique (pp. 56–76). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

4 BREAKING THE MOLD Women as International Leaders Mary E. Guy and Samantha J. Larson

Few women attain national leadership positions. Those who have are exceptional and part of a very small group. Around the globe, just 147 have been elected President or Prime Minister since 1940, despite the fact that the past 75 years have seen the greatest advancements in history for women in governance. After discussing the key role that the UN has played in providing a forum for making women’s issues visible to the international community, this chapter provides biographies of ten extraordinary women. They are: Eleanor Roosevelt, because of her international leadership in creating the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women, Madeleine Albright, because she was the first US woman to serve as Secretary of State, and eight elected leaders: Michelle Bachelet (Chile), Sirimavo Bandaranaike (Sri Lanka), Benazir Bhutto (Pakistan), Indira Gandhi (India), Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Liberia), Golda Meir (Israel), Angela Merkel (Germany), and Margaret Thatcher (UK). The chapter concludes with our observations on similarities and differences in the lives of these exceptional women. Women’s leadership in their neighborhoods is “normal” and not unexpected. They are, however, often overshadowed by men when the orbit extends beyond the home front. Yet there are women who are path setters, that is, they are so exceptional that they have succeeded in breaking through the barriers that constrain most. In this chapter, we highlight ten such path setters and show how their contributions have extended far beyond neighborhood and even national borders. We begin with a discussion of how we selected the path setters featured in the chapter. We then discuss the UN, the organization that has increased awareness of the status of women globally and provided a stage on which they have been able to address the world. This is followed by a biography of each of the women featured in the chapter. We conclude with a comparison of similarities and differences in their lives.

Women as International Leaders

49

Selection of Path Setters The path setters who are featured in the chapter were selected based on their lasting legacy. Except for two, each was the first to serve in the highest elected office ever filled by a woman in her nation. More nations have never elected or appointed a woman as head of state than have, and the US falls into the former category. For this reason, Eleanor Roosevelt, a President’s wife, is included due to her seminal role in the creation of the UN and its advancement of human rights and gender equality. Madeleine Albright is included because she was the first woman to serve as US Secretary of State. Among the nations that have elected women to their top leadership position, the possibilities for inclusion in the chapter were narrowed based on the scale of their political careers. Chapter 1 of this book provides a list of the 147 women who have served as their nation’s leader since 1940. Though any of them could have been included in our chapter, many served a term of less than one year, suggesting that they had little time and capacity to substantively affect policy.We were also interested in women who left meaningful footprints, so those selected served a minimum of four years in office. Furthermore, we sought women whose influence extended beyond national borders and gained attention from the global community. Working for, or speaking before, the UN was used as a proxy for this criterion. Finally, the women were selected to represent a diversity of political, social, and geographical contexts. Each woman included in the chapter achieved a position of high influence, yet, as shown in Table 4.1, there is no single pattern that characterizes all. Four were born into families of privilege, six were not. Most traveled internationally in their youth, but some did not. All of them married but, due to separation, divorce, or widowhood, only two – Bhutto and Thatcher – remained married to their first husbands throughout their terms in office. Nine had children, but Merkel did not. Most, but not all, were of liberal political leanings.There is, however, a link among all of the women included in the chapter. They were all directly or indirectly linked to the UN.

The UN as the Common Thread The UN is a common thread that connects women leaders – either directly or indirectly – who have emerged in the modern era. For some of the women featured here, the UN provided an organizational footing for them to represent their countries among the rest of the world’s leaders. For those who did not personally serve in a formal capacity in their country’s delegation, the UN established entities that would provide a recognition of the rights of women and the role of women in governance that was lacking before its creation. Figure 4.1 presents a timeline that shows the symbiosis between key UN dates and the ascension of women to leadership positions around the globe.

Prominent Family

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Leader

Madeleine Albright 1937–

Michelle Bachelet 1951–

Sirimavo Bandaranaike 1916–2000

Benazir Bhutto 1953–2007

Indira Gandhi 1917–1984

TABLE 4.1 Characteristics of Path Setters

BA in Comparative Government Radcliffe CollegeHarvard University Some College Oxford University

Secondary School Graduate St. Bridget’s Convent

PhD in Public Law and Government Columbia University MD University of Chile

Highest Degree Earned

Prime Minister of India

Prime Minister of Pakistan

Prime Minister of Sri Lanka

President of Chile

US Secretary of State

Position

1966–1977, 1980–1984

1960–1965, 1970–1972, 1972–1977, 1994–2000 1988–1990, 1993–1996

2006–2010, 2014–

1997–2001

Term(s)

Indian National Congress

Pakistan Peoples Party

Socialist

Socialist Party of Chile

Democratic

Political Party

Married 1942 Widowed 1960 2 Children

Married 1987 3 Children

Married 1959 Divorced 1982 3 Children Married 1977 Separated 1984 3 Children Married 1940 Widowed 1959 3 Children

Family Status

Prominent Family

Yes

No

No

Yes

No

Leader

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf 1938–

Golda Meir 1898–1978

Angela Merkel 1954–

Eleanor Roosevelt 1884–1962

Margaret Thatcher 1925–2013

TABLE 4.1 (continued)

Barrister Degree City Law School

Teaching Certificate Wisconsin State Normal School PhD in Quantam Chemistry East German Academy of Sciences Some College Allenswood Academy

MPA Harvard University

Highest Degree Earned

Prime Minister of the UK

1979–1990

1933–1945, 1946–1952

2005–

Chancellor of Germany

First Lady, US Delegate to UN

1969–1974

2006–

Term(s)

Prime Minister of Israel

President of Liberia

Position

Conservative

Democratic

Christian Democratic Union

Mapai Labor Party

Unity Party

Political Party

Married 1955 Divorced 1960 4 Children Married 1917 Widowed 1951 2 Children Married 1977 Divorced 1982 Remarried 1998 No Children Married 1905 Widowed 1945 6 Children Married 1942 Widowed 2003 2 Children

Family Status

FIGURE 4.1

1950

1960

History of United Nations and Women Path Setters

1969: Meir elected Prime Minister of Israel

1975: First UN World Conference on Women

2000

1997: Albright sworn in as U.S. Secretary of State

1990

1988: Bhutto elected Prime Minister of Pakistan

1980

2010: Bachelet becomes first Executive Director of UN Women

2010

2020

2015: UN Women Release Planet 50-50 by 2030

2005: Sirleaf, Bachelet, and Merkel elected as Head of State

1995: UN Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action

1987: UN moves to address gender equality as mainstream rather than separate issue 1979: Thatcher elected Prime Minister of United Kingdom

1970

1966: Gandhi elected Prime Minister of India

1960: Bandaranaike elected Prime Minister of Sri Lanka

1948: Adoption of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Chaired by Roosevelt)

1940

1953: First UN Convention on Political Rights of Women

1946: Roosevelt appointed US Delegate to the United Nations; UN Commission on Status of Women established

Women as International Leaders

53

Although never holding elected office, Eleanor Roosevelt is included as the first of our path setters because she, as wife of President Franklin Roosevelt, was extraordinarily influential in creating the UN and its Commission on the Status of Women, an entity that has since its inception spoken with a clear voice for the advancement of women in governance. Shortly after she was appointed as one of the first US delegates to the UN by President Harry Truman in 1946, Roosevelt addressed the UN General Assembly. Standing before a room of men, she declared: To this end, we call on the governments of the world to encourage women everywhere to take a more active part in national and international affairs, and on women who are conscious of their opportunities to come forward and share in the work of peace and reconstruction as they did in war and resistance. (Short History, n.d., p. 1) Roosevelt set the course for women’s rights on a global scale. Subsequently, the UN Commission on the Status of Women was established to promote gender equality and to empower women worldwide. Many male delegates were initially disgruntled with Roosevelt’s presence, and she was aware of this. She recalled: I knew that as the only woman I had better be better than anybody else . . . I knew that if I in any way failed that it would not just be my failure. It would be the failure of all women and there would never be another woman on the delegation. (Neal, n.d., p. 1) Her participation was consequential. Within months, she was elected chair of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) Committee. The Declaration was unique in that it used gender inclusive language, rather than using the word “men” as synonymous for all humanity. Adopted in 1948, the document still serves as the basis for most constitutions nearly 70 years later and holds the record in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most translated text (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2016). By the end of World War II, only about half of all countries had granted women full political liberty and the right to vote (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2016). In an effort to address this lack of rights, the UN adopted the first Convention on Political Rights of Women in 1953. Its preamble reiterates principles set forth in the UDHR that all people have a right to participate in their government. The document codifies an international standard for women’s political rights.The main impetus for the legislation and much of its drafting had come from the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

54

Mary E. Guy and Samantha J. Larson

Global awareness of the rights and competence of women to govern gradually increased, and subsequent years saw several women rise to positions of prominence. First among these was Sirimova Bandaranaike, who was elected Prime Minister of Ceylon after her husband’s death in 1960. Her ascension was soon followed by Indira Gandhi’s election to Prime Minister of India in 1966. The rise to power of both women had been set in motion by their families. Before Gandhi was elected Prime Minister of India, a foundation for women’s empowerment had been established by her paternal aunt, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, the first Indian woman to be named to a cabinet post. Already prominent within the Indian Congress Party, Pandit gained global attention when she unofficially represented India at the first UN conference in 1945, advocating immediate independence for her country from British rule in a speech to the 51 original UN member states (Mallik, 2006). From 1946 until 1968, Pandit headed the Indian delegation to the UN, and in 1953 became the first female President of the UN General Assembly. In 1972, Prime Minister Gandhi addressed the body that her aunt had led, becoming one of the world’s first public figures to discuss the relationship between climate change and poverty (Short History, n.d.). Three years after Gandhi’s election, Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel. She had served as Foreign Minister from 1956 until 1966 when she retired due to health reasons, but soon returned to public life as Secretary General of Prime Minister Levi Eshkol’s Mapai Party. In October 1967, Meir gave her “Israel Committed to Peace” address to the UN General Assembly in which she appealed to neighboring Arab states to seek peaceful co-existence with Israel.When Eshkol died in 1969, Meir was selected to be his successor (BBC, 1969). In 1975, the First UN World Conference on Women was held in Mexico City with 133 governments participating, while 6,000 NGO representatives were attending a parallel forum, the International Women’s Year Tribune. Working in concert, the two groups defined a World Plan of Action for the Implementation of the Objectives of the International Women’s Year. The Plan offered a comprehensive set of guidelines for the advancement of women (UN Women, n.d.a) and served as a catalyst in expanding the women’s movement to an international scale. As acceptance of women in governance grew, Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister of the UK. In 1985, on the UN’s 40th Anniversary, she gave a speech to the General Assembly on the organization’s successes, failures, and next steps. In 1989, she delivered a speech to the same body stressing the importance of a global response to climate change (Dee, 2013). Upon her death,Thatcher was lauded by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon “as the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who not only demonstrated her leadership but has given such great hope for . . . gender equality” (UN News Centre, 2013). The tide of UN initiatives for gender equality continued as the organization moved treatment of gender equality into the mainstream of its initiatives. In 1987, as follow-up to the Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi, the Commission on the Status of Women took the lead in coordinating and promoting the UN’s

Women as International Leaders

55

work on economic and social issues for women’s empowerment. During the same period, the Commission helped bring violence against women to the forefront of international debates.These efforts resulted in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women that was adopted by the General Assembly in 1993 (UN Women, n.d.b). Coinciding with the mainstreaming activities at the UN, Benazir Bhutto was elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, holding the office from 1988 until 1990 and again from 1993 until 1996. At the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, she made a powerful speech, distinguishing between social conventions that keep women in the position of second-class citizens and religious tenets that become conflated with damaging norms. She argued that Islam protects the rights of women and urged Muslims to speak up on the distinction (Bhutto, 1995). Bhutto was assassinated while campaigning for another term as Prime Minister in 2007 (Baughman & O’Hara, 2010) and was posthumously awarded the UN Human Rights Prize in 2008. She became an inspiration to Pakistani women and girls that continues today. For example, after the Taliban attempted to murder teenager Malala Yousafzai in 2012 for advocating education for girls, Yousafzai spoke before the UN in 2013 to promote education for all. When she did, as homage to the former Prime Minister, she wore a white shawl that had been worn by Bhutto (The Eloquent Woman, 2013).The UN Special Envoy for Global Education later launched a petition in Yousafzai’s name, advocating that all children worldwide have access to education by the end of 2015. The UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 marked a turning point for the global agenda for gender equality. The Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action, adopted by 189 countries, became an agenda for female empowerment and a key global policy document on gender equality (UN Women, n.d.a). Madeleine Albright, US Ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 until 1997, addressed the Beijing conference declaring that the US delegation would seek to press for the rights of women worldwide. She also emphasized that forced abortion and sterilization practices in China would be issues raised by the delegation (Lamour, 1995). After the Beijing conference, Albright and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton established the Vital Voices Global Partnership (2010), an NGO that continues to identify, train, and empower emerging women leaders and social entrepreneurs around the globe. Based on her service to the UN and success in foreign affairs, President William Jefferson Clinton appointed Albright as the first woman to serve as US Secretary of State in 1997, a position she held until the Clinton Administration ended in 2001. In terms of women in national leadership, 2005 was a watershed year. Three women, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Michelle Bachelet, and Angela Merkel, were elected as Heads of State. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected President of Liberia. Prior to her election, she had served as the Director of the UN Development Programme’s Regional Bureau for Africa from 1992 until 1997. Another Liberian woman, Angie Elisabeth Brooks, had been a delegate to the UN in 1954 and served as

56

Mary E. Guy and Samantha J. Larson

President of the General Assembly in 1969. Sirleaf paid tribute to Brooks, describing her as “a trailblazer and a champion for political freedom and gender equality, who became a symbol for women’s rights through hard work and perseverance. The legacy of the late Angie Brooks-Randolph . . . lives on as women everywhere continue to succeed against the odds” (The Executive Mansion, 2007). Michelle Bachelet was elected President of Chile in 2005. One year later, she addressed the UN General Assembly to call for a greater focus on human rights, poverty, and reform in the body of the UN (The Santiago Times, 2006). Such reform was realized when a new body called UN Women was formed in 2010. Bachelet, whose term as Chile’s President had come to an end, was appointed its first Executive Director and served in this position from 2010 until 2013 when she resigned and was again elected President of Chile. Angela Merkel was elected Chancellor of Germany in 2005. In 2007, she addressed the UN General Assembly and, like her fellow scientist UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had done a decade earlier, lauded the decision to make climate change the focus of the General Assembly in its upcoming year (Merkel, 2007). Merkel addressed the General Assembly again in 2010 in regard to the Millennium Development Goals (Merkel, 2010). Each of these ten path setters left her footprints on the road opened by the UN. First, since its inception, the UN has catalyzed action on behalf of gender equality. Eleanor Roosevelt played a key role in establishing both the UN and its Commission on the Status of Women and her legacy provides the foundation for the advancement of women globally. She never held national political office, but her work ensured that women could and would. Second, the UN has provided a stage on which women leaders have spoken, enhancing their credibility and diminishing the world’s resistance to their presence in global leadership.Third, for many women the UN has provided a forum to address issues that cross-national borders such as climate change, poverty, and human rights. And, the mission continues. As the Beijing Platform for Action turned 20 years old in 2015, UN Women released a document, “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality” calling on national governments to address the challenges that prevent women and girls from reaching their full potential (UN Women, n.d.c).

Path Setter Biographies Discussion now turns to descriptions of the lives of the women included in the timeline. They are presented in chronological order.

Eleanor Roosevelt: Activist First Lady and Advocate for the UN and Human Rights Eleanor Roosevelt’s path was set before she was born in 1884. A child of privilege, she was raised by her extended family after her parents passed away when she was

Women as International Leaders

57

nine years old, ensuring that she would take the route for which she was scripted. As a teen, she was sent to a finishing school in England and then brought back to the US to find the right husband. At age 20, she married her fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and followed in his shadow as he progressively pursued higher political posts. After World War I, however, her preordained route ended and exigencies of the times shaped the remainder of her life. Her role as politician’s wife exposed her to the human condition and sparked a social conscience that would become legendary (MacLeish, 1965). Traumas of World War I made privilege less important as shell-shocked soldiers returning from battle changed people’s perceptions about the costs necessary to achieve victory. As a politician’s wife, Roosevelt advocated for US involvement in the League of Nations. Although that effort was not successful, her persistence contributed to Franklin Roosevelt’s endorsement of the UN a generation later. Believing that only an international organization could prevent the bloodshed of war, Eleanor was its staunchest advocate, lobbying persuasively for it as she traveled the world as First Lady. During her husband’s presidency, Eleanor broke the mold for how the First Lady was to behave. Her travels made her the eyes and ears of the Administration. Clocking thousands of miles, she reported back on child welfare, unemployment, and housing issues that resulted from the Great Depression. During World War II, she boosted soldier morale by visiting bases across the globe and becoming “pen pals” with service members. Her policy activism made her an exception and, at least temporarily, transformed the role of the President’s wife. The UN came into official existence on October 24, 1945, six months after Franklin’s death. President Truman nominated and the Senate quickly confirmed Eleanor as the only female member of the first US delegation, on which she served until 1953. Always self-effacing, she said at the time of her appointment that she felt unqualified for such a role, but she proved herself immediately and was soon elected to chair what was then called the UN Commission on Human Rights. (The UN General Assembly voted to change the name of this body to the UN Human Rights Council in 2006.) Spurred by the genocide and atrocities of World War II, the Commission’s first major task was to draft the Declaration of Human Rights. The document was adopted by the General Assembly on December 10, 1948 and Roosevelt asserted that it could become the international Magna Carta for all people (Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, 2007). Although it has no legally binding statutes, the Declaration has inspired many other agreements such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; the International Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. During the UN’s formative years, Eleanor traveled the world to investigate social conditions and promote humanitarian and diplomatic aid (Franklin

58

Mary E. Guy and Samantha J. Larson

D. Roosevelt Library & Museum, 2015), institutionalizing the organization as she did so and breaking barriers for women at the same time. Roosevelt’s contributions were many and her legacy and international acclaim paved the way for other women. Golda Meir, 14 years younger than Eleanor, was one of them.

Golda Meir: First Woman Prime Minister of Israel Golda Mabovitch was born in Ukraine in 1898. She emigrated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with her family when she was eight years old to escape rampant antiSemitic violence in her home country. Golda wanted to be a teacher, but her parents objected on the grounds that teachers were not permitted to marry. Her father warned that “It doesn’t pay to be too clever . . . Men don’t like smart girls” (Miriamscup.com, n.d.).To avoid battling with her parents, Golda left home when she was 14 to live with her newlywed sister in Denver, Colorado. While there, Golda was present at many dinner conversations where there was talk about a wide range of political and social issues including Socialist Zionism and Labor Zionism (Miriamscup.com, n.d.). Those “talk-filled nights in Denver” substantially contributed to the formation of Golda’s political convictions (Metropolitan State University of Denver, 2015). Golda would reconcile with her parents and return to Milwaukee where she earned a teaching certificate. In 1917, she took a part-time position at a Yiddish school and married Morris Meyerson whom she had met in Denver and took his name. Golda became active in Labor Zionism, a movement that fused Zionism with Socialism, and attended the first convention of the American Jewish Congress in Philadelphia. She regarded this as the beginning of her political career (Metropolitan State University of Denver, 2015). The Meyersons migrated to Palestine in 1921 and settled on a kibbutz where Golda took her first political position – the kibbutz’s representative to the Histadrut, Israel’s General Federation of Labor. Due to her husband’s failing health, however, they relocated to Jerusalem where their two children would be born. In 1928, against her husband’s wishes, Golda took a job as secretary of Histradrut’s Council for Women and moved with her children to Tel Aviv where she cofounded the Labor Party in 1930. A decade later, Golda separated from her husband, but they never legally divorced (Miriamscup.com, n.d.). In 1938, when Jews were fleeing Germany by the thousands to escape uncontrolled anti-Semitism under the Nazis, Golda was one the delegates from 32 countries to attend the International Conference on Refugees in Evian France (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2016) to discuss, but never resolve, the refugee problem. During World War II, she held several high-level positions in the Jewish Agency, the organization that served as the de facto government of the Jewish community in British-administered Palestine. She was one of just two women among the 25 signatories to the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948.

Women as International Leaders

59

Golda’s first political position in the State of Israel was as its ambassador to Russia. In 1949, she became the first woman elected to the Knesset (Israeli Parliament), and was appointed by Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, as Minister of Labor. From 1956 until 1966 she served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, the second-highest position in Israel’s government (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 1957). During this time, Golda changed her surname from Meyerson to Meir (Cavendish, 2009). In 1966, Meir wanted to retire from government but was persuaded to become Secretary General of Mapai, her political party, and, in 1967, Secretary of the Labor Party that had been formed as a merger of Mapai and two smaller parties. When Prime Minister Levi Eshkol died suddenly in 1969, Golda was persuaded to step into the position to avoid a power struggle in the Labor Party. She was elected as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel and remains the only woman to have served in this position. Golda is remembered for promoting diplomacy and her vision of peace for Israel. A decade before the “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher would grab headlines, Meir was called the “Iron Lady of the Middle East” (Burkett, 2008; Fisher, 2011). Eleanor Roosevelt once described her as “a woman one cannot help but deeply respect and deeply love” (Metropolitan State University of Denver, 2015).

Sirimavo Bandaranaike: First Women Prime Minister of Ceylon On the other side of the globe, as Roosevelt and Meir were becoming young women in the Western world, Sirimavo Bandaranaike was born in 1916 in the British-ruled nation of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). She was a descendant of a signatory to the Kandyan Convention of 1815, when the independent Kingdom of Kandy came under the control of the British Empire (Ratwatte, 2014). Her family had been prominent in politics for generations and her father was a member of the State Council and a Senator of Ceylon. Consequently, Bandaranaike came of age occupying a front row seat to the changes taking shape in the early years of the 20th century, just as Ceylon’s struggle for independence was growing. Bandaranaike was educated at St. Bridget’s Convent, a private Catholic school attended by the daughters of wealthy Ceylonese families. Although taught by Roman Catholic nuns, she maintained her Buddhist beliefs (Hoogensen & Solheim, 2006). She married into another political family in 1940. Her husband, Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike, was educated at Oxford and returned to Ceylon to become a member of the State Council. They had three children. Solomon was elected to the House of Representatives, appointed as Minister of Health and Local Government, and later founded the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) in 1951 based on democratic and socialist platforms. He was elected as Prime Minister in 1956 promising to gain complete independence from British control. He was assassinated by a man impersonating a Buddhist monk in September 1959.

60

Mary E. Guy and Samantha J. Larson

The turmoil that resulted from the assassination was breaking the SLFP apart, and its leadership saw only one way to ensure that it did not dissolve completely – select Sirimavo to fill her husband’s place as Prime Minister. Although she had no interest in entering politics, Sirimavo accepted the challenge and pledged to continue the policies her husband had initiated. Opponents called her the “weeping widow” (Jilanee, 2013) throughout the campaign because she would sometimes cry while speaking on the campaign trail. However, people still responded positively to her and the SLFP won the majority of seats. Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the first female Prime Minister of Ceylon – and the world – in the summer of 1960 (Jeyaraj, 2010). Bandaranaike’s first term lasted from 1960 until 1965. She quickly gained international attention for her leadership in foreign policy. In 1961, she represented one of 25 nations that met in Hungary to found the Nonaligned Movement (NAM), rejecting the division of nations along ideological lines of the Cold War. She provided the sole voice for women at the table, stating to the other delegates: I am happy to attend this great assembly not only as a representative of my country but also as a woman and a mother who can understand the thoughts and feelings of the millions of women, the mothers of this world, who are deeply concerned with the preservation of the human race. (Dhanapala, 2010) Bandaranaike served two additional terms as Prime Minister. From 1970 until 1977, she oversaw the adoption of a new constitution, which resulted in Ceylon becoming a republic and officially changing its name to Sri Lanka. She pushed for Sri Lanka to hold the 1976 Nonaligned Summit.That year, as Chair of the NAM, she presented the Final Declaration of the Fifth Nonaligned Summit to the UN General Assembly, detailing the two principles of the NAM: peaceful co-existence and the independence of states (Bandaranaike, 1976). Bandaranaike served a third term as Prime Minister beginning in 1994. Notably, the Pakistani President at that time was her daughter, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge. In fact, all three of her children became prominent political figures. Bandaranaike served until August 2000, when she resigned due to health reasons. She died on Election Day, October 10, 2000, shortly after casting her final ballot.

Indira Gandhi: First Woman Prime Minister in India Kamala Nehru gave birth to a daughter, Indira, in the British controlled Indian city of Allahabad in 1917, one year after Sirimavo Bandaranaike was born in Ceylon. It was a time of great change for India with the Indian National Congress, led by Mahatma Gandhi, pushing for independence from Britain and calling for the development of self-governing institutions. Indira’s father, Jawaharlal,

Women as International Leaders

61

was inspired by the movement and joined the growing struggle for independence. He was often traveling and, at times, was imprisoned (Gandhi, 1985). Indira’s secondary education began at Visva-Bharati University, but she left before graduating to care for her ailing mother who was living in Europe. While there, Inidira continued her studies in history at Oxford. Her mother passed away in 1936 and Indira, who also suffered from health problems, was treated in Switzerland, disrupting her work at Oxford. She returned to India in 1941 where she would marry Feroze Gandhi and take his name. The couple had two sons. When India gained independence from the British Empire in 1947, Indira’s father became its first Prime Minister. Around this time, her marriage became unstable and Indira moved with her father to the official residence of the Prime Minister where she would serve as his personal secretary. Indira began her own political career in the 1950s, serving as President of the Indian National Congress Party. Indira’s father died in 1964 while still in office.When Lal Bahadur Shastri took over as Prime Minister, he appointed Indira as his Minister of Information and Broadcasting. After Shastri’s sudden death two years later, the Indian National Congress Party leaders selected Indira to be Prime Minister, making her the first – and only – woman to hold the office to this day. She gained popularity through her promotion of what is often referred to as the Green Revolution moving India from being a nation heavily reliant on imported grains to one closer to food independence (Fujita, n.d.). Despite pressure on Indira to step down from her position as Prime Minister when she was found guilty of electoral corruption in 1975, she refused to do so (BBC, 2016). Instead, faced with widespread protests arising from her conviction and from the nation’s growing economic problems, Indira declared a state of emergency, reducing civil liberties, censoring the press, and detaining thousands of members of the opposition without due process (Rajgarhia, 2014).When the state of emergency was lifted and new elections called in 1977, opposition political parties along with defectors from the Indian National Congress Party came together to start the Janata Party that would go on to win a sweeping majority in the Parliament. Its candidate would defeat Gandhi. In 1979, divisions within the Janata Party led to the collapse of the government. When new elections were held in January 1980, the newly established Congress (I) Party, with the I standing for Indira, took control of the lower Indian Parliament and Gandhi became Prime Minister. But, once again, India was in economic turmoil. In response, Indira’s administration instituted Operation Forward in 1982 that resulted in a 5.7 percent increase in national income (Dash, 2000) and a decline in the inflation rate from 18.2 percent in 1980 to 6.5 percent in 1984 (Barkley & Rosser, 2004). In 1984, in an effort to defeat armed separatists demanding an independent Sikh homeland, Indira initiated the Operation Blue Star invasion of the Darbar Harmandir Sahib (the Golden Temple), in the state of Punjab. Hundreds of

62

Mary E. Guy and Samantha J. Larson

Sikhs were killed, igniting an uprising. In retaliation, Indira was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards. Thousands of Sikhs were killed in the ensuing chaos (Ians, 2008). Indira Gandhi’s legacy is consequential but contentious. She alienated the Sikhs and because of the civil rights violations she committed in the 1970s, the era remains known as the “Reign of Terror” (Agrawal, 2005).Yet, she and the Indian National Congress are positively associated with the Green Revolution that ended one of the world’s greatest famines and moved India closer to food independence.

Margaret Thatcher: First Woman Prime Minister of the UK Margaret Hilda Roberts was born in Grantham in 1925 to a politician/grocery shop owner and his wife. She earned a BSc in Chemistry from Somerville College at Oxford in 1947 where she was influenced by writers such as Friedrick Hayek, who believed in laissez-faire economics and individual self-determination (Lecher, 2013). While at Oxford she became politically active and spent her final years on campus as president of the Oxford University Conservative Association. After graduation, Margaret worked as a research chemist while nurturing her political aspirations. She moved to Dartford where she became active in the Conservative Association.While in Dartford, she met and married Denis Thatcher and gave birth to twins in 1953, the same year that she qualified as a barrister. Defeated in her first two attempts to gain a Conservative Party seat in Parliament, Thatcher and her family moved to Finchley, a Conservative district, where she was successfully elected in 1959 as its representative to Parliament. While Thatcher was recognized as a formidable politician and tagged in her early years as a potential candidate for Prime Minister, her entry into politics was catalyzed by the burgeoning women’s movement in the UK that had resulted in several important legislative actions. For example, in 1964, the Married Women’s Property Act entitled a woman to keep half of any savings she made from the allowance she was given by her husband. In 1970, the Equal Pay Act made it illegal to pay women lower rates than men for the same work. In 1967, in recognition of her accomplishments as a Member of Parliament, the US Embassy selected Thatcher for their International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), the US Department of State’s premier professional exchange program. Although she was not yet a cabinet or shadow cabinet member, in their report to the State Department, embassy officials identified Thatcher as a potential Prime Minister (Margaret Thatcher Foundation, 2016). Interestingly, as her political career progressed, advisors believed that her voice was too shrill. She began working with a speech coach, who trained her to deepen her voice to produce a more authoritative tone. Thus coached, she set out on the campaign trail for Prime Minister, was elected in 1979, and moved into 10 Downing Street where she would live for 11 years.

Women as International Leaders

63

During her tenure, Thatcher declared war on both internal and external enemies and developed special relationships with both US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev (Prados, 2011). Infamous for her resolute positions on policy matters, a Russian newspaper labeled her the “Iron Lady” (Moore, 2013). The term “Thatcherism” was also coined to signify a commitment to moral absolutism, nationalism, individualism, and uncompromising means to achieve political ends (Moore, 2013). Thatcher was not a politician who united voters; supporters loved her while detractors loathed her.To her disappointment, she was voted out of office in 1990. There are several factors cited for her loss including what was seen to be her increasingly authoritarian rule. After stepping down as Prime Minister, she founded the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, becoming the first Member of Parliament to begin a philanthropic endeavor of this nature. Even after her death in 2013, the mixed sentiments about Thatcher’s policies continue to echo throughout the UK (Bannerman & Farmery, 2013) where “Thatcherism” is praised by her supporters and vilified by her detractors.

Madeleine Albright: First Woman Secretary of State for the US Marie Jana Korbel was born in 1937 in Czechoslovakia where her father, Joseph Korbel, was a Czech diplomat. After the Nazi invasion in 1939, the family fled Czechoslovakia and spent the war years in London where Joseph served as an advisor to the exiled Czech President (Dobbs, 1997). When the war ended, Marie Jana and her parents returned to Czechoslovakia to a tumultuous political environment.To protect his daughter from the chaotic situation, Korbel sent her to study in Switzerland where she learned French and changed her name from Marie Jana to Madeleine. After the 1948 Communist coup, the family once again fled Czechoslovakia and was granted political asylum in the US where Joseph would become a professor of political science at the University of Denver. Madeleine became a US citizen in 1957 and graduated from Wellesley College with a degree in political science in 1959, the same year that she married Joseph Albright, a journalist. In 1960, she gave birth to twin girls and, in 1967, to another daughter. Having put her career plans on hold while she raised their daughters, Madeleine would obtain a PhD in Public Law and Government at Columbia University, while her husband forged his career as a journalist. She followed him from city to city, finally settling in Washington as a full-time mother. Madeleine’s entrance into the political world started when she became a Democrat fund-raiser and continued with her appointment as an assistant to her former Columbia professor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was President Carter’s national security advisor. Not long after she left her job in the White House following Carter’s loss to Ronald Reagan, Madeleine and her husband would divorce. She took a research position at the Smithsonian Institute before

64

Mary E. Guy and Samantha J. Larson

becoming a faculty member at Georgetown University in 1982. She also served as the Director of the Women in Foreign Service program (Albright, 2003). Never far from democratic politics, and due to her Eastern European expertise, Albright served as a foreign policy advisor to Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in 1988. Although both were defeated, Madeleine became a well-known figure in the Democratic Party. When William Jefferson Clinton became President, he nominated her to be the US Ambassador to the UN. One of the major events that transpired during Albright’s years as UN ambassador was the genocide that occurred during the Rwandan civil war. She later stated that the inaction of the US during the conflict was due to a lack of information on what was happening in Rwanda rather than to a lack of willingness to intervene (Frontline, 2004). While Ambassador to the UN, Albright started a noteworthy fashion trend. When the Iraqi media referred to her a “serpent,” she was coincidentally wearing a snake pin. She wore it to her next meeting in Iraq (Schnall, 2010). As the only woman on the UN Security Council, she took advantage of this position to use brooches as a way to express her stand on several controversial issues. After President Clinton was re-elected in 1996, he appointed Madeleine to serve as the nation’s first female Secretary of State, one of the most important cabinet positions in the federal government. While Secretary of State, Albright became a well-known figure, promoting the eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), helping to normalize post-Cold War relations with China and Vietnam, and leading negotiations between Israel and its neighbors. She was the first Secretary of State to travel to North Korea where she met with President Kim Jong-Il. Although Madeleine’s direct service to government concluded with the end of the Clinton Administration, she set the stage for two women who would subsequently become Secretaries of State – Condoleeza Rice (2005–2009) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (2009–2013).

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: First Woman President of Liberia In the early 19th century, US President James Monroe supported the return of freed Black slaves to Africa. When their first ship landed in 1822, they named the settlement at the arrival point Monrovia in his honor.The small settlement would grow to become the capital of Liberia, where a constitution was drafted, government grew, and freed slaves dominated the legislature for many years. In 1938, Ellen Eugenia Johnson was born in Monrovia where her father, Jahmale Carney Johnson, was an indigenous member of the legislature. After graduating from high school, she married James Sirleaf and took his name. As newlyweds, they moved to the US but divorced shortly thereafter. Ellen remained in the US to continue her education (Johnson Sirleaf, 2009). After receiving an MPA in 1971 from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, she returned to Liberia and entered the

Women as International Leaders

65

political world. Her first appointment was as Assistant Minister of Finance, but due to disagreements over fiscal policy with the administration, Sirleaf resigned in 1973. She would return as Minister of Finance in 1979 only to flee from Liberia in 1980 after publicly criticizing the administration. She settled in Nairobi, Kenya, where she became Vice President of the African Regional Office of Citibank in 1981. Four years later, Sirleaf returned to Liberia to run for Vice President as part of the Liberian Action Party ticket. However, due to her criticisms of the party in power, she was arrested and removed from the ticket. Unbroken, she decided to run for Senator to represent Liberia’s Mantserrado County. She won the election, but the presidential ticket she had been a part of was defeated. She refused to take her seat in the Senate in protest against what she saw to be election fraud. Again, she was arrested. She was released in 1986 and fled to the US. While in the US, Sirleaf continued her work to eliminate corruption in Liberian presidential campaigns and elections. She raised money to help fund the rebellion when the first Liberian civil war broke out in 1989. By 1996, when Liberia’s internal warfare had moderated, Sirleaf returned to Liberia and ran for President, but lost the election. Civil war returned to Liberia in 1999, and, once again, she fled her country, returning at the end of the conflict to run for President. She was elected in 2005 and spent her first term rebuilding the nation after years of war. She has been credited with strengthening national security, revitalizing the economy, repairing and constructing infrastructure, and restoring her nation’s international reputation (The Executive Mansion, 2015). Sirleaf ran for a second term in 2010. Four days prior to the 2011 election, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni human rights activist Tawakol Karman for their efforts to promote the safety of women in peace-building work. She was re-elected to a second term as President in January 2012 and continues to receive international praise. In 2013, Sirleaf was awarded the Indira Gandhi Prize in recognition of her efforts to promote international peace, encourage economic development, and expand freedom. In 2014, Forbes listed her as the 70th most powerful woman in the world.

Michelle Bachelet: First Woman President of Chile As Sirleaf was entering her teen years, Michelle Bachelet was born in Chile in 1951. Her mother was an archaeologist and her father an Air Force Brigadier General who served in the Chilean Embassy in Washington, DC from 1962 to 1964.When her family moved back to Chile, Bachelet completed high school and entered the University of Chile medical school. At the university, she joined the Socialist Youth and became a political activist. During her early adulthood years, Bachelet enjoyed the freedoms provided by the new liberal era in Chilean politics. However, a sharp change came with the coup d’état of 1973, when General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the sitting

66

Mary E. Guy and Samantha J. Larson

government (Rohter, 2006).The new regime charged her father with treason and he died in prison the following year. In 1975, Bachelet and her mother were also detained, interrogated, and tortured (Johnson, 2015). Bachelet went into exile in Australia, moved to Germany, and finally was permitted to return to Chile in 1979 where she completed her medical degree in 1983, and studied pediatrics and public health until 1986. She became head of a non-governmental organization that provided services to children of the tortured and missing. In 1990, Bachelet began working at the Ministry of Health’s West Santiago Health Service and consulted with the World Health Organization. In 1966, she embarked on an unsuccessful mayoral campaign in the Santiaguan suburb of Las Condes. After losing the election, she worked to enhance her political expertise. She enrolled at the National Academy of Political and Strategic Studies in Chile and, after graduating at the top of her class, she went to the US to complete courses on military strategy and continental defense. In 1998, Bachelet returned to Chile to assume a position as Senior Assistant to the Defense Minister and later earned a Master’s degree in Military Science. The following year, she volunteered in the presidential campaign for Ricardo Lagos. After Lagos was elected, he appointed Bachelet as his Minister of Health in 2000 and Minister of Defense in 2002 (Bell, 2011). She gained national popularity in the latter post by promoting nonviolent military action in Chile and by using the military to engage in international peace operations and to lead a rescue operation in the aftermath of the Santiago flood of 2004. In 2005, Bachelet successfully ran for President as the Socialist Party candidate becoming the first female President of Chile. She was the first woman in Latin America to be elected president in a democratic election who was not the wife of a previous head of state. During her campaign, she had promised to name an equal number of men and women to her cabinet, which she did upon taking office in 2006. Bachelet served a four-year term and had an 84 percent approval rate when she left office in 2010 (Escobar, 2010). Prohibited by law from running for a consecutive term, Bachelet assumed the position of Executive Director of the newly established UN Women (Crossette, 2010), an organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. She resigned in March 2013 and returned to Chile to again run for president against Evelyn Mathei. It was the first time in Latin American history that two women were presidential candidates (Montealegre, 2014). With 62 percent of the vote, Bachelet won by a wider margin than the winner of the previous four presidential elections. Isabel Allende, President of Chile’s Senate, swore in Bachelet in 2014. It was the first time in Chile’s history that women held the nation’s two highest political positions.

Benazir Bhutto: First Woman Prime Minister of Pakistan Born in 1953, Benazir Bhutto was the eldest child of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the founder of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Prime Minister from 1971 to 1977.

Women as International Leaders

67

Educated at the University of California, Berkeley (BA, 1950), Zulfikar was the son of a prominent political figure in the Indian colonial government. Following in her father’s footsteps, Benazir attended Radcliffe College, and then Harvard University, where she graduated with a BA in Comparative Government. She then went to Oxford where she completed a course in International Law and Diplomacy (Bhutto, 2007). Benazir’s earliest “first” came when she was the first Asian woman to be elected president of the Oxford Union, a prestigious debating society. She graduated from Oxford and returned to Pakistan in 1977, the same year that the PPP had won the country’s parliamentary elections. In that same year, after months of civil disorder, her father was arrested during a bloodless coup led by chief of army staff General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Zulfikar was tried by the Supreme Court for authorizing the murder of a political opponent. Benazir and her mother were held in house arrest and in police camps while Zulfikar was tried, sentenced, and executed in April 1979. After her father’s death, she took over as head of the PPP becoming the first woman to be the leader of a political party in Pakistan. She was held in house arrest several times from 1979 until 1984 when she went into exile. She returned to Pakistan in 1986 after martial law was lifted and became involved in the leadership of the political opposition to Zia. His death in a plane crash in 1988 opened the door for the first general election in Pakistan since the election of Bhutto’s father.Although the opposition did not believe a pregnant woman could campaign and win, Benazir became the first woman elected as Prime Minister of Pakistan, and of any Muslim nation, shortly after her first child was born. During her first term, Benazir advanced human rights, lifted restrictions on the press, and allowed student demonstrations. In 1990, when she was pregnant again, the opposition called on President Khan and the military to remove her from office, arguing that maternity leave was unconstitutional, but the PPP supported her. She became the first elected world leader to give birth while in office (The Guardian, 2007). Six months later, President Khan dismissed her on corruption charges. Bhutto fought back and won a second term in 1993. Her campaign was opposed by the terrorist organization Sipah-e-Sahaba that attempted to assassinate her before the election. Her term as President was filled with unwinnable battles at home and abroad. Although she tried to repeal discriminatory laws against women, she was unsuccessful, diminishing her in the eyes of many Pakistani women’s organizations (Burki, 2013). Bhutto lost the presidential election in 1997. The Pakistani government convicted her of corruption and sentenced her to three years in prison while she was in self-imposed exile in Britain and Dubai in 1999. She continued to direct her party from abroad, being re-affirmed as the PPP leader in 2002. Bhutto returned to Pakistan in 2007 when President Musharraf granted her amnesty on the corruption charges. Celebrations for her return were ruined by a suicide attack on

68

Mary E. Guy and Samantha J. Larson

her motorcade that killed many supporters. Bhutto would be assassinated in a similar attack while campaigning for upcoming parliamentary elections. Her death created “a void in both leadership and inspiration; no politician in Pakistan has been able to fill it” (Shah, 2014).

Angela Merkel: First Woman Chancellor of Germany A third contemporary of Bachelet and Bhutto is Angela Merkel, born in 1954 in the West German city of Hamburg, the daughter of a Lutheran minister. Soon after her birth, the family moved to Templin, a small town northeast of Berlin. Merkel describes her first political memory as the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 that would divide East Germany (where her home town was located) and West Germany until 1989 (Crawford & Czuczka, 2013). As most young people did who pursued higher education in East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic, Merkel became a member of the Free German Youth, a movement sponsored by the Socialist Unity Party. She rose to the top of her class in Russian and Mathematics in Templin and became a student at the University of Leipzig, where she studied physics and physical chemistry from 1973–1978. She married a fellow student, Ulrich Merkel, but their marriage ended in divorce in 1982. Merkel earned a PhD while working for the East German Academy of Sciences, where she was the only woman in the theoretical chemistry section. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Merkel joined the Democratic Awakening, an East German political movement whose objective was to reunify Germany (Marr, 2013). She quickly rose from an office assistant to party spokesperson. In 1990, in unified Germany’s first election, Merkel won a seat in the Bundestag, Germany’s Parliament. Soon after, newly elected Chancellor Helmut Kohl of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) appointed Merkel as Minister for Women and Youth. In 1994, she was appointed as Minister of Environment and Nuclear Safety. In 1998, after Kohl was defeated as Chancellor, Merkel was selected to be Secretary General of the CDU. She was the first woman to hold this position but lost to Edmund Stoiber in the race to be the Party’s candidate for Chancellor in 2002. The incumbent, Gerhard Schröder, defeated Stoiber in the general election. Three years later, Merkel was the CDU’s successful candidate for Chancellor and became the first woman to hold this office in Germany. Recently elected for a fourth term, Merkel is one of just three German leaders to have served three terms as Chancellor. The other two were Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl. When Merkel chaired the G8 Summit in 2007, she became the only woman other than Margaret Thatcher to do so. Merkel is the longest-serving head of state in the European Union and is generally credited for its success in brokering the financial crisis in 2012 (Moulson, 2015). Forbes (2016) named her the most powerful woman (and the second most powerful person) in the world in 2015. India honored her with the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 2009.

Women as International Leaders

69

In December 2015, Time named her Person of the Year and the “de facto leader of the European Union” (Vick, 2016).

Weeping Widows, Iron Ladies, Serpents, and Commie Sympathizers All leaders will have enemies, so it should be of no surprise that each of the women discussed in this chapter has her naysayers. Eleanor Roosevelt was thought to be a communist sympathizer by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. When Iraq sanctions were put in place in 1993, Madeleine Albright was called a serpent by the Iraqi press (Molina, 2015). Many path setters have been given the sobriquet, “Iron Lady.” Angela Merkel is referred to as Europe’s Iron Lady, the biographical movie of Margaret Thatcher is titled The Iron Lady, Indira Gandhi was referred to as the Iron Lady of India and Benazir Bhutto as the Iron Lady of Pakistan. Golda Meir was called Israel’s Iron Lady. Sirimavo Bandaranaike was tagged the “weeping widow.”These sobriquets have more of an ad hominem feel to them than labels that are usually attached to men. Some of the labels exaggerate feminine traits, such as “weeping widow,” while others juxtapose the word “lady” against the unfeminine “iron.” Linguistics reveal cultural norms and attitudes. The epithet “serpent” connotes a visceral, frightening, unlikable creature. “Iron” lady connotes a woman whose behavior is beyond “normal.” “Commie sympathizer” in the US during the 1950s was a castigation reserved for the totally untrustworthy. “Weeping widow” is a term that connotes weakness. As the linguistics foretell, it is difficult to lead under any circumstances, but it is especially so for women whose behavior is outside of their prescribed gender roles. The path setters described here succeeded against tremendous odds and broke the mold for how women are to behave. The context within which the women described in this chapter came to power is compared in a quest to learn what “charged” them to become leaders. In terms of similarities, all enjoyed formative international travel during their early years. Roosevelt attended private finishing school in England at age 15. Albright emigrated with her family from Europe to the US at age 11. At age 11, Bachelet traveled to the US while her father served at the Chilean Embassy in Washington, DC. Bhutto went to Radcliffe College at Harvard. Gandhi went to school in Switzerland at age 9. Meir emigrated with her family from Ukraine to the US at age 8. Merkel vacationed in West Germany as a 7-year-old before the Berlin Wall was constructed. In her twenties, Sirleaf studied in the US in Wisconsin, Colorado, and at Harvard University. As a young adult, Thatcher was selected by the US Embassy to travel to the US for the IVLP. Another similarity is that each was exposed to social and political upheaval. Roosevelt’s first-hand exposure to injured soldiers returning from World War I rocked her world, showing her the lasting, personal damage done by armed conflict. Albright spent her early childhood years as a war refugee in London

70

Mary E. Guy and Samantha J. Larson

before emigrating with her family to the US. Bachelet experienced torture and exile in her twenties under the hand of the Pinochet regime. Bhutto witnessed her father executed by his political enemies. Gandhi came of age watching her father struggle for independence from British rule. Meir had early childhood memories of her father boarding up their house to defend against anti-Semitic persecution and the family emigrated to the US for safety and better opportunities. Merkel was raised in East Germany and remembers the Berlin Wall’s construction and the contrast between the economies of East and West Germany. As an adult, Sirleaf was arrested by political opponents and had to flee the country. Thatcher witnessed the hardships caused by World War II. As a teenager. Bandaranaike’s husband was assassinated while in office. There are also distinct differences that mark these women’s lives. Foremost among them is their family of origin. For example, whether they had a prominent political figure in the family distinguishes them from each other. Albright’s father was a Czech diplomat and later a political science professor in the US. Bhutto’s father founded the PPP. Gandhi’s father was Prime Minister of India. Roosevelt’s husband was US President as was her uncle. Sirleaf ’s father was the first Liberian from an indigenous ethnic group to sit in the national legislature. Bandaranaike’s husband served as Prime Minister. Bachelet’s mother was an archaeologist and her father a high-ranking Air Force officer who was assigned to the Chilean Embassy in Washington, DC. But such prominence is not the case for all. Meir’s parents owned and operated a grocery store in Milwaukee. Merkel’s father was a Lutheran pastor and Thatcher’s father was a local preacher, alderman, and grocery shop owner. The unevenness in terms of who was, and who was not, born to a prominent family repeats itself in terms of education. Gandhi attended college at Oxford but did not graduate, and Roosevelt attended private secondary school in London. Meir achieved a teaching license and Bhutto earned a bachelor’s degree in Comparative Government.Albright earned a PhD in Public Law and Government, Bachelet an MD, Merkel a PhD in Quantum Chemistry, Sirleaf an MPA, and Thatcher a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a barrister degree to practice law. Political ideology also shows contrasts among the path setters. While most are positioned on the left or center-left of the political continuum, Thatcher and Merkel are on the right, or at least center-right. It is difficult to tease out meaningful commonalities that could foresee the political successes that these women achieved. They came into their own at their own pace: some when a father or husband died, some after a divorce, some became progressively more politically active over their lifetime. Whatever path each traveled, she had to have a strong sense of self and strong convictions to combat the naysayers. Their courage made it easier for women of the future to gain a toehold in political processes around the globe. They proved that women could do the job and do it well. To borrow the Chinese aphorism, women hold up half the sky. Imagine if women numbered half of all national leaders.

Women as International Leaders

71

References Agrawal, M. (2005). Indira Gandhi. New Delhi: Diamond Pocket Books. Albright, M. (2003). Madame Secretary: A memoir. New York: Hyperion. BBC. (1969). 1969: Israel elects first female leader. On This Day 1950–2005. Accessed 10/17/2015 at news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/7/newsid_4205000/ 4205843.stm. BBC. (2016). 1975: Gandhi found guilty of corruption. On This Day 1950–2005. Accessed 02/26/2015 at news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/12/newsid_ 2511000/2511691.stm. Bandaranaike, S. (1976). The non-aligned movement and the United Nations. The Black Scholar: Journal of Black Studies and Research, 8(3), 27–38. Bannerman, L., & Farmery, T. (2013, April 9). “Tramp the dirt down”: A nation remains divided in Margaret Thatcher’s death. The Times. Accessed 02/26/2016 at www. thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article3734507.ece. Barkley, R. J., & Rosser, M. V. (2004). Comparative economics in a transforming world economy (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Baughman, D., & O’Hara, J. (Film Producers) (2010). Bhutto. Independent Lens. Bell, K. (2011, September 1). Life’s work: Michelle Bachelet. Harvard Business Review. Accessed 02/26/2016 at hbr.org/2011/09/michelle-bachelet. Bhutto, B. (1995, September 4). Address by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. Accessed 10/18/2015 at www.un.org/esa/gopherdata/conf/fwcw/conf/gov/950904202603.txt. Bhutto, B. (2007). Daughter of destiny: An autobiography. New York: HarperCollins. Burkett, E. (2008). Golda Meir: The Iron Lady of the Middle East. London: Gibson Square Books. Burki, S. (2013). The politics of State intervention: Gender politics in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. Cavendish, R. (2009). Golda Meir becomes Israeli Prime Minister. History Today, 59(3). Accessed 02/26/2016 at www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/golda-meirbecomes-israeli-prime-minister. Crawford, A., & Czuczka, T. (2013, September 19). Angela Merkel’s years in East Germany shaped her crisis politics. Bloomberg Business. Accessed 02/27/16 at www.bloomberg. com/bw/articles/2013-09-19/angela-merkels-early-years-in-east-germany-shapedher-crisis-politics. Crossette, B. (2010, September 27). Michelle Bachelet, New head of UN Women: Where there is poverty, ‘the State cannot be neutral.’ The Nation. Accessed 02/26/2016 at www. thenation.com/article/michelle-bachelet-new-head-un-women-where-there-povertystate-cannot-be-neutral/. Dash, L. N. (2000). World Bank and economic development of India. New Delhi: A.P.H. Publishing Corporation. Dee, J. (2013, April 9). How Margaret Thatcher led the way on climate change. ABC Environment, 1. Accessed 10/17/2015 at www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2013/ 04/09/3732680.htm. Dhanapala, J. (2010, December 11). The foreign policy of Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Sunday Island. Accessed 10/18/2015 at www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=articledetails&page=article-details&code_title=13217. Dobbs, M. (1997, February 4). Albright’s family tragedy comes to light. The Washington Post Company. Retrieved 10/22/2015 from www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/ govt/admin/stories/albright020497.htm.

72

Mary E. Guy and Samantha J. Larson

Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project. (2007). Statement to the United Nations’ General Assembly on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Accessed 02/26/16 at www.gwu.edu/~ erpapers/. Encyclopedia Britannica. (2016). Woman suffrage. Accessed 02/26/2016 at www.britannica. com/topic/woman-suffrage. Escobar, C. P. (2010, March 14). In Chile, departing President Michelle Bachelet proved women can lead. The Washington Post. Accessed 02/27/2016 at http://www. washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/12/AR2010031201791.html. Fisher, R. R. (2011). Israel, my inheritance: Persecuted messianic Jews cry out for justice and reform. Lake Mary, FL: Creation House Books. Forbes. (2016).The world’s most powerful people. Accessed 02/26/16 at www.forbes.com/ profile/angela-merkel/. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. (2015). Biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. Accessed 10/17/2015 at www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/education/resources/ bio_er.html. Frontline. (2004, April 1). Interviews: Madeleine Albright. RMPBS. Accessed 02/26/16 at www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts/interviews/albright.html. Fujita, K. (n.d.). Green revolution in India and its significance in economic development: Implications for sub-Saharan Africa. Accessed 02/27/2016 at policydialogue.org/files/events/Fujita_ green_rev_in_india.pdf . Gandhi, I. (1985). Selected thoughts of Indira Gandhi: A book of quotes. Delhi: Mittal. Hoogensen, G., & Solheim, B. O. (Eds.). (2006). Women in power: World leaders since 1960. Westport, CT: Praeger. Ians, A. (2008, November 18). 1984 anti-Sikh riots “wrong,” says Rahul Gandhi. Hindustan Times. Accessed 02/26/16 at www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/1984-anti-sikhriots-wrong-says-rahul-gandhi/article1-352523.aspx. Jewish Telegraphic Agency. (1957). Golda Meir appeals to big powers to stop sending arms to Arabs. Accessed 10/17/2015 at www.jta.org/1957/10/08/archive/golda-meir-appealsto-arabs-for-peace-at-u-n-assembly-challenges-russia. Jeyaraj, D. B. S. (2010, July 23). How Mrs. Bandaranaike became Prime Minister in 1960. The Daily Mirror. Retrieved 10/22/2015 from dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/1530. Jilanee, S. G. (2013). The weeping widow. SA Global Affairs. Retrieved 10/17/2015 from www.saglobalaffairs.com/special-features/1444-the-weeping-widow.html. Johnson, L. J. (2015). Michelle Bachelet: First woman president of Chile. Retrieved 10/17/2015 from womenshistory.about.com/od/headsofstate20012010/p/bachelet_chile.htm. Johnson Sirleaf , E. (2009). This child will be great: Memoir of a remarkable life by Africa’s first woman president. New York: HarperCollins. Lamour, C. (1995, September 27). UN Fourth World Conference on Women: Planning, Setbacks and Achievements. Parliament of Australia, Current Issues Brief 5, 1995– 1996. Accessed 10/18/2015 at www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_ Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/CIB/cib9596/96CIB05. Lecher, C. (2013, April 8). How Thatcher the chemist helped make Thatcher the politician. Popular Science. Accessed 02/26/2016 at www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-04/ margaret-thatcher-politician-and-chemist-has-died. MacLeish, A. (1965). The Eleanor Roosevelt story. Richard Kaplan. Online. Mallik, A. (2006). Women presidents of the UN General Assembly. Accessed 10/17/2015 at www.wunrn.com/news/2007/03_07/03_05_07/031107_women.htm. Margaret Thatcher Foundation. (2016). Newly declassified British government archives from 1973–75. Accessed 09/15/2017 at www.margaretthatcher.org/archive/1975-tna-releases.asp.

Women as International Leaders

73

Marr, A. (2013, September 24). The making of Angela Merkel, a German enigma. BBC News. Accessed 02/26/2016 at www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24159595. Merkel, A. (2007, September 25). Speech at the UN General Assembly. Accessed 10/18/2015 at www.un.org/webcast/ga/62/2007/pdfs/germany-eng.pdf . Merkel, A. (2010, September 21). Speech at the high-level Plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly on the Millennium development goals. Accessed 10/18/2015 at www.un.org/en/ mdg/summit2010/debate/DE_en.pdf . Metropolitan State University of Denver. (2015). A chronological survey of Gola Meir’s life and legacy. Accessed 02/26/16 at www.msudenver.edu/golda/. Miriamscup.com. (n.d.). Miriams cup biography: Golda Meir. Accessed 4/11/2016 at www. miriamscup.com/MeirBiog.htm. Molina, S. (2015, July 21). Madeleine Albright shows off diplomatic arsenal at Nixon Museum exhibit. Whittier Daily News. Accessed 10/22/2015 at www.whittierdailynews. com/lifestyle/20150721/. Montealegre, O. (2014, March 19). Latin America’s leading ladies. Diplomatic Courier. Accessed 02/26/2016 at www.diplomaticourier.com/latin-america-s-leading-ladies/. Moore, C. (2013). Margaret Thatcher: From Grantham to the Falklands. New York: Penguin Random House LLC. Moulson, G. (2015, December 9). AP explains: The rise of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Associated Press. Accessed 02/27/2016 at bigstory.ap.org/article/3eef51cec4984 2f9b95a069afe3258ed/look-career-german-chancellor-angela-merkel. Neal, S. (Ed.). (n.d.). Correspondence 1946. In Eleanor & Harry: The Correspondence of Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry S.Truman. Accessed 10/17/2015 at www.trumanlibrary.org/ eleanor/1946.html. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2016). A new world record: Universal Declaration in 370 languages. Accessed 02/26/2016 at www.ohchr.org/ EN/NewsEvents/Pages/AnewworldrecordUDHR.aspx. Prados, J. (2011). How the Cold War ended: Debating and doing history. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, Inc. Rajgarhia, M. (2014, June 25). 40 years on, 7 things you need to know about emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi. Chennai, India: Diligent Media Corporation Ltd. Accessed 02/26/16 at www.dnaindia.com/india/report-39-years-on-7-things-you-need-to-know-aboutemergency-imposed-by-indira-gandhi-1997782. Ratwatte, C. (2014, September 30). Sri Lanka’s dynastic politics and comrade number eleven (XI). Colombo Telegraph. Accessed 02/26/16 at www.colombotelegraph.com/ index.php/sri-lankas-dynastic-politics-and-comrade-number-eleven-xi/. Rohter, L. (2006, January 16).Woman in the news: A leader making peace with Chile’s past. The New York Times. Accessed 02/26/2016 at query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html? res=9E06E1DB143FF935A25752C0A9609C8B63. Schnall, M. (2010, June 15). Madeleine Albright: An exclusive interview. The Huffington Post. Accessed 4/11/2016 at www.huffingtonpost.com/marianne-schnall/madeleinealbright-an-exc_b_604418.html. Shah, B. (2014, December 26). The legacy of Benazir Bhutto. The New York Times. Accessed 4/11/2016 at www.nytimes.com/2014/12/27/opinion/the-legacy-of-benazir-bhutto. html?r=0. Short History of the Commission on the Status of Women. (n.d.). Accessed 10/17/2015 at www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/CSW60YRS/CSWbriefhistory.pdf. Thatcher, M. (1985, October 24). Speech at 40th Anniversary Session of UN General Assembly. Accessed 10/17/2015 at www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106155.

74

Mary E. Guy and Samantha J. Larson

The Eloquent Woman. (2013, July 26). Famous speech Friday: Malala Yousafzai’s UN speech on youth education. Accessed 10/18/2015 at eloquentwoman.blogspot.com/2013/07/ famous-speech-friday-malala-yousafzais.html. The Executive Mansion. (2007, October 3). Remains of Angie Brooks Randolph laid to rest. Accessed 10/18/2015 at www.emansion.gov.lr/2press.php?news_id=450&related= 7&pg=sp. The Executive Mansion. (2015). Biographical brief of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Accessed 02/26/2016 at www.emansion.gov.lr/2content.php?sub=121&related=19&third=121 &pg=sp. The Guardian. (2007, March 28). Mother courage. The Guardian. Accessed 08/09/2015 at www.jordipujol.cat/files/articles/mare_coratge.pdf . The Santiago Times. (2006, September 21). Chile’s Bachelet addresses United Nations. The Santiago Times. Accessed 10/18/2015 at santiagotimes.cl/chiles-bachelet-addressesunited-nations/. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (2016, January 29). The Evian Conference. Accessed 02/26/2016 at www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId= 10007698. UN News Centre. (2013, April 8). Praising “Iron Lady,” Ban says “We will owe a great deal to her leadership.” UN News Centre. Accessed 10/18/2015 at www.un.org/apps/ news/story.asp?NewsID=44587#.ViO3Cf-FPtV. UN Women. (n.d.a). World conferences on women. Accessed 10/17/2015 at www.unwomen. org/en/how-we-work/intergovernmental-support/world-conferences-on-women. UN Women. (n.d.b). Short history of the Commission on the Status of Women. Accessed 10/18/2015 at www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/CSW60YRS/CSWbriefhistory.pdf. UN Women. (n.d.c). The Beijing Platform for Action turns 20. Accessed 10/18/2015 at beijing20.unwomen.org/en/step-it-up/about. Vick, K. (2016). TIME Person of the Year 2015: Angela Merkel. TIME. Accessed 02/27/16 at time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2015-angela-merkel/. Vital Voices Global Partnership. (2010). About vital voices. Accessed 02/26/16 at www. vitalvoices.org/about-us/about.

5 GENDER EQUALITY AND THE BALLOT BOX The Global Situation of Women Legislators Silvana Koch-Mehrin

It is now generally accepted that gender equality in the political arena has intrinsic value. There is, however, still a pressing need to focus on its instrumental value, i.e., the importance of women’s political participation as a means to advance themselves and society as a whole. Yet, despite representing about half the global population, women account for just 22 percent of the world’s legislators and in seven countries have no parliamentary representation, at all. This chapter looks at women’s participation in legislatures worldwide. It begins with a brief history of women gaining the right to vote to provide a context for an assessment of their current status in legislative bodies. The next section focuses on women’s election to parliaments worldwide, followed by a discussion of the factors explaining their parliamentary participation rates. The chapter concludes with some observations on the importance of a strong female representation in legislative bodies.

Gaining the Right to Vote With scant few exceptions, women did not have the right to vote, let alone stand for election, anywhere in the world until the end of the 18th century. A notable exception is Lydia Taft who was allowed to vote in three town meetings in Uxbridge, Massachusetts in the 1750s (MacClean, 2008). In recognition of her place in the history of women’s suffrage, the Massachusetts legislature designated a highway in Uxbridge as the Lydia Taft Highway (MacClean, 2008). The evolution of full voting rights for women after that date was piecemeal and lengthy. The first major step toward female suffrage at a national level was taken when New Zealand’s colonial governor Lord Glasgow signed the Electoral Bill in 1893. In 1902, Australia became the second country to grant suffrage to women, but, on a limited basis. Indigenous women (and men) would not be given

76

Silvana Koch-Mehrin

the right to vote in federal elections until 1962. In addition to New Zealand and Australia, just two other countries—Finland and Norway—allowed women to vote before the start of World War I in 1914. But, within five years after the war’s end in 1918, women had gained the vote in more than 30 countries (see Appendix 5.1). Today, there is female suffrage in all countries with the exception of the Vatican, a national territory under international law.

Geography of Suffrage There is no regional pattern in the timing of women gaining the vote. For example, in South America, the first country to grant suffrage to women was Ecuador in 1929; the last was Paraguay in 1969. In Europe, the length of time between the first and last country to grant women suffrage is even greater than that in South America, with Finland giving the vote to women in 1906 and Lichtenstein in 1984. The suffrage time line for predominantly Islamic states is not quite as long as that for European countries since they began later. Indonesia, the first Islamic nation to grant voting rights to women, did so in 1945 followed by Pakistan in 1947 and Iran in 1963. The latest countries to do so were Kuwait in 2005 and Saudi Arabia in 2011. In some countries, subnational governments gave the women right to vote before it was granted by the central government. In the US, for example, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution granting universal suffrage to women was approved by the US Congress in 1920. But at the time, more than three-fourths of the states had already allowed women to vote in some or all elections (National Constitution Center, n.d.).

Suffrage Limitations In several countries, when women were granted the right to vote it was with restrictions in terms of personal characteristics such as race, age, property ownership, education, and marital status. As mentioned earlier, Australia did not grant the vote to indigenous women (and men) in federal elections until 1962. In Great Britain, female householders over the age of 30 gained the vote in 1918 but full voting parity with men was not achieved for another ten years. In Bolivia, the 1941 Electoral Law gave limited voting rights to women based on their level of education; universal suffrage was not granted until 1946. And, in Portugal full suffrage was not given until 1976, removing the restrictions permitting only women with at least a secondary education to vote although men were simply required to read and write.

Women in Parliament In most countries, women gained the right to stand for election when they gained the right to vote, but not all granted the two privileges at the same time. In the

Gender Equality and the Ballot Box

77

US, for example, Jeannette Rankin from Montana was the first woman elected to the US Congress in 1916—four years before the US Constitution granted universal suffrage. Even though women had not been given the right to vote across the US before 1920, there were obviously no laws before then barring them from running for office even at the federal level of government. In 1907, Finland became the first country to elect women to parliament. Interestingly, although New Zealand had been the first nation to grant universal suffrage to women, it was not until 1919 that they were permitted to stand for election to parliament and it would not be until 1933 that the first woman would take her seat. New Zealand was not unique in its lack of women in parliament. Even moving ahead another decade to 1945, women accounted for just 3 percent of seats in the world’s lower/single house parliaments and 2.2 percent of seats in upper house parliaments (Palmieri & Jabre, n.d.). Jumping to 1995, the proportions had increased to 11.6 and 9.4, respectively (Palmieri & Jabre, n.d., p. 221). By 2016, female representation in lower/single house parliaments, worldwide, had doubled to 22.8 percent and in upper houses/senates to 22 percent (Interparliamentary Union (IPU), 2016). These proportions, however, mask significant variation among countries (see Appendix 5.2). In 2016, Rwanda was the world leader in female parliamentary representation, with women holding 63.8 percent of the seats in the country’s lower house (Chamber of Deputies). The percentage of women’s participation is all the more noteworthy in the context of Rwanda’s recent history. Rwandan women were fully enfranchised and granted the right to stand for election in 1961, with independence from Belgium. The first female parliamentarian began serving in 1965. However, before its civil war in the early 1990s and the genocide in 1994, Rwandan women never held more than 18 percent of seats in the country’s Parliament. (Powley, 2004, p. 154) The demographic imbalance following Rwanda’s civil war is a primary factory explaining the high proportion of women in parliament. Immediately after the war, women accounted for 70 percent of the country’s population; today they account for 54 percent. Other factors contributing to the high proportion of women in Rwanda’s parliament include: (1) the country’s Constitution adopted in 2000 committing to gender equality; (2) the adoption of gender quotas; and (3) an electoral system that encouraged female participation. A well mobilized women’s movement and an active civil society catalyzed the political participation of Rwanda’s women. As of June 2016, Bolivia was the only other country that had gender parity in its parliament, with 53.1 percent female representation. Similar to Rwanda, the equal participation of women has primarily been attributed to quota laws and to language in the Constitution of Bolivia adopted in 2009 committing to equal

78

Silvana Koch-Mehrin

participation of women (International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 2015a). At the other end of the spectrum are seven countries with no women in parliament (IPU, 2016): Haiti, Micronesia (Federated States of), Palau, Qatar, Tonga,Vanuatu, and Yemen. In 147 of 193 countries, women accounted for less than 30 percent of lower or single house national parliamentarians (IPU, 2016).This 30 percent proportion is “widely considered an important benchmark for women’s representation” (UNWomen, 2014, p. 119). Several institutional factors explain the variation in women’s parliamentary representation across countries, including the type of electoral system and the use of quotas. Other influences on women’s participation include personal characteristics such as marital status and political will. Also important is the extent of support networks and advocacy groups for women running for political offices at all levels of government.

Electoral Systems “Electoral systems define and structure the rules of the political game; they help determine who is elected, how a campaign is fought, the role of political parties, and most importantly, who governs” (International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 2015b, p. 1). For purposes of this chapter, we divide electoral systems into three general types: (1) plurality/majority systems; (3) proportional representation (PR) systems; and (3) mixed systems that combine elements of both. We group plurality and majority electoral together because they both generally have single candidate districts in which voters cast their ballots for one person. In plurality systems, candidates do not have to win by a majority of the votes. They just need a larger number of votes than other candidates. In majority systems, also called “second ballot” systems, candidates must receive a majority (50 percent plus one) of the votes cast. If no candidate gets a majority of votes, a second round of voting must be held. In PR electoral systems, legislators from political parties are elected in multimember districts instead of single-member districts. The number of seats that a party wins in an election is proportional to the amount of votes it receives. The Party List system is a variation on the PR system. There are two different types of Party List PR: closed list and open list. Under the closed list PR system, voters cast their ballots for a political party, i.e., for the entire list of candidates. Candidates are elected in the order in which they appear on the list (as decided by the party) until all the seats have been filled. Under the open list PR system, voters select individual candidates from the list provided by each party and individual candidates are elected according to the popular vote. For both the open and closed list systems, political parties present lists of candidates and seats are awarded according to their party’s share of the vote. This is usually done using an electoral formula or a quota which prevents too many small parties from winning seats.

Gender Equality and the Ballot Box

79

Previous research has shown that parties in candidate-centric systems such as that in the US provide women with less encouragement than men to run (Sanbonmatsu, Carroll, & Walsh, 2009). Women are more likely to be elected to parliament in countries with a proportional system.While open lists are preferable for female candidates, Allik found that “voters open lists do not necessarily decrease women’s representation. However, unknown and non-incumbent female candidates fare significantly worse than similar men” (Allik, 2015, p. 429). However, she also found that “parties do not place women in electable positions on closed lists, and closed lists do not improve women’s representation” (p. 429). A recent survey of parliamentarians revealed that although women do not cite party recruitment as often as men, they rely more on party funds and relatively less on private donations to finance their campaigns than do men (Women in Parliaments, 2015). The survey also found that for male MPs, 41 percent of their campaign funds came out of their own pockets compared with 34 percent for women.

Gender Quotas A major mechanism used to increase the participation of women in national legislatures has been gender quotas, either constitutionally or legislatively mandated or imposed voluntarily by political parties. Quotas generally set a target, or minimum threshold, for women and may apply to the number of women candidates proposed by a party for election. They may also take the form of reserved seats in the legislature (see Appendix 5.3). Countries with party-centric electoral rules, such as closed list PR systems, are more likely than candidate-centric systems to make use of quotas (see Table 5.1). The pattern shown in Table 5.1 raises at least two questions. First, how can district-based electoral systems expand the number of female politicians in the absence of quotas on party lists? Second, what are the attitudes of fellow MPs toward representatives selected by means of quotas? We ask this second question because we are concerned not only with initial election chances but also with women’s political careers and party leadership. We have only begun to address these questions, but they are ripe for further exploration. But as one female MP from the UK responded when asked what had been the key element of her advancement in politics, she stated quite simply that it was, “All women short lists.” These have been applied in the UK since 1993 (Nugent & Krook, 2015). In addition to quotas and the type of electoral system in a country, the low representation of women in parliaments can be explained by several other factors such as personal characteristics and gendered social expectations. There has been little, if any, information available on if, and how, these factors affect female and male parliamentarians. The results of a survey of parliamentarians in 84 countries conducted under the auspices of the Women in Parliaments Global Forum and the

80

Silvana Koch-Mehrin TABLE 5.1 Percentage of Countries with Gender Quotas, by

Type of Electoral Rules Countries

Party Mixed Candidate-centric Total

72 30 66 168

Quota Legislative

Voluntary

43 17 29 89

16 7 7 30

World Bank help to close the data gap (Women in Parliaments, 2015). The survey provides hitherto unavailable data on differences between female and male members of national parliaments. The information presented in this section is based on responses to the survey (referred to as the 2015 survey).

Personal Characteristics The 2015 survey data show that female legislators continue to be burdened more than men with family responsibilities; this is hardly a new claim.There is an extensive body of literature describing what became known in the US as the “mommy penalty” for women with children seeking professional careers of any kind.1 The fact that a mommy penalty still shows up as a large factor in decisions about when and whether to launch a political career is important because it reveals the ongoing challenges that female politicians face in achieving career success. Even more strikingly, the mommy penalty puts the spotlight on the selection effect exerted on who runs for office in the first place. The 2015 survey reinforces findings from earlier research that women spend more time on family responsibilities than do men.This is true for women in most demanding professions such as medicine and law. Because juggling multiple roles extracts a career cost, many successful women tend to work very long hours and many subordinate their family lives to the demands of the workplace in order to advance professionally (O’Neil, Hopkins, & Bilimoria, 2008). Among national parliamentarians, 35 percent of the male respondents to the 2015 survey reported that they spend 0 to 5 hours a week on family-related work compared with 30 percent of the females.The proportion of male parliamentarians admitting to doing nothing was 4 percent compared with 2.5 percent for women. Although more than 45 percent of both male and female legislators claim to spend at least 11 hours a week on family-related work, twice as many females as males reported spending 26 to 40 hours a week. Children-related responsibilities are a major concern of female parliamentarians. As one South African woman MP said, “As a professional I was torn between leaving my profession and staying in political office, because my children were too

Gender Equality and the Ballot Box

81

young to be left with their father most of the time.” Although female MPs from countries around the world have very different concerns, the issue of child care unites them. A female MP from Estonia stated that a major obstacle to her political career was, “Being female and a mother—evenings at home rather than at meetings.” Similarly, the advice of a female MP from the UK to young women interested in politics was: “Sort out your private life and the arrangements needed to make it run smoothly.” It is thus not surprising that female parliamentarians, on average, have fewer children than do their male counterparts. Nearly 20 percent of female legislators have no children at all, compared to 16 percent of male legislators. Among female legislators, 20 percent have one child compared to 10 percent of male legislators. Nearly half of male legislators have three or more children, compared to a third of female legislators. Among the parliamentarians who responded to the 2015 survey, more than 80 percent of women, compared to two-thirds of men, felt that they were encouraged to run by their families.Twice as many men (14.9 percent) compared to women (7.5 percent) ran for office despite family resistance. Overwhelmingly, women who ran were those with supportive families. This provides additional evidence of a significant selection effect on women who run for office in the first place. More men than women felt they were able to manage without strong family support leaving a larger pool of available male candidates after their families had “voted.” As a Ugandan female MP responded to the survey, the biggest asset in her political career was that her parents supported her financially and emotionally. She stated: “It has made me strong and able to stand for what I believe in.” Differences in support for men and women extends beyond the family to the community. In the survey, parliamentarians were asked whether community leaders, broadly conceived, had been involved in their decision to run. For both female and male legislators, such encouragement proved to be an important factor. But compared to their male counterparts, more female legislators felt neutrality or even hostility from community leaders.

Age Disaggregating the survey data by region, male and female respondents from Europe and other high-income regions entered into politics at similar ages. However, in lower-income countries in Asia, the Pacific and in sub-Saharan Africa, women are considerably older than men when they take office. Our as yet untested hypothesis is that within higher income countries, women tend to enter their careers later in district-based systems than in PR systems, unless they forego having families. Female parliamentarians also rely somewhat more on their elected positions and on spousal support than do males who typically have more outside income and investments.

82

Silvana Koch-Mehrin

Campaign Financing In the 2015 survey, male legislators reported that they were encouraged by local and central party officials to run for office. Female legislators appear to derive substantially more support from women’s groups. In the US, for example, organizations such as EMILY’s List2 seek out women to train, cultivate, fund, and support for political office. Even men—presumably those who champion policies benefiting women—report receiving support from women’s groups. Parliamentarians were also asked about the relative importance of different sources of funding for their campaigns. Ironically, even though women do not cite party recruitment as often as men, they tend to rely more on party funds and relatively less on private donations to finance their campaigns. On average, male MPs reported that 41 percent of their campaign funds come out of their own pockets; for women, it was 34 percent. The survey responses corroborate findings from earlier studies that female candidates have greater difficulty than men in raising money. For women, this was one of the biggest deterrents to their running for office (Ballington & Kahane, 2014). Women receive a higher share of campaign funds from political parties and from government than do men and must typically try harder to raise money from many more but smaller contributions (Ballington & Kahane, 2014). This is, however, not always true. For example, in the 2016 Democratic primary race for the US President, Hillary Clinton, the female candidate, received larger contributions, on average, than Bernie Sanders, the male candidate.

Gendered Social Expectations Beyond the effect of gendered roles themselves, is the question of how these roles are perceived and the way that they shape political careers.Women are much more likely than men to report that gender affected their political careers. In the 2015 survey, more than 70 percent of men responded that their own gender made no difference at all. Among women, the fear of gender stereotypes and negative advertising underscores the problem of gender stereotypes that the media perpetuates, intentionally or unintentionally. This is where we see a double bind. On the one hand, gender stereotypes about women’s proper roles as wives and mothers perpetuate unconscious bias on the part of the general public against female legislators who do not have children (on grounds that they are “aberrational” rather than representative citizens). On the other, there is bias against female legislators who do have children (on grounds that they cannot possibly do the work without abdicating important family responsibilities). The survey corroborates decades of studies showing that no one—not even women themselves— is immune from these subtle forms of negative stereotyping. This gender stereotyping begins as early as high school. In a study of high school and college students, Lawless and Fox (2015) found a measurable difference in the career ambitions of young women compared to young men. Part of

Gender Equality and the Ballot Box

83

this “ambition gap” is undoubtedly due to socialization that is, in turn, shaped by perceptions that it is still not possible for women (with plans to have a family) to compete with men (who also plan to have a family) on equal terms in timeconsuming and demanding careers

Career Advancement When asked what position they would ideally like to hold in ten years, male parliamentarians typically saw themselves at cabinet minister level. Women expressed lower ambitions, settling for committee chair; or diversified their preferences by naming the possibility of leading a national or transnational organization. The “ambition gap” continues to be visible when legislators were asked what one position they hoped to attain over the following decade. More men than women hope to rise to leadership positions in the party. More women than men seem to keep one eye on the door. For now, then, it appears that not enough has changed regarding gender in politics to alter the opinion of many survey respondents. As one female Latvian woman MP stated: “Being a woman might be an obstacle for further advancement, e.g. getting a minister’s post. Politics is a real men’s world.”

Mentorship Studies of female career paths in other professions corroborate the importance of mentoring and sponsorship. A study of women in the economics profession found that those who were mentored were more likely to get their work published and to get promoted (Blau, Currie, Croson, & Ginther, 2010). A 2012 study of 20,000 private sector firms in the US showed that female top managers had a positive influence on the promotion of women through the ranks (Kurtulus & TomaskovicDevy, 2012). In the 2015 survey, when asked to name their most important mentors, male and female parliamentarians gave discernibly different answers.When asked to name the single most important source of mentoring, both women and men named a fellow member of parliament. However, for men, the party chairperson takes on significance that is almost entirely missing for female legislators. Women, instead, drew strength from leaders of national and transnational organizations. This striking difference calls for further study to determine whether party leaders are failing to provide female legislators with equal levels of mentorship and support. Networks are also important for women in the political arena. Because candidates must secure the support of broad coalitions of voters, access to networks reflective of society is important. There are important parallels to the corporate world, where a female banker noted: The difficulty in Belgium is that women are not accepted in clubs like the Rotary Club and the Lions Club. There are also clubs where only women

84

Silvana Koch-Mehrin

are present, and that is something that I do not agree with because it does not reflect the reality of society. (Linehan & Scullion, 2008, p. 36) Given the importance of wide support in the political world, sharing networks and offering guidance may be as important as quotas and other types of “affirmative action” in leveling the playing field for women. However, this must happen without giving women any perceived “unfair” advantages that can cause a backlash against them (Dobbin, 2009).

Conclusion Many women have attained successful political careers, but with the exception of two countries, not in the kind of numbers that reflect their share of the population. Even in countries with relative gender parity, there is a higher attrition rate for women than for men in the top party ranks. The study of the female political career used in this chapter uncovered several striking patterns. The first was that there are serious selection effects on female candidates. Women who might excel at political careers do not run because of the obstacles they see ahead of them. Without addressing the selection effects on female candidates, any attempt to improve gender equality in the political arena will be partial, at best. Once in office, women continue to be caught between having less time for their responsibilities at home and the gendered social expectations that they ought to be spending more time at home. Female politicians operate within narrow bands of acceptable behavior, the boundaries of which are policed relentlessly by party leaders, colleagues, voters, and the media. Despite the host of obstacles to career success, exceptional women have made it to the top of the political structure as have exceptional women in other professions. However, the development of a fully democratic parliamentary system demands that it become as commonplace or ‘natural’ to fill top positions from a pool of women legislators as it has been from a pool of men. This can best be achieved when the candidate pool reflects gender balance. Achieving true gender equality in politics will require deep social introspection and effort. Striving in that direction is critical because the stakes are high: greater gender equality improves the quality of democracy itself by improving the pool of candidates and legislators.The composition of legislative bodies also affects the quality of laws themselves and influences the extent of their application. Lovenduski and Karam (2002) succinctly summarized the importance of female representation in parliaments. They state: The extent of women’s impact will depend very much on the number of women in parliament who are motivated to represent women’s issues and concerns . . . Men are known to behave differently when women are absent.

Gender Equality and the Ballot Box

85

Because it upsets gender boundaries, the presence of even one woman will alter male behaviour; the presence of several women will alter it even further . . . While the presence of even one woman can make a difference, long-term significant change will largely be realized when there is a sufficient number of women in parliament who are motivated to represent women’s concerns. Back in the early 1970s, Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman justice on the US Supreme Court, recognized the importance of women in the political arena. She told students that if they wanted to see changes in the world they would have to run for public office (Funkhouser, 2016). The quest continues.

Notes 1

2

See, for example, Aisenbrey, Evertsson, and Grunow (2009); Goldin and Polachek (1987); Hill (1979); Hochschild (1989); Lundberg and Rose (2000); Mandel and Semyonov (2005); Mincer and Polachek (1974); Rampell (2012); Ruhm (1998); and Wood, Corcoran, and Courant (1993). EMILY’s List (Early Money Is Like Yeast), is a national advocacy group in the US that works to elect pro-choice female Democrats.

References Aisenbrey, S., Evertsson, M., & Grunow, D. (2009). Is there a career penalty for mothers’ time out? A comparison of Germany, Sweden and the United States. Social Forces, 88(2), 573–605. Allik, M. (2015). Who stands in the way of women? Open vs. closed lists and candidate gender in Estonia. East European Politics, 31(4), 419–451. Ballington, J., & Kahane, M. (2014). Women in politics: Financing for gender equality. In International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) (Ed.), Funding of Political Parties and Election Campaigns: A Handbook on Political Finance. The Hague: Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy. Blau, F. D., Currie, J. M., Croson, R. T. A., & Ginther, D. K. (2010). Can mentoring help female assistant professors? Interim results from a randomized trial. American Economic Review, 100(2), 348–352. Dobbin, F. (2009). Inventing equal opportunity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Funkhouser, M. (2016). When women have power. Governing the States and Localities. Accessed August 2016 at www.governing.com/gov-institute/funkhouser/gov-womenpower-tools.html. Goldin, C., & Polachek, S. (1987). Residual differences by sex: Perspectives on the gender gap in earnings. American Economic Review, 77(2), 143–151. Hill, M. (1979). The wage effects of marital status and children. Journal of Human Resources, 14(4), 579–594. Hochschild, A. (1989). The second shift. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. (2015a). More? Women? Now? Accessed August 2016 at www.idea.int/americas/bolivia/bolivia-49-percentwomen-parliament.cfm.

86

Silvana Koch-Mehrin

International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. (2015b). Electoral system design. Accessed August 2016 at http://www.idea.int/esd/index.cfm. Inter-parliamentary Union. (2016). Women in national parliaments. Accessed July 2016 at www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm. Kurtulus, F.A., & Tomaskovic-Devy, D. (2012). Do female top managers help women to advance? A panel study using EEO-1 records. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 639(1), 173–197. Lawless, J. L., & Fox, R. L. (2015). Running from office: Why young Americans are turned off to politics. New York: Oxford University Press. Linehan, M., & Scullion, H. (2008). The development of female global managers: The role of mentoring and networking. Journal of Business Ethics, 83(1), 29–40. Lovenduski, J., & Karam, A. (2002). Women in parliament: Making a difference. Stockholm: International IDEA. Lundberg, C., & Rose, E. (2000). Parenthood and the earnings of married men and women. Labour Economics, 7(6), 689–710. MacClean, M. (2008). America’s first legal woman voter. History of American Women. Accessed July 2016 at www.womenhistoryblog.com/2008/09/lydia-chapin-taft. html. Mandel, H., & Semyonov, M. (2005). Family policies, wage structures, and the gender gaps: Sources of earnings inequality in 20 countries. American Sociological Review, 70(6), 949–967. Mincer, J., & Polachek, S. (1974). Family investments in human capital: Earnings of women. Journal of Political Economy, 82(2), S76–S108. National Constitution Center. (n.d.). Centuries of citizenship:A constitutional timeline.Accessed July 2016 at http://constitutioncenter.org/timeline/html/cw08_12159.html. Nugent, M. K., & Krook, M. L. (2015). All-women shortlists: Myths and realities. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. O’Neil, D. A., Hopkins, M. M., & Bilimoria, D. (2008). Women’s careers at the start of the 21st century: Patterns and paradoxes. Journal of Business Ethics, 80(4), 727–743. Palmieri, S., & Jabre, K. (n.d.). Promoting partnership between men and women in parliament: The experience of the inter-parliamentary union. Accessed July 2016 at http://iknowpolitics. org/en/2007/03/promoting-partnership-between-men-and-women-parliamentexperience-inter-parliamentary-union. Powley, E. (2004). Strengthening governance: The role of women in Rwanda’s transition. A Summary Paper presented at Expert Group Meeting on “Enhancing Women’s Participation in Electoral Processes in Post-Conflict Countries” 19–22 January 2004. Glen Cove, NY. Rampell, C. (2012).The mommy penalty around the world. Economix.Accessed March 2016 at http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/the-mommy-penalty-around-theworld/. Ruhm, C. (1998). The economic consequences of parental leave mandates: Lessons from Europe. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 113(1), 285–317. Sanbonmatsu, K., Carroll, S. J., & Walsh, D. (2009). Poised to run:Women’s pathways to the state legislatures. New Brunswick, NJ: Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. UNWomen. (2014). The Beijing platform for action turns 20. Accessed July 2016 at http:// beijing20.unwomen.org/en/about.

Gender Equality and the Ballot Box

87

Women in Parliaments. (2015). The female political career. Accessed July 2016 at www. womeninparliaments.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Final_13012015_TheFemale-Political-Career.pdf. Wood, R., Corcoran, M., & Courant, P. (1993). Pay differences among the highly paid: The male-female earnings gap in lawyers’ salaries. Journal of Labor Economics, 11(3), 417–441.

6 WOMEN AS PUBLIC SECTOR LEADERS1 A Long Way from Gender Parity Uschi Schreiber

Diversity is shown to improve innovation and creative problem solving. Governments that have a diverse group of people creating and implementing policies will find themselves at an advantage. Governments that are not able to access top talent to lead change and redesign services will fall short, especially if women remain significantly under-represented in senior public sector leadership. Increasing workforce diversity not only fosters innovation but also helps to drive up quality within that workforce, expanding the pool of talent and skills available to meet changing needs in a time of large-scale and rapidly accelerating change. This chapter begins with a discussion of these changes encapsulated in what we refer to as megatrends i.e., the transformative global forces that are defining our present and our future. These megatrends set the context for the chapter’s discussion on the diversity of thought, experience and perspective needed by contemporary public sectors. The next section looks at EY’s Worldwide Index of Women as Public Sector Leaders and describes variations in the representation of women in leadership positions across G20 countries.2 This is followed by a discussion of the factors that have worked across G20 countries to improve gender diversity in public sector leadership positions. The chapter closes with suggestions for increasing the role of women in public service leadership positions.

Megatrends Governments, worldwide, are being impacted by at least six megatrends that are reshaping global economic, political and technological environments: the digital future; the rise of entrepreneurship; global marketplace changes; urbanization; the resourceful planet; and health reimagined. Each is having far-reaching impacts on global relationships, trade, international and domestic business, economies,

Women as Public Sector Leaders

89

societies and individuals—all of which correspond to the interconnected policy and service responsibilities that need to be met by governments.

The Digital Future The digital future is already here in all dimensions of economies and societies, fueled by the convergence of changes in social media, mobile technologies, rapid application development, cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things (IoT)3 and the growing demand for anytime-anywhere access to information. The societal and economic structural changes that will flow from such changes are akin to those associated with the industrial revolution, but happening faster. Technology is changing the ways people work and is increasingly enabling machines and software to substitute for humans. Enterprises and individuals who can seize the opportunities offered by digital advances stand to gain significantly. But at a time when society is undergoing significant changes as a result of technology disruption, women are at risk of being left further behind, especially as they remain under-represented in senior roles in many important parts of the economy including so-called STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Governments need to understand and respond to these changes that are impacting individual citizens, especially women, societies and economies in unprecedented ways.

The Rise of Entrepreneurship and Market Changes Partly due to technology, entrepreneurs are becoming the lifeblood of economic growth in advanced, emerging and less developed economies. A major study by the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) underscores the importance of innovative, highgrowth entrepreneurship, not only to economic growth but also to the resolution of global “wicked problems,” such as climate change, migration and terrorism (Naudé, 2011). Countries vary dramatically in the extent of women’s entrepreneurship as measured by the percent of entrepreneurs who are female. According to a 2015 report by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), the ratio of women to men in entrepreneurial start-ups ranged from 41 percent down to 2 percent (2015) in the 83 countries included in the report. In just ten countries, “women are as likely as men, or more likely than men, to be entrepreneurs” (Kelley et al., 2015, p. 7). The GEM report emphasizes that continued efforts are needed to promote women’s entrepreneurship worldwide.

Global Marketplace Changes A range of long-forecast changes to the global marketplace is now occurring. Nearly 95 percent of the world’s annual demographic growth is occurring in less

90

Uschi Schreiber

developed regions while the more developed countries are at the forefront of aging populations (Chamie, 2012). According to a recent UN report: Population aging is . . . without parallel in the history of humanity. Increases in the proportions of older persons . . . are being accompanied by declines in the proportions of the young . . . By 2050, the number of older persons in the world will exceed the number of young for the first time in history. Moreover, by 1998 this historic reversal in relative proportions of young and old had already taken place in the more developed regions. (UN, 2002, p. xxviii) Even though not all countries are aging, the UN report concludes that “it is evident that unprecedented demographic changes . . . are transforming the world. The profound, pervasive and enduring consequences of population aging present enormous opportunities as well as enormous challenges for all societies” (UN, 2002, p. xxxi).These changes also present opportunities and challenges to governments to bring more women into leadership positions.

Rapid Urbanization Rapid urbanization will continue in emerging and mature markets.The UN forecasts that the proportion of the world’s population living in cities will rise from the current 54 percent to 66 percent by 2050 (UN, 2014). That represents much larger population flows than we have seen over the previous 35 years. Infrastructure, social cohesion and a range of other implications are huge challenges that governments will need to address.

Resourceful Planet Population and economic growth drive demand, which ultimately ripples along supply chains to impact on natural resources. While the world’s supply of nonrenewable resources is technically finite, new technologies continue to affect future supply. Food and water supply security are now long-term strategic issues. Such changes not only have important implications for economies and geopolitical power balances, they also have important social implications. A negative byproduct of rapid urbanization is unplanned growth. Truly sustainable communities must target urban poverty and marginalized populations, which women make up disproportionately, to enable upward mobility (UN, 2010). Sustainability is everybody’s problem, but governments have a crucial leadership role in forecasting and addressing market gaps, such as temporality (short-term versus longer-term interests) and externalities.

Women as Public Sector Leaders

91

Transformation of Heath Care Health care, which already accounts for 10 percent of global GDP (World Bank, 2014), is embarking on a transformative path. Cost pressures are rising along with population growth and aging as well as incomes and expectations. At the same time, new technologies, such as data analytics, mobile phone applications and the IoT, are transforming the art of the possible. Gnomically enabled, personalized medicine is held up as a cost-side game changer, but historical trends suggest that the costs of medical technologies and pharmaceuticals continue to increase along with improved outcomes. The overall impact on costs of such advances to health systems as a whole is not yet clear, neither are the geodemographic effects of improved health and longevity, but new lines have been drawn. These developments represent major moral, ethical, regulatory and legislative challenges that only governments, representative of all of their constituents, can address. Each of the six megatrends is important in its own right, but they also interact and compound each other’s effects (see Figure 6.1). Within this complex context, it is particularly important to understand and improve leadership in the public sector. Diversity of thought, experience and

Digital future

Health reimagined

Entrepreneurship rising

Resourceful planet

Global marketplace

Urban world

FIGURE 6.1

The Six Megatrends

More interactive Less interactive

92

Uschi Schreiber

perspective is needed to respond to these massive challenges—doing more of the same will fall short. Leaders make decisions that affect billions of people and they make these decisions in an increasingly fast-moving and unfamiliar environment. Elected officials, public servants and board members of public/governmental organizations are responsible for and influence the general welfare of their citizens, protecting the most vulnerable members of society and providing policy, regulations and legislation that have major implications for business outcomes. Governments around the world face imperatives to make the most of all the talent available to address 21st-century issues and to grasp the new opportunities that will also arise.Yet, women remain significantly under-represented in senior public sector leadership roles, worldwide. The EY4 Index discussed in the following section documents this phenomenon and examines variations in women’s representation in public service leadership across the G20 countries.

Women in Public Sector Leadership Positions There has been extensive research and public commentary on the benefits of women leaders in businesses and on private sector boards (McKinsey, 2015;World Economic Forum, 2015). However, what has not been available is comparable data across countries measuring women as public sector leaders. To fill this gap, in 2012, EY commenced production of the first Worldwide Index of Women as Public Sector Leaders, showing the proportion of all non-elected senior executives across federal or national governments filled by women in G20 countries. Public leaders are defined as non-elected senior executives across federal or national governments or the executive ranks of the core civil service in central governments. This group constitutes approximately the most senior 10 percent of public officials. Total public sector employment figures comprise the percentage of women among all persons who fulfill the requirements of delivering or managing public services. The data are from a range of sources across countries with different public sector structures, often making comparisons difficult. The Index, however, paints a broad picture that deserves, indeed demands, attention.Women comprise 51 percent of the world’s population and 49.7 percent of the overall public sector workforce in G20 countries. However, they represent just 24.9 percent of public sector leaders across these countries.

EY’s Worldwide Index of Women as Public Sector Leaders The data for the 2015 EY Index shows that among the 19 countries that are members of the G20, women hold at least one-third of public sector leadership roles in only six countries. Figure 6.2 depicts the percentages of women in senior public sector positions compared with the percentage of women in the central government public sector for each G20 member country. Canada ranks highest

Women as Public Sector Leaders

93

Canada Australia South Africa United Kingdom Brazil United States Russia European Commission Italy Mexico Argentina France Germany Indonesia India China Turkey South Korea Japan Saudi Arabia 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0% Percentage of women in public sector Percentage of women in senior public sector roles FIGURE 6.2

G20 Members, Percentages of Women in Senior Public Sector Roles and All Women in Public Sector Roles, 2015

with its 46.1 percent of senior leadership positions filled by women, followed by Australia (40.1 percent), South Africa (39.8 percent), the UK (37.7 percent), Brazil (35.4 percent) and the US (34 percent). The proportion of women in public sector leadership positions increased over the 2013–15 period in all but two of the G20 countries. This progress has not been rapid, however, and there are widely differing rates of growth among G20 countries that can be grouped into three clusters according to the percentage of women in senior public leadership positions in each measured country. Each cluster is discussed below.

G20 Countries: The First Cluster The first cluster comprises the six G20 countries having more than one-third of their senior public sector positions filled by women in 2015: Canada, Australia, South Africa, the UK, Brazil and the US. Each had an average increase of one percentage point in the Index during 2014–15 with the exception of the UK where the increase exceeded two points. Figure 6.3 compares the performance of the six countries with four indicators: the percent of women in senior public sector roles, in legislatures, cabinet positions and in private sector board membership. As indicated earlier, Canada tops the EY Index, with women comprising 46.1 percent of public sector leaders. Canada has a long history of positive action

94

Uschi Schreiber 50.0% 45.0% 40.0% Percentage

35.0% 30.0% 25.0% 20.0% 15.0% 10.0% 5.0% 0.0% Canada

Australia

South Africa

United Kingdom

Brazil

United States

G20 member

FIGURE 6.3

Percentage of women in senior public sector roles

Percentage of women within national legislatures

Percentage of women cabinet ministers

Percentage of women on private sector boards

Cluster 1 Countries: Percentage of Women across Four Leadership Indices

on promoting under-represented groups. Since the early 1980s, there have been voluntary affirmative action programs in both the public and private sectors. In the 1990s, these programs were given legislative force in the public sector and, later, in industries regulated by the federal government. Before Canada’s general election in 2015, it ranked fourth in the G20 for women’s representation in cabinet jobs (32 percent), seventh in private sector company boards (12 percent), and eighth in parliamentary representation (27.9 percent). The UK is the European country with the highest proportion of women in public sector leadership positions (37.7 percent). The UK civil service has never used quotas. Since 2005, however, it has encouraged civil service departments to improve the diversity of their senior workforces, setting a series of targets and appointing permanent secretary “diversity champions” to facilitate their achievement. In 2015, a year prior to the arrival of Theresa May as UK Prime Minister, women made up just 15.6 percent of the cabinet.This was a much smaller proportion than the female representation in parliament, which stood at 26.7 percent following the 2015 general election. But, as the 2015 report on gender inequality in the UK by the London School of Economics Commission on Gender Inequality and Power points out, political parties must commit themselves to gender parity (50/50) in the formation of future governments (Perrons & Lacey, 2015).The UK ranks first among all G20 countries in women on private sector company boards (21 percent).

Women as Public Sector Leaders

95

South Africa is one of the most encouraging performers in the EY Index and continues to show progress in appointing women to leadership positions. Among G20 members, South Africa has the greatest proportion of women in its legislature (41.1 percent), and ranks second for women in cabinet positions (37.1 percent) and third for women in senior public sector positions (39.8 percent). It also ranks third for women on company boards (17 percent). South Africa is thus the most consistently high-performing country across four key metrics showing the role of women in decision-making positions. And recently the South African National Assembly debated and passed the Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill that sets a mandatory target of 50 percent representation for women in decision-making structures across organizations in the public and private sectors and in religious organizations (South African Parliamentary Monitoring Group, 2014). Brazil shows a good example of how a senior leader can effect change. Dilma Rouseff, who was elected in 2011 as the nation’s first female president, was a vocal proponent of the need to get more women into senior positions across all sectors. In 2012, all but one of her inner circle of advisers were women. The result is that by 2015, Brazil ranked seventh in the G20 for women’s representation in cabinet jobs (25.6 percent). Looking at Brazil more closely, it has seen a slow but steady increase in women in public leadership posts over the course of the last three years, with its 3.3 percentage point growth the second fastest among the top cluster of countries. It is, however, too soon to say whether this reflects a trend. We will continue to watch developments in Brazil over the next few years to determine what legacy Rouseff will have left on gender equality. Honing in on the US, it does not lead in any of the categories of women in senior leadership positions in either the public or the private sector. Neither does it have any national gender-focused laws making gender parity compulsory. But with Hillary Clinton becoming the first female presidential nominee of a major political party, although her candidacy was unsuccessful, it will be interesting to see whether the country’s heightened focus on women in top leadership positions results in policies that will improve the country’s rankings in the EY Index.

G20 Countries: The Second Cluster The second cluster comprises the six G20 countries with one-fifth to one-third of senior public sector positions filled by women in 2015: Russia, Italy, Argentina, Mexico, France and Germany. Among these countries, the average increase of women in leadership positions from 2014 to 2015 was much higher than in the first cluster, at five percentage points, with four of the six countries (Italy,Argentina, France and Germany) showing an increase of between 3.0 and 4.5 points, and two approaching double digits (Mexico, 8.2 percent and Russia, 9.6 percent).

96

Uschi Schreiber

Figure 6.4 shows the performance of the six G20 countries in the second cluster with three other indicators: percentage of women in legislatures, in cabinet positions and in private sector board positions. In France, which ranks 12th in the 2015 EY Index, quotas were introduced in 2012 to increase the number of women appointed to senior positions in the public sector. This has already had an impact, with the proportion of women rising from 21.4 percent in 2013 to 28 percent in 2015. Further progress in women’s representation is expected since quotas strengthened in 2015 and will do so again in 2018. The targets have been set at 30 percent from 2015 to 2017 and 40 percent from 2018 (Murray, 2010). Government bodies that do not reach the targets face potential budget cuts under the law. France has the highest proportion of female ministers in the cabinet of all G20 members (48.6 percent) and ranks second for the percentage of women on private sector company boards (18 percent). In Germany, the proportion of women in senior public sector positions jumped from 13 percent in 2013 to 21 percent in 2015 and is expected to grow even more dramatically with the May 2015 passage of the German Act on Equal Participation of Women and Men in Leadership Positions in the Private and Public Sectors (German Federal Government, 2015). In accordance with the new law, the

60.0%

50.0%

Percentage

40.0%

30.0%

20.0%

10.0%

0.0% Russia

Italy

Argentina Mexico

France Germany

G20 member

FIGURE 6.4

Percentage of women in senior public sector roles

Percentage of women within national legislatures

Percentage of women cabinet ministers

Percentage of women on private sector boards

Cluster 2 Countries: Percentage of Women across Four Leadership Indices

Women as Public Sector Leaders

97

Federal Equal Opportunities Act and the Federal Act on Appointment to Federal Bodies have been amended to increase the proportion of women in management positions in government service. In the case of supervisory bodies to which the federal government can appoint at least three seats, in 2016 it was required that women must represent at least 30 percent of all new appointments, increasing to 50 percent starting in 2018. The Federal Equality Act has also been amended to increase the share of women in executive positions in the civil service. In the future, the federal administration will have to set targets to increase the proportion of women for each management level. Targets and measures will be outlined in the equality plan of each department. Currently, Germany ranks third among G20 countries in terms of percentages of women in legislative positions (36.9 percent) and third in women in ministerial positions (33.3 percent). Russia presents an inconsistent profile. Its public sector workforce is 75 percent female, but just one-third of its senior public sector positions are filled by women. With 6.7 percent of cabinet positions held by women and 5 percent female private sector board members, Russia ranks 17th and 16th, respectively, among G20 members in these indicators in the EY Index. Inconsistency can also be seen in Latin American countries. Mexico and Argentina both have quotas for the number of female candidates who run in local and state elections.They also have the second and fourth highest proportions of female parliamentarians in the G20, respectively. The 17.6 percent of ministers who are women in each country puts them in a respectable joint eighth place on that metric. But on the proportion of women on company boards, Argentina and Mexico rank 10th and 14th, respectively. Both perform well in the measure of political leadership, but are not top performers in other metrics, suggesting that social conservatism is still prevalent despite mandated change through quotas in some areas.

G20 Countries: The Third Cluster The third cluster comprises the seven G20 countries with less than 20 percent of senior public sector positions filled by women in 2015: Indonesia, India, China, Turkey, South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia. Of these seven countries, Indonesia, India, China and Japan show a minuscule increase in the proportion of women in public sector leadership roles from 2014 to 2015; Turkey and South Korea show a decrease. Only China’s 3.5 percentage point increase exceeds 1.2 points. Figure 6.5 shows the performance of G20 countries in the third cluster in the EY Index. It looks at their performance across four indicators: percentage of women in senior public sector roles, legislatures, in cabinet positions and in private sector board positions. These numbers portray a less promising picture. In Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, women accounted for just 3 percent of public sector leaders in 2015 and are significantly under-represented in the public sector overall. Japan also ranks poorly in terms of the percentage of female elected legislators (11.6 percent), and its percentage of female cabinet ministers is also low (11.1 percent).

98

Uschi Schreiber 25.0%

Percentage

20.0% 15.0% 10.0% 5.0% 0.0% Indonesia

India

China

Turkey

South Korea

Japan

Saudi Arabia

G20 member

FIGURE 6.5

Percentage of women in senior public sector roles

Percentage of women within national legislatures

Percentage of women cabinet ministers

Percentage of women on private sector boards

Cluster 3 Countries: Percentage of Women across Four Leadership Indices

In India, the world’s largest democracy, just 15.4 percent of public sector leaders are female. India’s rankings of women in elected positions and overall public sector representation are also low (18th and 20th out of 20, respectively). Saudi Arabia ranks lowest in the EY Index for G20 members, with only 1 percent of women in senior public sector roles (0 percent in 2013 and 2014). Saudi Arabia also has no female cabinet ministers or private sector board members, although nearly 20 percent (19.9 percent) of its elected legislators are women. Among the countries in this cluster, two have shown significant declines from 2013 to 2015: Turkey and South Korea. In Turkey, the proportion of women in senior public sector positions declined from 13.6 percent in 2013 to 9.4 percent in 2014 to 9 percent in 2015. At 17.8 percent, the proportion of women in its parliament is well below the G20 average of 24.8 percent, and just 4 percent of its cabinet ministers are women—the second lowest representation among G20 countries and ranking ahead of just one country—Saudi Arabia. Turkey has also seen a long-term drop in women’s labor market participation rate, from a high of 48 percent in 1980 to just 27 percent in 2010. There has, however, been progress in the legislative sphere, with more women MPs elected in 2015 than ever before. The proportion of women in senior public sector roles in South Korea has also fallen—from 8.6 percent to 4.6 percent over the period 2013–15, a drop of 47 percent, significantly greater than Turkey’s 34 percent decline. South Korea also performs relatively poorly in terms of the percentages of women elected as legislators and on boards (16th out of 20 and 17th out of 19, respectively). South Korea’s ratio of women in senior public sector positions to women in the public

Women as Public Sector Leaders

99

sector overall is among the lowest in the G20, as can be seen in Figure 6.5. In 2015, South Korea was just one of 11 countries in the world with a female head of state. In fact, Park Geun-hye was the first woman to be elected head of state of an East Asian country (Pew Research, 2015). In China, there is a strong belief that women’s participation in the workforce is vital, leading to a relatively small gender wage gap and an above-average rate of female participation in the workforce: 47.8 percent of public sector employees are women.Women tend to take only short breaks to have children, and there is good access to childcare. Most women work full time, regardless of their caring responsibilities. Nonetheless, women are under-represented in senior government positions as well as elected legislative positions and ministerial positions, ranking 16th, 11th and 16th, respectively, among the G20 countries. In Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, two countries with Islam as their predominant religion, women make up a sizeable proportion of the public sector workforces. Women account for 49 percent of the public sector workforce in Indonesia and 38.7 percent of the Saudi Arabian public sector workforce. These numbers refute some commonly held stereotypes of these countries being male-dominated societies across all domains. However, when looking at the levels of seniority and decision-making positions, both rank in the bottom half of the G20 countries. Indonesia has just 16.6 percent of women in senior public sector roles. In Saudi Arabia, there are no women in these positions.

Improving Diversity in Public Sector Leadership: What Works? For the past 40 years, governments around the world have implemented measures to address gender inequalities, introducing equal opportunity legislation and creating protection against discrimination. Many governments, wanting to lead by example, have gone further with respect to gender inequality in their public sector workforces, issuing policies and guidelines for meritorious employment, quotas and targets, and maternity, paternity and childcare. Initiatives like these have resulted in a relatively high percentage of women pursuing careers in the public sector as compared to the private sector (OECD, 2011).

Legislation, Quotas and Targets A Carleton University study has found that legislation and political reform can reverse female under-representation (Rankin, 2012). Of the 26 countries included in the study that met or surpassed a target of women filling 30 percent of legislative seats, 21 have some type of proportional representation. Among the 26 countries, 13 either use quotas or have reserved seats for women. Argentina and Mexico both have quotas for the number of female candidates who must stand in local and state elections, and they have the second and third highest proportions of female parliamentarians within the G20. Both countries’ ministries are made up of

100

Uschi Schreiber

17.6 percent of women, positioning them in a respectable eighth place tie for that metric. Without quotas or similar requirements, countries with “first-past-the-post” electoral systems will not reach a level of 40 percent legislative participation by women until near the end of the 21st century5 (Rankin, 2012). Legislation is also important to strengthen equal employment opportunity, address open discrimination, safeguard maternity leave and ensure other protection for women in the workforce. Importantly, legislation and policy can assist in making better meritorious recruitment decisions. However, experience also shows that less visible factors impact women’s progression into senior leadership positions such as conscious and unconscious bias of women. While it is proven that supportive policies improve metrics, they may not always be an immediate remedy for cultural change. As noted above, South Africa’s ranking in all four indicators included in the analysis was relatively high. However, the former South African Minister of Home Affairs, Naledi Pandor, has pointed out that legislation is not a fix-all. Her country has adopted wide-ranging laws to address gender equalities—and made much progress—but problems still remain. She captured this by stating: What’s the point, for example, of having better-educated women if we find our aspirations blocked and our talents short-changed in the world of work? If there is no space to express your ideas—or, as happened to me once, if you’re called “girlie” in a meeting—then it is very difficult . . . to be taken seriously. We still have to address these aspects. (EY, 2013, p. 15) The poor performance of South Korea and Japan in all four indices adds weight to this argument. The two countries rank 18th and 19th, respectively, for the proportion of women in senior public sector roles, and while Japan grew in 2015 by 1.2 percentage points, South Korea slipped back. Among the G20 countries, their rankings are consistently low: 16th and 19th, respectively, for female legislative representation; 12th and 14th for female cabinet ministers; and 17th and 18th with respect to women on company boards. Although the two countries have equal opportunity legislation in place, their affirmative action programs are voluntary and undermined by cultural and social discrimination. Fang Lee Cooke, Professor of Human Resource Management and Chinese studies at Monash University, Australia, comments that Japan introduced its equal employment opportunities legislation “as a response to international pressure rather than as an acknowledgement of the changing social values in Japan” (EY, 2014, p. 11). Japanese women are also disadvantaged by the traditional Nenko system of promotion, which “rewards employees based on the long service and hard work principle” (EY, 2014, p. 15), explains Cooke, and “further assumes that this principle only applies to regular male workers but not women, even if they

Women as Public Sector Leaders

101

are in regular status jobs” (EY, 2014, p. 15). In April 2013, however, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that allowing women to “shine” in the economy was fundamental to Japan’s growth (AFP-JIJI, 2014, para. 7). It has been estimated that increasing female labor participation to that of men could add eight million people to Japan’s workforce, potentially increasing GDP by as much as 15 percent (Goldman Sachs, 2014). In South Korea, employers failed to participate in an affirmative action scheme introduced in 2006, in part due to a “high distrust of policies imposed through political processes and an ignorance of the possible benefits of affirmative actions” (Cho & Kwon, 2010, p. 133).

Promoting Gender Equality: High-Level Engagement When implementing new policies and/or legislation to promote gender equality, there must be strong support and a framework in place to ensure that organizations are accountable for their progress. In France, for example, public bodies face fines if they do not comply with its new gender quota policy. In South Africa, despite the strong culture of affirmative action, the Public Service Commission recently found a lack of skills and understanding about key factors that would promote gender equality across the whole of society. Accordingly, the South African government implemented a “Strategic Framework for Gender Equality within the Public Service” and a biannual reporting requirement to the cabinet on progress. Similarly, in 2011, the US Government set out a Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan to encourage more flexible workplace policies. Since 2012, public sector agencies have been required to create their own plans within this framework. Brazil and Canada provide examples of how a senior leader can effect change. As noted above, Dilma Rouseff of Brazil was a strong proponent of the need to bring more women into senior positions across all sectors. As a result, 25.6 percent of Brazil’s cabinet are women, ranking it seventh in the G20 on that measure. In Canada, when the new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named his cabinet in October 2015, he selected 15 men and 15 women—the first gender-balanced ministerial team in the country’s history. At the time of his election, he said, “It’s important to be here before you today to present to Canada a cabinet that looks like Canada” (The Guardian, 2015, para. 3). When asked why he had selected equal numbers of men and women, he answered, “Because it’s 2015” (The Guardian, 2015, para. 4).

Building and Maintaining the Pipeline If improvements are to be made in the representation of women in public leadership positions, governments must begin to groom a pipeline of talented women in more junior posts—or even outside the public sector. For without talented women to promote, even the best-laid gender diversity policies will flounder. One broad concern here is the impact of austerity measures in government since the

102

Uschi Schreiber

late 2000s on women’s representation in the workforce overall and in government, specifically. In the UK, the Office of Budget Responsibility estimated in 2012 that 710,000 public sector jobs would be lost by 2017, with twice as many women as men losing their jobs (Fawcet Society, 2012). In some countries, such as Spain, Portugal and Greece, the cutbacks have focused on the most femaledominated sectors, such as education, health and social work, making the situation even worse for women. According to the European Women’s Lobby, in Italy, 19,700 women’s jobs have been cut, and 87,000 more are expected to be lost in coming years in the education sector (EY, 2013). A similar picture exists in the US. In the aftermath of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the private sector began to add jobs again from January 2012 to January 2013, while the public sector continued to shed jobs (National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), 2013). The public sector lost 74,000 jobs overall during 2012, with 63,000 of them (85 percent) held by women (NWLC, 2013). Since women account for about 57 percent of public sector employees, the 2012 cuts represented “strikingly disproportionate losses for women” (NWLC, 2013, para. 2).

Time for Action The World Bank believes that gender equality is “smart economics” (World Bank, 2006, p. 2) and there is no doubt that women are central to broad-based economic and social development. This is because educating and investing in women and girls has a positive effect on a nation’s productivity, efficiency and economic growth. Conversely, not focusing on women can stall poverty reduction and economic development. In today’s globally connected, competitive and uncertain world, it is crucial for countries to take full advantage of this, at times neglected, talent resource. Looking ahead to 2030, the impact of women on the global economy will be at least as significant as that of China’s and India’s one-billion-plus populations, if not more so (Strategy&, 2012). Women are the next large emerging market as they act as producers, entrepreneurs, employees and consumers. However, approximately 865 million women worldwide are “not prepared” (lacking sufficient secondary education) and/or “not enabled” (lacking support from families and communities) to engage in the world economy. Most of these women are between the ages of 20 and 65, and nearly 95 percent live in emerging economies.The rest live in North America, Western Europe and Japan. From 2012, counting female births and those under age 20, this number will add up to a billion by the late 2020s. This group is an extremely important resource for driving global economic growth—in part because of the multiplier effect created when large population segments integrate into the global economy, as in the case of China and India. As newly enabled consumers and workers enter the economy, they create markets

Women as Public Sector Leaders

103

and increase the available talent pool.This visibility of women in the market needs to be matched by the visibility of women in government. It is important that as the currents of geopolitical, social, economic and technological change move on, senior leaders in government remain focused on the diversity agenda. Countries that have not only set up targets or quotas and the right policies, but that accompany these with transparent systems of accountability, are more likely to keep improving their gender diversity. Targets and accountability, however, are not enough. At least three streams of action are needed to address current leadership deficiencies, deal with organizational and cultural biases, and encourage greater representation from women in senior roles.

Action Stream 1. Speed-up Culture Change with Progressive Policies and Legislation Legislation and political reform can reverse women’s under-representation (Rankin, 2012). Legislation is also important to foster equal employment opportunity, address overt and covert discrimination, safeguard maternity and parental leave, and ensure other protections of women in the workforce.

Action Stream 2. Build an Inclusive Culture and Eliminate Conscious and Unconscious Bias Evidence continues to mount for the power and pervasive nature of unconscious bias in both men and women. For example, in a 2012 Yale University study, researchers asked 127 scientists at six universities to review identical applications for a lab manager position—with the resumes randomly assigned male or female names (Dovidio, Brescoll, & Graham, 2012).The researchers found that male candidates were consistently judged to be more competent and deserving of an extra $4,000 pay, on average annually. They were also more willing to provide male applicants with mentoring and were more likely to hire them. Notably, women in the study were just as likely as men to make these judgments—even scientists, those guardians of objectivity, responded no differently than control groups. Leaders, therefore, need to send a consistent message that challenges unconscious bias and explicitly supports achieving greater equality at all levels. At the organization level, this requires the development of a road map to guide efforts to embed diversity and inclusiveness into all aspects of its work. Business processes, such as recruiting, staffing, planning, rewards and recognition, succession planning and performance management should not only be equitable and fair but should harness the power of diverse perspectives. At the individual level, it means the expectation that all people will team up and lead inclusively so that the organization can leverage brainpower and creativity. Part of the solution is to activate every leader as a change agent who actively challenges inappropriate behaviors

104

Uschi Schreiber

and attitudes that undermine the goal of gender equality. Importantly, each one needs to be self aware and open about the fact that unconscious biases impact recruitment, promotion and other decision-making. They need to reflect on it, discuss it, understand its impact, measure it and put in place systems and processes to minimize it. In this context, there is a need to continuously improve public sector recruitment practices and departmental cultures, entrenching respect for diversity in departmental culture.

Action Stream 3. Illuminate The Path to Leadership: Make Career Opportunities More Visible to Women By holding leaders accountable for developing and advancing women while simultaneously expanding access to role models, mentors and sponsors, organizations can increase the number of women in leadership and in the leadership pipeline. Mentoring and sponsorship are integral to building a truly inclusive culture. It should be noted that mentors and sponsors play different roles.A mentor offers practical advice and guidance, helps mentees to clarify their development needs, shares his or her own strengths and provides leadership philosophy. A sponsor typically is a senior leader who takes a proactive interest to intervene and influence on behalf of his or her “protégé” to support the achievement of the individual’s potential. Sponsors will use their influence to provide individuals with meaningful development opportunities, guiding and supporting them into senior leadership positions. Many women find that an important aspect of their own careers is to see other women succeed and successfully move into senior leadership roles. Lord O’Donnell, the former UK cabinet secretary and head of the Civil Service, who was widely credited with driving up the proportion of women leaders in Britain, commented on this phenomenon, stating that: As you get more women leaders, that helps reinforce the trend. Women further down raise their aspirations, because they see it’s possible—not just to be a leader, but to be a leader and not pretend to be a man. Nowadays you see women who can be themselves, have time for families and still get on. (Global Government Forum, 2016, para. 45) Visible, outspoken leadership from the top is also required. Organizations must take notice of what their departmental secretary or director-general values. Paying public attention to how policies and aspirations for diversity get implemented in practice, talking openly and repeatedly about the importance of diversity and promoting women to senior roles have a profound impact on an organization. Importantly, transparently measuring progress toward targets and sharing results often speak louder than words. People and teams in leadership roles should frequently ask the following questions: does everyone really have the opportunity

Women as Public Sector Leaders

105

to progress, even if they work part-time, or are there invisible barriers that prevent this? Are we measuring our progress against gender and other diversity targets in a meaningful way that leads to intervention when necessary, or is it merely a routine compliance exercise without efforts being actively refocused when progress has stalled?

Learning from Women Public Sector Leaders Sheryl Sandberg’s (2013) book Lean In focused on why a smaller proportion of women than men reach the top of their professions and crystalized thinking as to what women can do to progress into leadership roles. In Lean In, Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, shares her personal experiences as well as those of other women trying to climb the career ladder and suggests ways in which women can reach the top rungs of their professions. During the course of the research for the Worldwide Index of Women as Public Sector Leaders, many women leaders were interviewed about their experiences, and they too had advice for the generations coming after them. This advice was consolidated and is shown in Box 6.1.While neither complete nor objective, the suggestions represent the combined insight of women public sector leaders from many countries and offer guidance to aspiring women leaders around the world. In summary, diversity is not just a moral or social justice issue—it also improves productivity, engagement and decision-making. Moreover, at this point in history,

BOX 6.1 WOMEN RISING TO THE TOP • • • • • •

• •

Have a go—put your hand up, go with the opportunity when it arises and take some risks Fully understand the options available to you and speak up for yourself Think about the type of role that will work for you at this point in your life and the role you aspire to in the future Let others know that you are ambitious and tell your boss what you want Learn to negotiate effectively with your manager for the right role Ask for advice—talk to other people about their experiences and find yourself a champion, someone you can learn from and who will look out for you as your career develops Play the long game—accept that it’s okay if your career takes a back seat while you start a family. You can come back to it later Respect that flexibility goes both ways—be flexible where and when you can to support your team and organization

106

Uschi Schreiber

having women in senior leadership roles and able to contribute to decisionmaking as peers is not just nice to have. Instead, it is essential to tackling the 21st-century challenges we face. Now more than ever, diversity of experience, insight and viewpoint is required to fulfill the important role of government on behalf of the citizens of the world.

Notes 1

2

3

4 5

The views reflected in this chapter are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the global EY organization or its member firms.The data presented in the chapter have been obtained by consultation and correspondence with each of the G20 members; by verification from at least one government official; or from government data and publicly available sources. Because the government structures and definitions are diverse, in each instance the most comparable data available have been selected in compiling the Index rankings. The data used were the most up-to-date at the time of collection. Definitions of senior leaders are based, as far as possible, on data used in previous years to allow change to be tracked in each country for continuity. Data for China has been calculated by identifying and compiling gender statistics for senior government officials. Data for Saudi Arabia are estimates based on available statistics from the Ministry of Civil Service for entrants and leavers since the Index reports were first published. The G20 is made up of the finance ministers and central bank governors of 19 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea,Turkey, the UK and the US. The remaining seat is held by the European Union, which is represented by the rotating Council presidency and the European Central Bank. The Internet of Things (IoT) represents a major transformation in a digital world that has the potential to affect everyone and every business. IoT can be defined as physical objects that connect to the internet through embedded systems and sensors, interacting with it to generate meaningful results and convenience to the end-user community. EY refers to the global organization, and/or may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Legislative members are elected in single-member districts according to the “first-pastthe-post” principle, meaning that the candidate with the plurality of votes is the winner of the legislative seat. The losing party or parties win no representation at all.

References AFP-JIJI. (2014, May 7). Narrowing gender gap could boost Japan’s GDP by 12.5%: Goldman Sachs. Japan Times. Retrieved on October 27, 2015 from www.japantimes. co.jp/news/2014/05/07/business/economy-business/narrowing-gender-gap-boostjapans-gdp-12-5-goldman-sachs/#.VtqKqfkrLIX. Chamie, J. (2012). For better planning, watch global demographic trends. Yale Global Online. Retrieved on October 20, 2015 from http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/better-planning-watch-global-demographic-trends. Cho, J., & Kwon, T. (2010). Affirmative action and corporate compliance in South Korea. Feminist Economics. Seoul: School of Economics, Sungkyunkwan University. Dovidio, J., Brescoll,V., & Graham, M. (2012). Scientists not immune from gender bias,Yale study shows. New Haven, CT: Yale University. Retrieved on September 15, 2015 from http:// news.yale.edu/2012/09/24/scientists-not-immune-gender-bias-yale-study-shows.

Women as Public Sector Leaders

107

EY. (2013). Worldwide index of women as public sector leaders: Opening doors for women working in government. Retrieved on August 20, 2015 from www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/ EY_-_Worldwide_Index_of_Women_as_Public_Sector_Leaders/$FILE/EYWorldwide-Index-of-Women.pdf . EY. (2014). Worldwide index of women as public sector leaders 2014: Opening the door for women working in government. Retrieved on August 20, 2015 from www.ey.com/Publication/ vwLUAssets/EY_-_Worldwide_Women_Public_Sector_Leaders_Index_2014/ $FILE/EY_Worldwide_Index_of_Women_22Oct14.pdf. Fawcet Society. (2012). The impact of austerity on women. Retrieved on August 18, 2015 from www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/The-Impact-of-Austerityon-Women-19th-March-2012.pdf . German Federal Government. (2015). Act on equal opportunities of women and man in the federal administration, enterprises and federal courts (Gender Equality Act). Retrieved on November 29, 2015 from www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bgleig_2015/BGleiG.pdf. Global Government Forum. (2016). Report: Gender equality among civil service leaders. Retrieved on March 4, 2016 from www.globalgovernmentforum.com/report-genderequality-among-civil-service-leaders/. Goldman Sachs. (2014). Japan: Portfolio strategy womenomics 4.0: Time to walk the talk. Retrieved on October 27, 2015 from www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/outlook/ womenomics4-folder/womenomics4-time-to-walk-the-talk.pdf . The Guardian. (2015, November 4).Trudeau gives Canada first cabinet with equal number of men and women. The Guardian. Retrieved on December 14, 2015 from www.theguardian. com/world/2015/nov/04/canada-cabinet-gender-diversity-justin-trudeau. Kelley, D., Brush, C., Greene, P., Herrington, M., Ali, A., & Kew, P. (2015). Global entrepreneurship monitor 2014 women’s report. London: Global Entrepreneurship Research Association. McKinsey. (2015). The power of parity: How advancing women’s equality can add $12 trillion to global growth. Retrieved on October 27, 2015 from www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/ employment-and-growth/How-advancing-womens-equality-can-add-12-trillion-toglobal-growth. Murray, R. (2010). Parties, gender quotas and candidate selection in France. Basingstoke: Pargrave MacMillan. National Women’s Law Center. (2013). The sequester will exacerbate already steep public sector job losses. Retrieved on September 15, 2015 from https://nwlc.org/blog/sequesterwill-exacerbate-already-steep-public-sector-job-losses/. Naudé, W. (Ed.). (2011). Entrepreneurship and economic development. Studies in development economics and policy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. OECD. (2011). Report on the gender initiative: Gender equality in education, employment and entrepreneurship. Retrieved on October 20, 2015 from www.oecd.org/education/48111145.pdf. Perrons, D., & Lacey, N. (2015). Confronting gender inequality: Findings from the LSE commission on gender, inequality and power. London: London School of Economics. Pew Research. (2015). Number of women leaders around the world has grown, but they’re still a small group. Fact Tank. Retrieved on August 20, 2015 from www.pewresearch.org/ fact-tank/2015/07/30/about-one-in-ten-of-todays-world-leaders-are-women/. Rankin, P. (2012). Women’s access to leadership in public life. Carleton University, ON. Retrieved on August 20, 2015 from www.oecd.org/mena/governance/49358213.pdf. Sandberg, S. (2013). Lean in:Women, work, and the will to lead. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. South African Parliamentary Monitoring Group. (2014). Women empowerment and gender equality bill [B50-2013]: Public hearings with minister. Women in the Presidency. Retrieved on October 20, 2015 from https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/16819/.

108

Uschi Schreiber

Strategy&. (2012). Empowering the third billion women and the world of work in 2012. Retrieved on September 15, 2015 from www.strategyand.pwc.com/reports/empowering-thirdbillion-women-world. UN. (2002). World population ageing 1950–2050. Executive Summary. Retrieved on December 14, 2015 from www.un.org/esa/population/publications/worldageing19502050/ pdf/62executivesummary_english.pdf . UN. (2010). Gender equality and sustainable urbanisation. Women Watch. Retrieved on December 14, 2015 from www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/urban/factsheet.html. UN. (2014). World urbanization prospects. Highlights. Retrieved on December 14, 2015 from http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/highlights/wup2014-highlights.pdf. World Bank. (2006). Gender equality as smart economics: A World Bank group gender action plan ( fiscal years 2007–10). Retrieved on August 20, 2015 from http://siteresources.worldbank. org/INTGENDER/Resources/GAPNov2.pdf. World Bank. (2014). Health expenditure, total (% of GDP). Data. Retrieved on August 20, 2015 from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.TOTL.ZS. World Economic Forum. (2015). Global gender gap report 2015. Retrieved on February 19, 2016 from www.weforum.org/reports/global-gender-gap-report-2015.

7 EQUALITY FOR WOMEN IN SUB SAHARA AFRICA Still a Long Road to Travel Sebawit G. Bishu

Sub Sahara Africa (SSA) encompasses 48 countries completely or partially located south of the Sahara Desert on the African continent.1 It is a region generally characterized by extreme poverty and chronic gender inequalities. However, while women in the region face entrenched gender discrimination, in recent decades they have shown some progress toward achieving equality with men, especially with regard to their political voice. Furthermore, there is wide variation among individual countries in the region regarding the status of women across political, social and economic domains.This chapter focuses on women in the public sphere in the SSA region and its countries. It begins with an overview of the social and economic context for women governing in the region followed by a look at factors that shape women’s participation in the public sphere. The chapter closes with a brief discussion on constraints on women’s push for equality in the region.

Overview Taken together, the 48 SSA countries have a population of close to one billion (World Bank, 2015), reflecting an average annual increase of about 11 million people since 1950 (Bakilana, 2015). Population growth is primarily attributable to high fertility rates (an average of five births per woman) that are above those in any other world region, and to decreasing mortality rates, especially for women in childbirth (World Bank, 2015). The SSA region remains the poorest region in the world and is “the only region . . . for which the number of poor individuals has risen steadily and dramatically between 1981 and 2010 . . . There were more than twice as many extremely poor people living in SSA in 2010 . . . than there were three decades ago” (World Bank, 2013, para. 4).

TABLE 7.1 Human Development Index SSA Country Ranking, 2014

Country

HDI Rank

Mauritius Seychelles Botswana Gabon South Africa Cabo Verde Namibia Republic of Congo Equatorial Guinea Zambia Ghana Sao Tome and Principe Kenya Angola Swaziland United Republic of Tanzania Nigeria Cameroon Madagascar Zimbabwe Mauritania Comoros Lesotho Togo Rwanda Uganda Benin Sudan Djibouti South Sudan Senegal Côte d’Ivoire Malawi Ethiopia Gambia Democratic Republic of Congo Liberia Guinea-Bissau Mali Mozambique Sierra Leone Guinea Burkina Faso Burundi Eritrea Central African Republic Niger

63 64 106 110 116 122 126 136 138 139 140 143 145 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 159 161 162 163 163 166 167 168 169 170 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 186 187 188

*Ranking out of 188 countries Source: UNDP Human Development Report (2015).

Equality for Women in Sub Sahara Africa

111

Moreover, “the depth of poverty . . . is greater . . . than anywhere else” (McFerson, 2010, p. 51). It is therefore not surprising that the SSA region ranks at the bottom of the world’s regions in the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI), a composite measure of social and economic development based on “average achievement in three basic dimensions of human development—a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living” (UNDP, 2015, p. 228). It must be noted, however, that while the region as a whole has consistently ranked lowest of all regions in the HDI for several decades, not all SSA countries exhibit the same level of human development (see Table 7.1). In the HDI, countries are divided into four quartiles depending on their scores across three dimensions: Very High Human Development, High Human Development, Medium Human Development and Low Human Development. While no SSA country ranks in the highest quartile, two – Mauritius and Seychelles – exhibit what the UNDP classifies as High Human Development, ranking 63 and 64, respectively, among the 188 countries included in the Index. Another nine SSA countries are classified within the Medium Human Development group: Botswana, Gabon, South Africa, Cabo Verde, Namibia, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Zambia, Ghana, and Sao Tome and Principe. The remaining countries in the region are included in the Low Human Development group. In fact, SSA countries hold 19 of the lowest 20 HDI rankings (UNDP, 2016). Over the last decade, Mauritius and Seychelles, the two SSA countries in the High Human Development quartile, moved up by six and eight places, respectively, in the HDI rankings. Among the Medium and Low Human Development countries, progress was more uneven. South Africa moved up four places and Namibia three, but Equatorial Guinea and Ghana dropped five and two ranks, respectively. Among countries in the Low Human Development group, progress was also uneven. Zimbabwe and Rwanda jumped 12 and five places, respectively, while Swaziland, Sudan and Eritrea each fell by five places in the Index.

Life Expectancy In the HDI, the first dimension – a long and healthy life – is operationalized by life expectancy at birth.The 58.5 years life expectancy at birth in the SSA, 13 years below the global 71.5 year average, was the lowest of all the world’s regions (World Bank, n.d. b). As with the HDI (of which life expectancy is one component), there is wide variation among countries. Out of the 48 countries in the SSA region, just 25 have a life expectancy of 60 years and above and only three countries – Mauritius, Cabo Verde and Seychelles – have achieved a life expectancy of 70 years and above. At the other end of the spectrum, Burkina Faso and Swaziland have a life expectancy of 49 years and Lesotho, 50 years.

112

Sebawit G. Bishu

Education Education, the second dimension in the HDI, is operationalized by mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling. Although the SSA region ranks second among all the world’s regions in its public expenditures on education (UNDP, 2015), its 58.4 percent adult literacy rate is more than 20 percentage points below the global 81.2 percent average. The SSA region also ranks last in adult literacy rates among all regions. But, here too, there is wide variation among countries in the region.The two SSA countries with the highest HDI rankings (Mauritius and Seychelles) have the highest adult literacy rates at 89.2 and 91.8 percent, respectively. At the other end of the spectrum, Niger (15.5 percent), Guinea (25.3 percent), Benin (28.7 percent), Mali (33.6 percent) and Ethiopia (39 percent) have the lowest rates. All are in the bottom quartile in the HDI. Mauritius and Seychelles have also achieved higher female youth literacy rates at 98.6 and 99.4 percent, respectively. Niger, Guinea and Central Africa Republic have the lowest female youth literacy rate at 15.1, 21.8 and 27 percent, respectively.

Decent Standard of Living The third component of the HDI, decent standard of living, is measured by gross national income (GNI) per capita. The SSA region has the lowest average GNI per capita ($3,363) of the world’s regions, far below the second lowest ranking region of South Asia with its $5,605 per capita GNI. However, here, too, there is wide variation among countries in the region. Among the highest GNI per capita countries in the SSA region are Seychelles ($23,300), Equatorial Guinea ($21,056) and Mauritius ($17,470). The GNI in these countries is exponentially greater than that in the lowest ranking countries in the region: Central African Republic ($581), Republic of Congo ($680) and Malawi ($747).

Gender Inequality In addition to low levels of human development in most SSA countries, gender inequality is pervasive, exacerbated by war and internal conflicts. The UNDP’s Gender Inequality Index (GII) can be used as a metric to illustrate the lack of gender parity in the region.The GII “captures gender inequality in health (maternal mortality ratio and adolescent fertility rate), empowerment (gap in secondary education and share of parliamentary seats) and economic participation (gap in labor force participation rates)” (UNDP, 2015, p. 205). In contrast to the scoring on the HDI, higher values on the GII indicate higher levels of inequality. Lower GII value indicates higher levels of empowerment for women and a smaller gender gap. The SSA region is the lowest performing region on the GII, indicating a higher level of gender inequality than that found in other parts of the world (UNDP, 2015). But, similar to HDI rankings, there is significant variation in the GII among SSA countries (see Table 7.2). Rwanda, Namibia, South Africa and

TABLE 7.2 Gender Inequality Index SSA Country Ranking, 2014

Country

GII Rank

Rwanda Namibia South Africa Mauritius Botswana Burundi Zimbabwe Gabon Senegal Uganda Lesotho United Republic of Tanzania Kenya Ghana Swaziland Ethiopia Cameroon Zambia Togo Sudan Mozambique Republic of Congo Mauritania Malawi Benin Gambia Burkina Faso Sierra Leone Liberia Central African Republic Democratic Republic of Congo Mali Côte d’Ivoire Niger Seychelles Comoros Djibouti South Sudan Eritrea Nigeria Guinea-Bissau Guinea Equatorial Guinea Madagascar Sao Tome and Principe Angola

80 81 83 88 106 109 112 113 118 122 124 125 126 127 128 129 132 132 134 135 135 137 139 140 142 143 144 145 146 147 149 150 151 154 — — — — — — — — — — — —

Source: Africa Human Development Report (UNDP 2016, p. 170).

TABLE 7.3 Female Labor Force Participation Rate SSA Countries, 2014

Country

LFPR %

United Republic of Tanzania Rwanda Madagascar Malawi Mozambique Zimbabwe Burundi Central African Republic Togo Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia Burkina Faso Uganda Gambia Botswana Republic of Congo Democratic Republic of Congo Ghana Benin Guinea-Bissau Senegal Sierra Leone Guinea Cameroon Angola Chad Kenya Lesotho Liberia Gabon Namibia Côte d’Ivoire Cabo Verde Mali Nigeria Sao Tome and Principe South Africa Mauritius Swaziland Niger Djibouti Somalia Comoros Sudan Mauritania Seychelles South Sudan

88 86 86 85 85 84 83 83 81 81 80 78 77 76 72 72 71 71 68 68 68 66 66 66 64 64 64 62 59 58 57 55 53 52 51 48 46 45 44 44 40 37 37 35 31 29 — —

Source: Adapted from World Bank (n.d. c), http://data.worldbank.org/ indicator/SL.TLF.CACT.FE.ZS.

Equality for Women in Sub Sahara Africa

115

Mauritius show the highest level of gender equality in the region. On the other end of the spectrum, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire and Niger have the lowest level of gender equality with few women in parliament and a low percentage of adults with secondary education.

Economic Status of Women in the SSA Region The female labor force participation rate (LFPR) in the SSA region stood at 64 percent in 2014, significantly above the 50 percent global rate. Looking at specific countries, the United Republic of Tanzania, Rwanda, Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique have the highest female LFPRs at 88, 86, 86, 85 and 85 percent, respectively (see Table 7.3). At the other end of the spectrum, four countries have a female LFPR below 40 percent: Mauritania (29 percent), Sudan (31 percent), Comoros (35 percent) and Djibouti (37 percent). The high rate of labor force participation for women in most SSA countries holds even though the region has the highest fertility rates in the world and women bear a heavier burden than men when it comes to balancing work and family responsibilities. Across sub-Saharan Africa, women report doing more unpaid care and domestic work than men: four times as much in Ethiopia, Madagascar and Mauritius; and three times more in Benin, Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa, and the United Republic of Tanzania. (UN Women, 2015, p. 1) Furthermore, official statistics do not tell the whole story.Women account for half the agricultural workforce in the SSA region (Chen, 2001).These workers are not counted in official workforce statistics. Neither are workers in the “informal economy” that is neither taxed nor protected by government. Women in the SSA region account for a greater proportion of those engaged in the informal economy than men (UNDP, 2016). “In South Africa and the United Republic of Tanzania, for example, the total value of time spent on unpaid care and domestic work is estimated to be 15 and 35 per cent of GDP, respectively” (UN Women, n.d., p. 4). For women who are officially counted as part of the labor force, there is a gender wage gap that has been estimated at 30 percent compared with 24 percent worldwide (UNDP, 2016). It is notable that several SSA countries are making efforts to address this gap. By 2014, countries such as Angola, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Niger, Togo, United Republic of Tanzania, and Zimbabwe passed laws stipulating equal remuneration for work of equal value; nondiscrimination based on gender in hiring; and banning sexual harassment in employment. (UN Women, 2015, p. 1)

116

Sebawit G. Bishu

Women Governing in the SSA Region Iversen and Rosenbluth (2008, p. 483) cite research from 20 years ago that found “subsistence-level primary sector work in the developing world is unlikely to have an ‘empowering and consciousness raising effect’ that would make these women seek a direct political voice.” In the last few decades, however, the SSA region has witnessed a dramatic increase in women’s representation in the public sphere despite the large proportion of women doing subsistence level work.

Female Presidents Since the late 1990s, four women have served as presidents of SSA countries. Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, elected President of Liberia in 2005, was the first woman to head an African country (see Chapter 4, this book). She became President following Liberia’s emergence from years of internal political conflict and was re-elected for a second term in 2011. In Malawi, Vice President Joyce Banda took over the office of the President in 2012 upon the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika. Since then, two more women have assumed their country’s top office. In 2014, Catherine Samba-Panza became President of the Central African Republic. In 2015, Ameenah Gufrib-Fakium was elected President of Mauritius. Namibia has a female prime minister and deputy prime minster.

Female Ministers Nwankwor (2014) writes that as of 2010, the average female representation in ministerial/cabinet positions in SSA stood at 20 percent, above the global average of 16.6 percent. The 20 percent is more than triple the 6.8 percent female representation in the SSA region in 1996. Looking at SSA countries, in 2015, women held 53 percent of all ministerial positions in Cabo Verde and accounted for more than 30 percent of cabinet posts (see Table 7.4) in South Africa, Rwanda and the United Republic of Tanzania. At the other end of the spectrum, Djibouti, Sao Tome and Principe, Botswana, Comoros, Somalia and Sierra Leone had the lowest female representation in cabinet positions in the region (see Table 7.4).

Women in Parliament Women’s increased participation in the public domain in the SSA region is further manifested in their growing representation in parliaments. In 2016, Rwanda was the global leader in women’s representation in lower or single house parliaments, with women accounting for 64 percent of all seats (see Table 7.5), almost three

TABLE 7.4 Women in Ministerial Positions, SSA Countries, 2015

Country

Cabo Verde South Africa Rwanda Burundi United Republic of Tanzania Guinea-Bissau Uganda Kenya Mozambique Mauritania Swaziland Seychelles Nigeria Central African Republic South Sudan Ghana Namibia Angola Lesotho Togo Gambia Senegal Madagascar Zambia Liberia Comoros Eritrea Côte d’Ivoire Mali Sudan Guinea Benin Cameroon Ethiopia Niger Gabon Botswana Burkina Faso Zimbabwe Mauritius Malawi Republic of Congo Equatorial Guinea Sao Tome and Principe Somalia Democratic Republic of Congo Sierra Leone Djibouti

Women in Ministerial Positions Percent

Number

53 42 36 35 32 31 30 30 29 27 26 25 24 24 23 23 22 22 22 21 21 20 20 20 20 20 17 17 16 15 15 15 14 13 13 13 13 13 12 12 11 11 9 8 8 8 7 5

9 15 11 8 10 5 8 6 8 7 5 3 7 7 5 9 5 8 5 6 4 6 6 4 4 2 3 5 5 5 5 4 7 3 4 3 2 3 3 3 2 4 4 1 2 3 2 1

Source: Adapted from Inter-Psarliamentary Union (2015) www.ipu.org/ press-e/pressrelease201503101.htm.

TABLE 7.5 Women in Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament, SSA Countries, 2016

Country

Rwanda Senegal South Africa Namibia Mozambique Ethiopia Angola United Republic of Tanzania Burundi Uganda Zimbabwe Cameroon Sudan South Sudan Mauritania Lesotho Equatorial Guinea Cabo Verde Eritrea Guinea Madagascar Seychelles Kenya Sao Tome and Principe Zambia Togo Malawi Niger Gabon Somalia Guinea-Bissau Djibouti Sierra Leone Mauritius Liberia Ghana Botswana Burkina Faso Gambia Côte d’Ivoire Democratic Republic of Congo Mali Republic of Congo Benin Central African Republic Swaziland Nigeria Comoros

Lower/Single House

Upper House/Senate

Percent of Total

Number of Women

Percent of Total

Number of Women

64 43 42 41 40 39 37 37 36 34 32 31 31 29 25 25 24 23 22 22 21 21 20 18 18 18 17 15 14 14 14 13 12 12 11 11 10 9 9 9 9 9 7 7 7 6 6 3

51 64 166 43 99 212 81 136 44 143 85 56 130 109 37 30 24 17 33 25 31 7 69 10 30 16 32 25 17 38 14 7 15 8 8 30 6 12 5 23 44 13 10 6 10 4 20 1

39 — 35 23 — 32 — — 42 — 48 20 35 12 14 24 14 — — — 19 0 27 — — — — — 18 — — — — — 10 — — — — — 5 — 19 — — 33 7 —

10 — 19 10 — 49 — — 18 — 38 20 19 6 8 8 10 — — — 12 — 18 — — — — — 18 — — — — — 3 — — — — — 5 — 14 — — 10 7 —

Source: Adapted from Inter-Parliamentary Union (2016) (www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif. htm)

Equality for Women in Sub Sahara Africa

119

times the world average of 22.9 percent. Women held more than 40 percent of all seats in lower/single house parliaments in Seychelles (44 percent), Senegal (43 percent), South Africa (42 percent), Namibia (41 percent) and Mozambique (40 percent). In 14 SSA countries, women have a greater than 30 percent representation in lower/single house parliaments, the breakthrough target set for women’s participation in legislatures at the Fourth UN Conference for Women held in Beijing in 1995. On the other end of the spectrum, in 11 SSA countries, women accounted for less than 10 percent of all members of lower/single house parliaments in 2016. According to Tripp (2013): Women are similarly visible in regional bodies, holding 50% of the African Union parliamentary seats. Gertrude Mongella served as the first President of the Pan African Parliament and in July 2012, South Africa’s Nkosazana Dhlamini-Zuma took over the leadership of the African Union Commission. Even at the local level, women make up almost 60 per cent of local government positions in Lesotho and Seychelles, 43 per cent of the members of local councils or municipal assemblies in Namibia, and over one-third of local government seats in Mauritania, Mozambique, United Republic of Tanzania, and Uganda. (Women and Politics in Africa, para. 3)

Factors Shaping Women’s Representation in Government A number of factors have contributed to the increasing participation of women in the political domain in the SSA region. The first is the push from international organizations. The second is conflict and post-conflict situations in several countries in the SSA region that have opened a path for women to take part in previously male domains, including community rebuilding and rehabilitation processes. The third is the civil society movement throughout the region calling for increased women’s participation in elected and non-elected offices.

The International Push Pressure from the United Nations and other donor organizations has catalyzed women’s participation in politics in Africa (Tripp & Kang, 2008).This is particularly true for international efforts to improve the status of women in the electoral process by promoting the use of quota systems. Hughes and Tripp (2015) write that “Gender quotas—in the form of reserved seats, legislative quotas, or party quotas—aim to ensure that women gain representation in national legislatures by influencing the candidate nomination process” (p. 5).Three common types of gender quota systems are legally mandated seats, voluntary party quota and legislative quotas (Ballington, 2004). Legally mandated quotas require that a certain percentage of seats be reserved

120

Sebawit G. Bishu

for women.Voluntary party quotas require that political parties voluntarily assign a certain number of their candidate slots for female candidates. Legislative quotas require that political parties commit to nominating women to participate in elections. Illustrative of the first type of quota system is that adopted by Rwanda with its legally mandated quota system requiring a minimum of 30 percent of parliamentary seats to be reserved for women. South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique have adopted voluntary party quota systems where political parties reserve a certain number of candidate slots for women. Senegal uses a legislative quota system where political parties actively recruit women to participate in elections.

Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations Internal conflicts and war have been constant occurrences in the SSA region for many decades. Adams (2008) suggests that “It is not coincidental that breakthroughs in women’s political leadership are occurring in post-conflict states” (p. 483). Other experts have also drawn the connection between post-conflict situations and women’s increased participation in the public domain (Hughes & Tripp, 2015; Tripp, Casimiro, Kwesiga & Mungwa, 2009). In Rwanda, for example, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of men during the country’s civil war and post-conflict reconstruction created opportunities for women to participate in electoral politics and to assume leadership positions. In Liberia, the organization of women to mobilize for change after several years of civil war was influential in the election of Africa’s first female president.

Civil Society Movements When war-torn states in the SSA region were having difficulties in providing public services, civil society organizations helped to fill this gap. The increased involvement of these organizations opened up opportunities for women to provide assistance to populations under distress. For example, civil society mobilization in Rwanda and South Africa was an effective way for women to bring their policy concerns to the attention of legislators. Powley (2005) discusses that in the post-conflict era, the Rwandan Women’s Movement pushed for endorsement of the new constitution. Members of the movement worked closely with representatives of the Ministry of Gender and Women in Development and the Forum of Women Parliamentarians (Powley, 2005). The Women’s Movement engaged in organizing campaigns to influence elected officials and government leaders to support implementation of the newly drafted constitution. In a similar fashion, during South Africa’s transition from apartheid, civil society organizations, particularly those led by women, played a critical role in negotiating inclusion of women’s issues in the country’s new constitution (Meintjes, 2005). During this transition period, the Women’s

Equality for Women in Sub Sahara Africa

121

National Coalition (WNC) was established to ensure the inclusion of women’s interest during the drafting of the constitution. This bottom-up approach to policy advocacy is highly collaborative and is based on strong personal conviction and relationships established between citizens, civil society organizations and women in government (Ballington & Karam, 2005).

Constraints on Women’s Push for Equality According to Nkomo and Ngambi (2009) and other scholars, the post-colonial era in SSA has shaped gender roles that clearly define spaces in which women function. Gender roles persist in family structures and in the public arena with women more active in the former and men in the latter.The political arena is also characterized by “masculine” institutional structures constraining women’s participation. Even when women enter domains typically reserved for men, they face discrimination and are usually limited to positions with little or no engagement in policy making. Shvedova states that: Men largely dominate the political arena; largely formulate the rules of the political game; and often define the standards for evaluation. Furthermore, political life is organized according to male norms and values, and in some cases even male lifestyles making it difficult for women to operate is such an environment. (Shvedova, 2005, p. 35) In addition to institutional and structural challenges facing women in the SSA region, they also face cultural challenges that limit their sphere of influence. Patriarchal systems that shape the role of women in society are deeply rooted in this region.Women who are involved in government, particularly in elected office, are also expected to conform to the “masculine” culture, making it difficult for them to perform their duties in predominantly masculine institutions and processes.

Conclusion Despite conditions of severe poverty, low levels of education and greater family responsibilities than men, accompanied by entrenched gender discrimination, women in the SSA region have made significant progress toward gaining their political voice. Four women have been presidents of SSA countries, and in 2012, a South African woman, Nkosazana Dhlamini-Zuma, took over the leadership of the African Union Commission. Women’s progress, however, has been uneven across the region. In some countries, such as Rwanda, they have made significant strides and now account for 63 percent of all seats in the country’s lower house— the highest proportion in the world. In 14 SSA countries, women account for

122

Sebawit G. Bishu

more than 30 percent of all lower/single house parliamentary seats, the minimum target set for women’s participation in legislatures at the Fourth UN Conference for Women held in Beijing in 1995. On the other end of the spectrum, in 11 SSA countries, women account for fewer than 10 percent of all members of lower/ single house parliaments. A similar pattern can be seen among female ministers, where they hold as many as 53 percent of all posts in Cabo Verde and as few as 5 percent in Djibouti. Even in countries where woman have made significant progress, there is a long road for them to travel before they reach parity with men. Gender gaps have to be closed in education, the wage gap between men and women has to be narrowed, and more women have to be brought into the economic mainstream. Moreover, as stated in a 2014 World Bank report entitled Improving Gender Equality in Africa: Women and girls often have little influence over resources and norms . . . thus limiting their earning potential in agriculture, enterprise or the labor market . . . Poor access to legal rights, sexual and reproductive health services, freedom of movement, and political voice pose additional constraints for women. Attitudes and customs perpetuate many of these inequalities across generations. (Para. 2)

Note 1

According to the World Bank (n.d. a), countries in the SSA region include: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameron, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

References Adams, M. (2008). Liberia’s election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and women’s executive leadership in Africa. Politics and Gender, 4(3), 475–484. Bakilana, A. M. (2015, October 29). 7 facts about population in Sub-Saharan Africa. Retrieved November, 2016, from http://blogs.worldbank.org/africacan/7-facts-about-populationin-sub-saharan-africa. Ballington, J. (2004). The Implementation of Quotas: African Experiences: Quota Report Series. Stockholm, Sweden: International IDEA. Ballington, J., & Karam, A. M. (Eds.). (2005). Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers (Vol. 2). Stockholm, Sweden: International IDEA. Chen, M.A. (2001).Women in the informal sector:A global picture of the global movement. School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Review, 21(1), 71–82.

Equality for Women in Sub Sahara Africa

123

Hughes, M. M., & Tripp, A. M. (2015). Civil war and trajectories of change in women’s political representation in Africa, 1985–2010. Social Forces, 93(4), 1513–1540. Inter-Parliamentary Union (2015). Women in Parliament. Retrieved November, 2016, from http://www.ipu.org/pdf/publications/wmnmap15_en.pdf . Inter-Parliamentary Union (2016). Women in National Parliaments. Retrieved November, 2016, from www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm). Iversen, T., & Rosenbluth, F. (2008). Work and power: The connection between female labor force participation and female political representation. Annual Review of Political Science, 11, 479–495. McFerson, H. M. (2010). Poverty among women in Sub-Saharan Africa: A review of selected issues. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 11(4), 50–72. Meintjes, S. (2005). South Africa: Beyond Numbers. In Ballington, J., & Karam, A. M. (Eds.), Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers (pp. 230–237). Stockholm, Sweden: International IDEA. Nkomo, S. M. & Ngambi, H. (2009). African women in leadership: Current knowledge and a framework for future studies. International Journal of African Renaissance Studies, 4(1), 49–68. Nwankwor, C. (2014, January 7). Of democratic inclusion and dividends: Women cabinet ministers and women’s interests in sub-Saharan Africa. Retrieved November, 2016, from http://democracyinafrica.org/democratic-inclusion-dividends-women-cabinetministers-womens-interests-sub-saharan-africa/. Powley, E. (2005). Rwanda:Women hold up half the parliament. In Ballington, J., & Karam, A. M. (Eds.), Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers (pp. 154–163). Stockholm, Sweden: International IDEA. Shvedova, N. (2005). Obstacles to women’s participation in parliament. In Ballington, J., & Karam, A. M. (Eds.), Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers (pp. 33–50). Stockholm, Sweden: International IDEA. Tripp, A. M. (2013, December 9).Women and politics in Africa today. Retrieved November, 2016, from http://democracyinafrica.org/women-politics-africa-today/. Tripp, A. M., & Kang, A. (2008). The global impact of quotas. Comparative Political Studies, 41(3), 338–361. Tripp, A. M., Casimiro, I., Kwesiga, J., & Mungwa, A. (2009). African women’s movements: Transforming political landscapes. New York: Cambridge University Press. United Nations Development Program. (2015). Human Development Report 2015: Work for Human Development. Retrieved November, 2016, from http://hdr.undp.org/ en/2015-report. United Nations Development Program. (2016). Africa Human Development Report 2016: Accelerating Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Africa. Retrieved November, 2016, from www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/hdr/2016-africahuman-development-report.html. UN Women. (2015). Progress of the World’s Women 2015–2016. Transforming Economies, Realizing Rights. UN Women. Retrieved December, 2016, from www.unwomen.org/ en/digital-library/publications/2015/4/progress-of-the-worlds-women-2015. World Bank. (n.d. a). Sub-Saharan Africa. Retrieved November, 2016, from http://data. worldbank.org/region/sub-saharan-africa. World Bank. (n.d. b). Life expectancy at birth. Retrieved November, 2016, from http://data. worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN. World Bank (n.d. c). Female labor force participation rate SSA countries, 2014. Retrieved November, 2016, from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.CACT.FE.ZS.

124

Sebawit G. Bishu

World Bank. (2013, April 17). Remarkable declines in global poverty, but major challenges remain. Retrieved December, 2016, from www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/ 2013/04/17/remarkable-declines-in-global-poverty-but-major-challenges-remain. World Bank. (2015). Africa’s Demographic Transition: Dividend or Disaster? Washington, DC: World Bank Publications.

8 LATIN AMERICAN WOMEN IN PUBLIC SERVICE Progress, But Not Yet Equality Melissa Gomez Hernandez

Across Latin America, with its more than 600 million people (Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe CEPAL, 2016) living in 19 Central and South American countries,1 women’s participation in the public service continues to grow. Yet, their progress differs among branches and levels of government, and among the 19 countries in the region. This chapter looks at women’s progress in the region as a whole and in its constituent countries. It begins with an overview of women in public service, followed by a discussion of the factors that explain their progress. The next section elaborates on Latin American women’s participation in public service, specifically in the executive and legislative branches of government. The final section of the chapter looks at ongoing obstacles to women in Latin America gaining full equality.

Overview Women have made substantial progress in the Latin American public sphere over the last several decades, although they are still far from achieving full gender equality. On average, they now hold 28 percent (IPU, 2016) of seats in lower or single house national parliaments, more than double their 12 percent representation in 2000 (IPU, 2000). However, as discussed later in the chapter, there is significant variation in female legislative representation among countries, ranging from 53 percent in Bolivia (the second highest in the world) down to 9 percent in Brazil. Women’s share of cabinet positions in the region also continues to grow. But, here, too, their representation ranges across countries from a high of 45 percent in Nicaragua to a low of 0 percent in Brazil. It should also be noted that women’s growing presence on the national level of government in the region has not yet filtered down to the subnational level where they hold few positions of authority.

126

Melissa Gomez Hernandez

The posts of governor and mayor are highly valuable to politicians and parties because they control local budgets (political “pork”), and trends toward decentralization have tended to enhance the powers associated with local office. As a result, competition for these positions is fierce . . . women in the Argentine national Congress, who otherwise bear an impressive array of political credentials, are significantly less likely than male legislators to have occupied “high pork” offices, such as governor and mayor. (Htun & Piscopo, 2010, p. 4) There are four factors that explain women’s growing participation in the Latin American public sphere on the national level. The first factor is changing social and cultural norms. The second is the democratization of the region after long periods of dictatorship (Donoso & Valdes, 2007).The third factor is the role of the organized women’s movement in several Latin American countries that began under dictatorial regimes and continued to strengthen in capacity and grassroots leadership (Guzman, 1997) after their demise. The fourth factor is the active role of international organizations that catalyzed Latin American advancements in gender equality and exerted pressure on governments across the region (Archenti & Tula, 2014, p. 64).These factors are not mutually exclusive, neither did they take place separately.

Changing Social and Cultural Norms The presence of women in the public sphere in most Latin American countries reflects changing social and cultural norms. Almost two-thirds of Latin Americans believe that women make better political leaders than men (Htun & Piscopo, 2010; Seligson, Smith, & Zechmeister, 2012). Public opinion also supports women’s presence in cabinet positions as an “important corruption reducing factor” (Iturbe, 2008, p. 690).

The Democratization of Latin America Most Latin American countries experienced political turmoil from the first decades of the 20th century into the early 1990s, with military dictatorships in power in many countries throughout the region. For example, in the Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo ruled with an iron hand from 1930 to 1961. In Nicaragua, Anastasio Somoza established a dynastic regime that allowed his family to stay in power for more than forty years (1936). In Argentina, General Jorge Rafael Videla’s administration was responsible for a campaign of suppression and human rights abuses from 1976 to 1983. From 1973 to 1990, Chile was under the control of General Augusto Pinochet, who ruled by terror. Bolivia and Colombia had brief yet significant authoritarian phases and Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay had similar histories. Most of these dictatorships were

Latin American Women in Public Service

127

extremely violent and repressive, increasing outrage among the populace that ultimately brought them to an end and developed a hunger for democracy. The decade of the 1980s in Latin American countries is generally seen as one of “democratic reconstruction” (Buvinic & Roza, 2004; CEPAL-UN, 2012; Guzman & Montano, 2012; Guzman & Moreno, 2007; Ranaboldo & Solana, 2008) when democratically elected governments and civil society organizations were constructing a public sphere in which diversity would be encouraged. This democratization process was enhanced through the participation of politically active groups that had been formed during the years of military dictatorships in the region. One of the most organized and active of these groups were those that were part of the women’s movement.

The Women’s Movement Latin American women opposed dictatorships in several ways. Their quotidian resistance in the midst of authoritarian regimes prepared them – organizationally, emotionally, and ideologically – for democratic participation and representation (Buvinic & Roza, 2004). In a hostile socio-political and economic environment, armed civil conflicts, institutional weakness, endemic poverty, and human rights violations (Donoso & Valdes, 2007), Latin American women provided “survival responses” (Donoso & Valdes, 2007; Guzman, 1997) generally in the most populous and poorer communities. These responses ranged from food provision to health care and from children’s education to juridical solutions to systemic repression. Women made a place for themselves in workers’ unions and established their own organizations such as women’s commissions and sub-confederations, where a consciousness on the particularity of their problems, social disadvantages, and oppressions was developed (Donoso & Valdes, 2007). For instance, at the end of the 1970s, women in Argentina formed “Housewives Organizations” that pressured the government into improving their conditions. Similarly, in the 1980s in Bolivia, women established the “National Confederation of Mothers’ Clubs,” focused on low-income Bolivian families. In Chile, female workers created the Feminine Department of the National Union Coordinator; and in Uruguay, women created the Female Inter-sectoral Union. Comparable organizations were also put in place by women in Brazil, Paraguay, and El Salvador. Moreover, in most parts of the region, the feminist movement exerted pressure for legislation related to what has been historically regarded as “female” issues, such as “women’s rights, discrimination, domestic violence, reproductive rights, family issues and affirmative action” (Buvinic & Roza, 2004, p. 10). It must be noted, however, that the growing presence of women in presidential cabinets, legislatures, and other institutions does not necessarily translate into more power for women or their impact on policy actions (Iturbe, 2008).Women in all branches

128

Melissa Gomez Hernandez

of government continue to face challenges associated with the machismo subculture that exists across the region (Htun & Piscopo 2010).

The Support of International Organizations Actions by women activists in national contexts were supported by global actions to reduce gender disparities (Guzman & Montano, 2012, p. 14), especially those under the auspices of the UN. The UN’s First World Conference on Women was held in Mexico in 1975. In that same year, the UN named the 1975–1985 period as the “United Nations Decade for Women” (Donoso & Valdes, 2007, p. 31). In 1979, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), was adopted. CEDAW defined gender discrimination, describing it as “every distinction, exclusion or restriction based on sex” (CEDAW, Article 1). All Latin American countries are signatories to CEDAW indicating their compliance with its tenets. In 1995, the UN convened the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China.2 Delegates to the Conference prepared a Platform for Action directed at achieving greater equality and opportunity for women. In preparation for the Beijing Conference, female activists and leaders from all over Latin America gathered in Mar de Plata, Argentina, in 1994, to draw up a regional proposal that outlined their objectives and demands (Donoso & Valdes, 2007). Many women who participated in the Mar de Plata meetings would travel to Beijing as part of their country’s delegations, allowing them to network on a global scale. Latin American governments reacted in a proactive fashion to the Beijing Platform and became unexpected promoters of gender equality (Piscopo, 2015, p. 27), mostly through the creation of pro-female legislation and standards. The global gender consciousness movement with the UN in the forefront catalyzed the transformation of women’s presence in the Latin American public sphere, from recipients of benefits and aid to actors with their own political vision (Donoso & Valdes, 2007).

Democratic Transformation and Women in the Public Sphere Democratic transformation across the region led most Latin American countries to address women’s demands for participation in national public service. Governments behaved “as gender equality activists” (Piscopo, 2015, p. 29), acting under the premise that they are, and should be, guaranteeing equality and fundamental rights, as well as equal opportunities for women and men (Davila, 2008). The progress of Latin American countries regarding women’s participation in the public service is the product of this institutionalization of the gender perspective (United Nations Development Programme, 2007) that can be seen in three concrete actions. They are: 1) the creation of a specialized institutional

Latin American Women in Public Service

129

infrastructure; 2) the design and implementation of public policy; and 3) the elaboration of a juridical framework along with legislative enforcement.

Creation of an Institutional Infrastructure for Gender Equality The institutional support for women’s participation in Latin American public service emanates from the creation of a specific organizational apparatus within government to advance their progress. This apparatus is focused on creating and monitoring gender-equitable practices in the governmental structure and society. In Mexico, for example, the National Institute for Women (INMUJERES) is: [i]n charge of implementing the national policy on gender equality. It is the government body tasked with the institutionalization and mainstreaming of a gender perspective in all actions taken by the Mexican State. It promotes and encourages conditions against discrimination, equality of opportunity and treatment, including women’s equitable participation in the political, cultural, economic and social life of the nation. (United Nations Development Programme, 2014a, p. 20) In Chile, a similar institution, the Woman’s National Service, is responsible for promoting gender equality (Gobierno de Chile, Ministerio del Trabajo y Previsión Social, Servicio Nacional de la Mujer (SERNAM), Centro de Estudios de Género y Cultura para América Latina (CEGECAL), Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades Universidad de Chile Government of Chile et al., 2004). In Argentina, the Women’s National Council defines itself as the: [a]uthoritative body of public policy in matters of prevention, sanction, and eradication of the violence against women, designed to contribute to overcoming the diverse forms of discrimination towards women and promote the adequate social conditions to guarantee their full exercise of rights. (¿Qué es el Consejo Nacional de las Mujeres? “What is the Women’s National Council?”, 2016) All Latin American countries – except for Bolivia (Cuevas, 2015) – have their own versions of institutional support to promote gender equality in the form of ministry, national institute, council, or department. For example, Colombia created the High Presidential Council, for the Equality of Women (United Nations Development Programme, 2014b), and Ecuador developed the Women’s National Council (Davila, 2008), while Peru constituted the Ministerio de la Mujer y Poblaciones Vulnerables [Ministry of Woman and Vulnerable Population] (2016).

130

Melissa Gomez Hernandez

Design and Implementation of Public Policies The second action to encourage women’s participation in the public sphere across Latin America relates to the adoption of specific public female-directed policies. For example, Ecuador implemented a “Plan of Equality in Opportunities of Ecuadorian Women” 2005–2009, defined as the “Ecuadorian State’s agenda for advancing in the effective accomplishment of women’s rights and the elimination of gender discrimination in the country” (Davila, 2008, p. 26). Similarly, Mexico implemented the “National Program for Equality between Men and Women” 2008–2012, or PROIGUALDAD in Spanish (Fernandez Mendoza, 2014, p. 83). Chile put in action a “Plan of Equality in Opportunities” – PIO, in Spanish – active from 2000 to 2010 (Gobierno de Chile, Ministerio del Trabajo y Previsión Social, Servicio Nacional de la Mujer (SERNAM), Centro de Estudios de Género y Cultura para América Latina (CEGECAL), Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades Universidad de Chile Government of Chile et al., 2004). More recently, Colombia has developed the “National Public Policy of Gender Equality” and the “Integral Plan for the Guarantee of a Life Free of Violence for Women” (Política Pública Nacional de Equidad de género para las Mujeres y el Plan Integral para garantizar a las mujeres una vida libre de violencias [National Policy for Gender Equality and Integral Plan to Guarantee a Life Free of Violence to Women], 2016).

Elaboration of a Juridical Framework A third action encouraging women’s participation in the public sphere is the national juridical framework in Latin American countries that provides for gender equality in both the public service and society as a whole. Most Latin American constitutions require gender equality as a core element of democracy (Fernandez Mendoza, 2014; United Nations Development Programme, 2007, 2014c). For example, Article 4 of the Mexican Constitution states that “Men and women are equal before the law.The law shall establish sufficient mechanisms and institutions to guarantee equity and promote gender equality, especially in the case of female workers and heads of households” (Comisión Mexicana de Puntos Constitucionales [Mexican Commission of Constitutional Points], 2002). Specific actions by governments throughout the region have also contributed to women’s progress, especially the passage of laws that promote women’s participation in all branches of government. The most effective of these laws have created quotas that are applied to all branches of government throughout the region (Piscopo, 2015, p. 42). Quotas are discussed later in the chapter and in other chapters in this book.

Women in Government: The Executive Branch Of the 19 countries in Latin America, six have had a female president. The first country to have a woman at head of state was Argentina, where Isabel Martínez de

Latin American Women in Public Service

131

Perón was elevated from Vice President to President upon the death of her husband, Juan Perón. She held office from 1974 until 1976 when her government was overthrown by a military coup. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the second female President of Argentina, held office from 2007 to 2015. Other women who have served as presidents of Latin American countries are Mireya Elisa Moscoso Rodríguez de Arias, who was Panama’s President from 1999 to 2004; Laura Chinchilla, who was elected President of Costa Rica in 2010; and Michelle Bachelet, elected as President of Chile twice – in 2006 and in 2014 (see Chapter 4 of this book for her biography). The sixth woman, Dilma Rousseff, was elected President of Brazil in 2011 but was impeached in August 2016, on charges that she broke budgetary laws by: [m]oving funds between government budgets, which is illegal under Brazilian law. Her critics said she was trying to plug deficit holes in popular social programmes to boost her chances of being re-elected for a second term in October 2014. Ms Rousseff denied having done anything illegal and said that moving money between budgets was common practice among her predecessors in office. (BBC News, 2016) Rousseff, who began her first term as President in 2011, was re-elected in 2014. Since then, Brazil has been rocked with scandals. “Ironically, she is the one who may end up paying the highest price for many of the scandals Brazil is now facing” (Gallas, 2016). This event illustrates what has been called the “glass cliff,” phenomenon in which women are more likely to rise to positions of organizational leadership in times of crisis than in times of success.

Ministerial Positions With few exceptions, women are filling more ministerial positions throughout Latin America although they have not achieved parity with men in any country in the region. In 2016, Nicaragua was leading the way with women accounting for 45 percent of the top cabinet posts (Mendes, 2016). At the other end of the continuum, Brazil had no female ministers in 2016 (see Table 8.1). A number of factors explain the increasing representation of women in ministerial positions in Latin American countries, including the democratic transformation in the region discussed earlier. An additional explanation is that more female presidents have been elected in the region than anywhere else in the world (Iturbe, 2008, p. 686). Some of them explicitly promoted gender equality and focused on educating the population by example through the selection of female ministers. In Argentina, for instance, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner appointed women to 31 percent of ministerial positions during her term (United Nations Development Programme, 2011a, p. 52).

132

Melissa Gomez Hernandez TABLE 8.1 Female Ministers in Latin America, 2016

Country

Number of Ministries

Female Ministers

Nicaragua Uruguay Colombia Chile Peru Cuba Bolivia Venezuela Paraguay Costa Rica El Salvador Dominican Republic Ecuador Mexico Argentina Panama Honduras Guatemala Brazil

11 13 16 23 18 22 21 29 12 17 13 22 29 18 20 14 12 14 23

5 (45%) 5 (38%) 6 (37%) 8 (34%) 6 (33%) 7 (31%) 6 (28%) 8 (27%) 3 (25%) 4 (23%) 3 (23%) 4 (18%) 5 (17%) 3 (16%) 3 (15%) 2 (14%) 1 (8%) 1 (7%) 0 (0%)

Source: United Nations Development Programme, 2011b; Mendes, 2016. Retrieved from http://calle2.com/sbrasil-e-o-unico-pais-da-americalatina-sem-ministras/.

Women, however, are generally appointed to what are often seen as less prestigious ministerial posts such as “Children and Family; Culture; Reform of State,Temporary and Transient Ministries; Science and Technology; Sports; Tourism; and Women Affairs” (Escobar-Lemmon & Taylor-Robinson, 2005, p. 838). At the same time, men are given portfolios in “more important” areas such as finance, defense, and foreign affairs (Iturbe, 2008). For example, Mexican female ministers predominate in departments of health, labor, and social security, all “highly feminized sectors in Mexico” (United Nations Development Programme, 2014a, p. 13). Similarly, Uruguayan female ministers tend to hold portfolios in education and health, while their male counterparts are appointed to defense and security (Uruguayan Direction of the Civil Service National Office, 2014, p. 27). This gender differential in the distribution of portfolios illustrates what Stivers referred to as the separation between “bureau men” and “settlement women” (Stivers, 1995). It should be noted, however, that there has been some recent movement toward appointing women to higher prestige cabinet positions in Latin America and in other regions as well.

Women in Government: The Legislative Branch Latin America has experienced the steadiest growth among the world’s regions in women’s representation in national parliaments. The average representation of

Latin American Women in Public Service

133

women in single or lower houses of the legislature grew from 18.4 percent in 2003 (Dahlerup, Hilal, Kalandadze & Kandawasvika-Nhundu, 2013, p. 15) to 28 percent in 2016 (IPU, 2016). Among countries in the region, Bolivia has, by far, the greatest female representation (see Table 8.2), followed by Cuba and Ecuador. Only in Brazil do women account for less than 10 percent of parliament. Of the 19 Latin American countries, eight have more than a third of their parliamentary seats held by women. As discussed in Chapter 5 of this book, the 30 percent proportion is an important benchmark for women’s parliamentary representation. The increases in legislative representation for women in most countries in the region is primarily attributable to two factors.The first is the adoption of legislative quotas (Archenti & Tula, 2014); the second, the type of electoral system in place and the rules used by political parties.

Legislative Quotas Legislative quotas are focused on “the candidate stage” in elections, requiring that all political parties nominate a certain proportion of women (Krook, 2008) to stand for election. Latin America is the region of the world where the greatest

TABLE 8.2 Women in Parliament: Lower or Single House, 2016

Country

Women in Parliament: Lower or Single House, 2016

Bolivia Cuba Mexico Ecuador Nicaragua Argentina Costa Rica El Salvador Peru Dominican Republic Honduras Colombia Panama Uruguay Chile Paraguay Venezuela Guatemala Brazil

53.1% 48.9% 42.4% 41.6% 41.3% 35.8% 33.3% 32.1% 27.7%s 26.8% 25.8% 19.9% 18.3% 16.2% 15.8% 15.0% 14.4% 13.9% 9.9%

World Average

22.8%

Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union (2016). Percentage of Women in the Lower or Single House. Retrieved from www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm.

134

Melissa Gomez Hernandez

proportion of countries have adopted gender quotas to enhance women’s participation in legislative bodies (Archenti & Tula, 2014). In 1991, Argentina became the first country in the region and in the world to pass a law requiring that “all political parties running candidates for the Chamber of Deputies to include women in at least 30% of the list positions on party ballots” (Schwindt-Bayer, 2011, p. 2). Other countries followed Argentina’s path including Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, Dominican Republic, Panama, Paraguay (Torres Garcia, 2012), and Colombia (Piscopo, 2015). The quotas have established a minimum level of female representation (between 20 and 40 percent) on party lists of candidates running for legislative seats (Buvinic & Roza, 2004; Torres Garcia, 2012). Since the passage of quota legislation, the participation of women in national legislatures has increased across Latin American countries (see Table 8.3). The success of a quota lies in its specificity: “For quotas to work, the law must be as specific as possible and contain no loopholes permitting parties to avoid postulating women or to comply with quotas merely by placing women in supplementary or decorative positions on the ballot” (Htun, 2002, p. 9). Often, cultural factors are not properly anticipated when designing quota policy or legislation, mostly due to a lack of precision during policy formulation. The most successful Latin American countries in the matter of legislative quotas have corrected these loopholes with specific legislation. An example of this sociocultural dynamic is the case of “las Juanitas of San Lazaro” in Mexico. According to Barrera Tapia: [e]ight female deputies – later known as “the Juanitas” – were chosen by their political parties with the purpose of accomplishing – only in appearance – the legislative gender quota required by the Federal Code of Institutions and Electoral Procedures (COFIPE, in Spanish). Once elected, the “Juanitas” resigned their posts immediately after taking office.The female deputies aimed to allow their male alternates to serve for the electoral term for which the women were initially elected. Such strategy was designed and executed under party commands. (Barrera Tapia, 2014, p. 28) Political parties in Latin America, usually the main actors in the political system, have been historically resistant to the implementation of quota laws. Under male leadership, this resistance has been expressed through the use of evasive tactics and creative methods of avoiding legislative mandates (Archenti & Tula 2014; Jaramillo & Monroy, 2015; Krook, 2008). For example, parties “demonstrate the commitment to women’s rights without necessarily altering existing patterns of representation” (Krook, 2008, p. 353). As gendered institutions, parties allow women access to entry- and medium-level positions. However, when leadership positions have

Latin American Women in Public Service

135

TABLE 8.3 Increases Over Time in Legislative Representation* of Women

Country

Year of first quota law

1997

2001

2016

Bolivia Cuba Mexico Ecuador Nicaragua Argentina Costa Rica El Salvador Peru Dominican Republic Honduras Colombia Panama Uruguay Chile Paraguay Venezuela Guatemala Brazil

1997 No quotas 1996 1997 2012 1991 1996 2013 1997 1997 2000 2011 1997 2009 2015 1996 No quotas No quotas 1997

n.i. 22.8% 14.2% 3.7% 10.8% 27.6% 15.8% 15.5% 10.8% 11.7% n.i. 11.7% 9.7% 7.1% 7.5% 2.5% 5.9% 12.5% 6.6%

11.5% 27.6% 16.0% 14.6% n.i. n.i. 19.3% 9.5% 17.5% 16.1% 9.4% 11.8% 9.9% 12.1% 10.8% 2.5% 9.7% 8.8% 6.8%

53.1% 48.9% 42.4% 41.6% 41.3% 35.8% 33.3% 32.1% 27.7% 26.8% 25.8% 19.9% 18.3% 16.2% 15.8% 15.0% 14.4% 13.9% 9.9%

* Single or Lower House Sources: Donoso & Valdes, 2007; Htun, 2002, p. 2; Piscopo, 2015, p. 34; Schwindt-Bayer, 2011, p. 8; Torres Garcia, 2012, p. 34; Organización de los Estados Americanos [American States Organization], 2016, retrieved from https://reformaspoliticas.org/ normativa/temas/leyes-de-cuotas/; IPU, 1997, 2001, 2016

to be filled, such as happens during legislative elections, women are nowhere to be found (Htun, 2002; Lois & Diz, 2006).

Electoral Systems and Political Party Lists A second factor that determines the success of a legislative quota is the type of electoral system in place in the country. As discussed in Chapter 5 of this book, women are more likely to win legislative seats in countries with proportional representation, i.e., in countries where the electoral system permits political parties to win seats in proportion to the number of votes cast for them. According to Jones (2009, p. 56), “the use of closed lists3 on average results in a greater percentage of women legislators elected to office than does the use of open lists where the voter selects an individual candidate from the list.” When electoral districts are moderate to large and plurinominal, i.e., with several winners or seats (Archenti & Tula, 2008), the probability of women being elected also increases.

136

Melissa Gomez Hernandez

To achieve full political gender parity, candidates of political parties must be placed in a sequential and alternate pattern (Archenti & Tula, 2014, p. 50). However, even if political parties comply with quota rules and do their part in the inclusion and placement of female candidates on electoral lists, women remain at a disadvantage regarding the accumulation of economic and reputational capital, two sine qua non conditions to assure success in any political race. Female candidates are often financially weak and marginally linked to traditional political power. In such a scenario, parties only need to keep up appearances and comply with the quota law at a minimum level to ensure that female candidates will be out of the electoral game (Sacchet, 2008). As would be expected, countries that provide the most favorable environment for women with regard to quotas and political party support generally have the highest female participation levels in national legislatures.Argentina and Costa Rica are prime examples. On the opposite end of the spectrum, countries with lower female participation are those that provide a less hospitable environment. For example, Brazil has a non-compulsory quota and political parties are not required to fill positions reserved for women (Sacchet, 2008). When political parties do include women, it is not mandatory to place them in winnable positions.

Obstacles to Obtaining Full Equality Even with the growing participation of women in the public sector, there are several ongoing challenges to their continued progress toward achieving gender equity. These include the salary gap between women and men; the lack of access by women to top decision-making positions; and the concentration of women in highly feminized government sectors.

Salary Levels Lower salary levels prevail for female public servants in Latin America. In Colombia, for example, in 2008, “when comparing salaries between men and women, clear gender gaps . . . were found” (United Nations Development Programme, 2014b, p. 15). One reason for the salary disparity may be governments’ use of alternative modalities to provide services such as shortterm work contracts. The use of temporary work contracts to hire a majority of women public employees is common, for example, in Colombia (United Nations Development Programme, 2014c), Uruguay (Dirección de la Oficina Nacional del Servicio Civil [Uruguayan Direction of the Civil Service National Office], 2009, p. xxxv), and Chile (Gobierno de Chile, Ministerio del Trabajo y Previsión Social, Servicio Nacional de la Mujer (SERNAM), Centro de Estudios de Género y Cultura para América Latina (CEGECAL), Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades Universidad de Chile Government of Chile, 2004, p. 57).

Latin American Women in Public Service

137

There do not appear to be other reasons for the disparity in salaries between men and women beyond gender discrimination. For instance, in Peru, between 2004 and 2013, male government workers earned, on average, 15 percent more than their female co-workers (SERVIR, 2015) even though 50 percent of female public servants held a college degree (Superior Universitaria) compared with 37 percent of males (SERVIR, 2015, p. 3).

Access to Decision-Making Positions The second challenge for Latin American women in achieving gender equity in public service is the limited access to decision-making positions. In the Mexican federal government, for instance, just two of every ten women occupy decisionmaking posts (United Nations Development Programme, 2007, p. 13). It should be noted, however, that in a few countries in the region women are gaining access to decision-making positions and even full parity. In Argentina, for example, gender parity at the decision-making level in public service was reached in 2012 when 50 percent of decision-making positions were filled by women (United Nations Development Programme, 2014a, p. 39).

Concentration of Women in Feminized Sectors The concentration of female public servants in highly feminized sectors is endemic throughout the region. In Chile, for example, women are generally hired to work in health care and education, areas in which promotions leading to public service careers are non-existent (Gobierno de Chile, Ministerio del Trabajo y Previsión Social, Servicio Nacional de la Mujer (SERNAM), Centro de Estudios de Género y Cultura para América Latina (CEGECAL), Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades Universidad de Chile Government of Chile, 2004). In Colombia, after the “Quota Law,” no woman has been appointed to male bastions such as the ministry of finance. Neither has Colombia ever had a female director of the Bank of the Republic (United Nations Development Programme, 2014b). A similar situation exists in Ecuador where more than 50 percent of female public servants are in areas typically associated with women such as social services, healthcare, and education (Davila, 2008, p. 43).

Conclusion Since the late 1980s, more women in Latin American countries have participated in the public sphere than in the entire previous century. Female members of parliament and female public servants have brought topics into the public domain that used to be invisible to society, such as women’s rights, gender discrimination, domestic violence, reproductive rights, family issues, and affirmative action (Buvinic & Roza, 2004, p. 10). On the other hand, cultural and institutional

138

Melissa Gomez Hernandez

structures, while improving, continue to impede women’s achievement of full gender parity and political parties pose bottlenecks along the road to equality. As “the gatekeepers to women’s advancement to political power” (Htun, 2002, p. 4), parties play a hypocritical game in the move to gender parity by refusing to help women overcome cultural and historical discrimination (Archenti & Tula, 2014, p. 50). Political party intransigence is not the only hurdle women must jump to advance in the public sphere in Latin America. Quota legislation may transform an intended starting point into an imprisoning “glass ceiling” (Archenti & Tula, 2008; Hinojosa, 2012). The fulfillment of the quota requirement (Jaramillo & Monroy, 2015, p. 38) could thus result in the lack of real power of women in both appointed and elected positions (Iturbe, 2008). In summary, women are moving along the road to gender parity in Latin America but there is still a long way to go. As a Senator from Colombia stated in an article published in the New York Times in 2008: You have to be three times more intelligent, you have to be four times more transparent, you have to have everything more than men . . . “We still have a male chauvinist society. It will continue this way,” she said, until the “democratic deficit” is closed, meaning equal representation for men and women. (MacFarquhar, p. 2008)

Notes 1

2

3

The 19 countries located in Central and South America include 16 where Spanish is the official language: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The other three countries in the Latin American region are Brazil, where Portuguese is the official language, and Cuba and the Dominican Republic, two Spanish-speaking Caribbean islands. The Second World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women: “Equality, Development and Peace,” took place in Copenhagen (14–30 July 1980). The Third World Conference to review and appraise the achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: “Equality, Development and Peace,” took place in Nairobi (15–26 July 1985). Closed lists are those where the voter casts a ballot for political parties as a whole, having no control over the party’s decided order in which its candidates are elected.

References Archenti, N., & Tula, M. (2008). Mujeres y Politica en America Latina. Sistemas Electorales y Cuotas de Genero [Women and politics in Latin America. Electoral systems and gender quotas]. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Editorial Heliasta. Archenti, N., & Tula, M. (2014). Normative changes and gender equity. From electoral quotas to parity in Latin America: The cases of Bolivia and Ecuador. Ediciones Universidad de

Latin American Women in Public Service

139

Salamanca. América Latina Hoy, 66. Retrieved November 2015 from http://revistas. usal.es/index.php/1130-2887/article/viewFile/alh2014664768/12134. Barrera Tapia, M. (2014). El Presente de la Mujer a 60 Años de Ejercer su Derecho al Voto en Mexico [A woman’s presence, 60 years after exercising her right to vote in Mexico]. In La Mujer en la Administración Publica [Woman in public administration]. Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública [National Institute of Public Administration]. CD. Mexico. Retrieved August 2016 from www.academia.edu/7768830/La_Mujer_en_la_Adminis traci%C3%B3n_P%C3%BAblica_Ensayos_INAP. BBC News. (2016). Brazil impeachment: Key questions. Retrieved December 2016 from www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36028117. Buvinic, M., & Roza, V. (2004). Women, politics and democratic prospects in Latin America. Inter-American Development Bank. Sustainable Development Department Technical Papers Series. Washington, DC. Retrieved December 2015 from https://publications. iadb.org/bitstream/handle/11319/5212/Women%2c%20Politics%20and%20 Democratic%20Prospects%20in%20Latin%20America.pdf?sequence=1. Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe CEPAL [Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean]. (2016). La población de América Latina alcanzará 625 millones de personas en 2016, según estimaciones de la CEPAL [Latin American population will reach 625 million in 2016, according to CEPAL estimates]. Retrieved December 2015 from www.cepal.org/es/noticias/la-poblacion-america-latina-alcanzara-625-millonespersonas-2016-segun-estimaciones-la. Comisión Mexicana de Puntos Constitucionales. [Mexican Commission of Constitutional Points]. (2002). Retrieved December 2016 from www.diputados.gob.mx/sia/coord/ refconst_lviii/html/214.htm. Cuevas, A. (2015). ONU recomienda a Bolivia crear ministerio de asuntos de la mujer [UN recommends Bolivia to create a Women’s Ministry]. La Razon. La Paz. Retrieved December 2016 from www.la-razon.com/sociedad/ONU-recomienda-Bolivia-ministerioasuntos_0_2378762129.html. Dahlerup, D., Hilal, Z., Kalandadze, N., & Kandawasvika-Nhundu, R. (2013). Atlas of Electoral Gender Quotas. International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance – IDEA, Inter-Parliamentary Union – IPU, and Stockholm University, Dept. of Political Science. Retrieved August 2016 from www.ipu.org/pdf/publications/atlasen.pdf . Davila, A. (2008). Empleo Público en el Ecuador. Una Mirada desde el Genero [Public employment in Ecuador.A gender perspective]. CONAMU, FES-ILDIS, ISP, SENRES. Quito. Retrieved August 2016 from http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/quito/06816.pdf. Dirección de la Oficina Nacional del Servicio Civil [Uruguyan Direction of the Civil Service National Office]. (2009). Informe Sobre Vínculos Laborales con el Estado [Report on labour liaisons with the state]. Uruguay. Retrieved July 2016 from www.enap.gub.uy/ onsc1/images/stor ies/Observator io/Infor me_de_vnculos_ABREVIADO_ al_30.06.09.pdf . Dirección de la Oficina Nacional del Servicio Civil [Uruguayan Direction of the Civil Service National Office]. (2014). Vínculos Laborales con el Estado [Report on labour liaisons with the state]. Uruguay. Retrieved October 2016 from www.onsc.gub.uy/onsc1/ images/observatorio/Informe_v%C3%ADnculos_y_altas_y_bajas_completo_ 2014_072015.pdf . Donoso, A., & Valdes, T. (2007). Participación política de las mujeres en América Latina [Women’s political participation in Latin America]. Informe Regional [Regional Report]. Centro de

140

Melissa Gomez Hernandez

Estudios para el Desarrollo de la Mujer, CEDEM, Chile. Retrieved December 2015 from www.lasociedadcivil.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/alop_informe_regional_ 00_pp_mujeres_al_txt_completo11.pdf . Escobar-Lemmon, M., & Taylor-Robinson, M. (2005).Women ministers in Latin American Government:When, where, and why? American Journal of Political Science, 49(4), 829–844. Fernandez Mendoza, C. (2014). Igualdad de Oportunidades para las Mujeres en el Poder Ejecutivo Federal y Organismos Autónomos [Equality of opportunities for women in the federal executive power and autonomous agencies]. In La Mujer en la Administración Publica [Woman in Public Administration]. Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública [National Institute of Public Administration]. CD. Mexico. Retrieved August 2016 from www. academia.edu/7768830/La_Mujer_en_la_Administraci%C3%B3n_P%C3%BAblica_ Ensayos_INAP. Gallas, D. (2016). Dilma Rousseff impeachment: How did it go wrong for her? BBC News. Retrieved December 2016 from www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36028247. Gobierno de Chile, Ministerio del Trabajo y Previsión Social, Servicio Nacional de la Mujer (SERNAM), Centro de Estudios de Género y Cultura para América Latina (CEGECAL), Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades Universidad de Chile [Government of Chile et. al]. (2004). El Trabajo que Tenemos. El Trabajo que Queremos. Estudio Sobre la Situación de la Mujer en los Servicios Públicos [The job we have, the job we want. Study on woman’s situation in the public services]. Retrieved August 2016 from www.serviciocivil. cl/sites/default/files/12_SITUACION%20DE%20LA%20MUJER%20EN%20 LOS%20SERVICIOS%20PUBLICOS.pdf. Guzman,V. (1997). La Equidad de Genero como Tema de Debate y de Politicas Publicas [Gender Equity as Topic of Debate and Public Policy]. Feminismo en transición. Transición con feminismo [Feminism in transition. Transition with feminism], Memoria del Foro Internacional sobre Ciudadanía, Género y Reforma del Estado, México, Grupo de Educación Popular con Mujeres [Memories of the International Forum on Citizenship, Gender and State Reform, Mexico, Group of Popular Education with Women]. Retrieved December 2015 from www.inmujeres.gub.uy/innovaportal/file/21666/1/ 29_la_equidad_de_genero_y_politicas_publicas.pdf. Guzman, V., & Montano, S. (2012). Políticas públicas e institucionalidad de género en América Latina (1985–2010) [Public policy and gender institutionalism in Latin America (1985– 2010)]. División de Asuntos de Género Santiago de Chile. Naciones Unidas – CEPAL Serie Mujer y desarrollo N° 118. Retrieved December 2015 from www.cepal.org/es/ publicaciones/5847-politicas-publicas-e-institucionalidad-de-genero-en-americalatina-1985-2010. Guzman, V., & Moreno, C. (2007). Hacia un Horizonte Paritario en America Latina: Representacion Politica de las Mujeres [Towards a parity horizon in Latin America:Women’s political representation]. Décima Conferencia Regional sobre la Mujer de América Latina y el Caribe. Quito, Ecuador. Retrieved December 2015 from www.cepal.org/ mujer/noticias/paginas/8/29198/haciahorizonte.pdf . Hinojosa, M. (2012). Selecting women, electing women. Political representation and candidate selection in Latin America. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Htun, M. (2002).Women in political power in Latin America. In Ballington, J., & Karam, A. (Eds.), Women in parliament. Stockholm, Sweden: International IDEA. Retrieved August 2016 from www.idea.int/publications/wip/upload/Chapter1-Htun-feb03.pdf. Htun, M., & Piscopo, J. (2010). Presence without empowerment? Women in politics in Latin America and the Caribbean. Paper prepared for the Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum. Institute for Gender Research (GIGR). Retrieved December 2015 from

Latin American Women in Public Service

141

http://webarchive.ssrc.org/pdfs/Mala_Htun_and_Jennifer_M._Piscopo-Presence_ without_Empowerment_CPPF_Briefing_Paper_Dec_2010_f.pdf. Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). (1997). Percentage of women in the lower or single house. Retrieved August 2016 from www.ipu.org/wmn-e/arc/classif251297.htm. Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). (2000). Percentage of women in the lower or single house. Retrieved August 2016 from www.ipu.org/wmn-e/arc/classif151200.htm. Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). (2001). Percentage of women in the lower or single house. Retrieved August 2016 from www.ipu.org/wmn-e/arc/classif051201.htm. Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). (2016). Percentage of women in the lower or single house. Retrieved August 2016 from www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm on 9/2/2016. Iturbe, E. de Blanco (2008). Women: Power and development in Latin America. University of St.Thomas Law Journal, 5(3), 675–697. Jaramillo, F., & Monroy, M. (2015). Paridad democrática por fuera de las urnas. Una aproximación a la participación de las mujeres en la administración pública en Colombia [Democratic parity out of the ballot boxes. An approach to women’s participation in Colombian public service]. OPERA, No 16. Universidad Externado de Colombia. Bogota. Retrieved December 2015 from www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=67540057004. Jones, M. (2009). Gender quotas, electoral laws, and the election of women: Evidence from the Latin American vanguard. Comparative Political Studies, 42(1), 56–81. Krook, M. (2008). Quota laws for women in politics: Implications for feminist practice. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Lois, M., & Diz, I. (2006). ¿Qué sabemos sobre la presencia política de las mujeres y la toma de decisiones? Claves para un marco de análisis [What do we know about women’s political presence and decision-making? Keys for an analytical framework]. Proyecto nacional de investigación 2005–2007 “Mujer y toma de decisiones: un estudio de la presencia política en las instituciones autonómicas.” Retrieved December 2015 from www.redalyc.org/pdf/ 645/64504602.pdf . MacFarquhar, N. (2008). U.N. study finds more women in politics. New York Times. Retrieved October 2016 from www.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/world/19nations. html?_r=0. Mendes, V. (2016). Brasil E o Unico Pais da America Latina Sem Ministras. [Brazil is the only Latin American country without female ministers]. In CALLE2 Magazine. Retrieved October 2016 from http://calle2.com/brasil-e-o-unico-pais-da-america-latinasem-ministras/. Ministerio de la Mujer y Poblaciones Vulnerables [Ministry of Woman and Vulnerable Population]. (2016). Retrieved November 2016 from www.mimp.gob.pe/. Organización de Los Estados Americanos [American States Organization]. (2016). Leyes de Cuotas de Género [Gender quotas laws]. Retrieved December 2016 from https:// reformaspoliticas.org/normativa/temas/leyes-de-cuotas/. Piscopo, J. (2015). States as Gender Equality Activists: The Evolution of Quota Laws in Latin America. Latin American Politics and Society, 57(3), 27–49. Política Pública Nacional de Equidad de género para las Mujeres y el Plan Integral para garantizar a las mujeres una vida libre de violencias [National Policy for Gender Equality and Integral Plan to Guarantee a Life Free of Violence to Women]. (2016). Retrieved November 2016 from www.equidadmujer.gov.co/ejes/Paginas/politica-publica-deequidad-de-genero.aspx. ¿Qué es el Consejo Nacional de las Mujeres? [What is the Women’s National Council?]. (2016). Retrieved November 2016 from www.cnm.gov.ar/queeselcnm.php.

142

Melissa Gomez Hernandez

Ranaboldo, C., & Solana,Y. (2008). Gender inequality in women’s political participation in Latin America and the Caribbean. Latin American Center for Rural Development (Rimisp). Santiago, Chile. Retrieved December 2015 from https://idl-bnc.idrc.ca/dspace/bitstream/ 10625/39811/1/128598.pdf . Sacchet, T. (2008). Beyond numbers. The impact of gender quotas in Latin America. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 10(3), 369–386. Schwindt-Bayer, L. (2011). Gender quotas and women’s political participation in Latin America. Papers from the Americas Barometer. Small Grants and Data Award Recipients, 2011. LAPOP. Vanderbilt University. USAID. Retrieved December 2016 from www.vanderbilt. edu/lapop/pdfs/Schwindt-Bayer_SmallGrant_Publish.pdf . Seligson, M., Smith, E., & Zechmeister, E. (2012). Cultura política de la democracia en las Américas. LAPOP, Barometer of the Americas,Vanderbilt University, USAID. Retrieved October 2016 from www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2012/AB2012-Comparative-ReportSpanish-W_4.03.13.pdf . SERVIR. (2015). Autoridad Nacional Del Servicio Civil [National Authority for the Civil Service]. La Mujer en el Servicio Civil Peruano [The woman in the Peruvian Civil Service]. Retrieved August 2016 from http://storage.servir.gob.pe/servicio-civil/Informe_La_ Mujer_en_el_Servicio_Civil_Peruano_2015.pdf. Stivers, C. (1995). Settlement women and bureau men: Constructing a usable past for public administration. Public Administration Review, 55(6), 522–529. Torres Garcia, I. (2012). Promoviendo la igualdad: cuotas y paridad en América Latina [Promoting equality: Quotas and parity in Latin America].Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones. Revista de Derecho Electoral Nº 14. Costa Rica. Julio-diciembre. Retrieved December 2015 from www.tse.go.cr/revista/. United Nations Development Programme. (2007). ABC de Género en la administración pública [Gender ABC in public administration]. Mexico. Retrieved August 2016 from http://cedoc.inmujeres.gob.mx/documentos_download/100903.pdf. United Nations Development Programme. (2011a). Aportes para el Desarrollo Humano en Argentina. Género en Cifras: Mujeres y Varones en la Sociedad Argentina [Contribution to human development in Argentina. Gender in figures: Women and men in Argentinian society]. Retrieved July 2016 from www.ar.undp.org/content/dam/argentina/Publications/ G%C3%A9nero/G%C3%A9nero%20en%20cifras_23.06.pdf. United Nations Development Programme. (2011b). Gender equality and women’s empowerment in public administration. Colombia case study. Retrieved August 2016 from www.undp.org/ content/undp/en/home/librarypage/democratic-governance/public_administration/ gepa2.html. United Nations Development Programme. (2014a). Gender equality and women’s empowerment in public administration. Mexico case study. Retrieved August 2016 from www.undp.org/ content/undp/en/home/librarypage/democratic-governance/public_administration/ gepa2.html. United Nations Development Programme. (2014b). Genero en el Trabajo. Brechas en el Acceso a Puestos de Decision. Aportes para el Desarrollo Humano en Argentina [Gender at the job. Access gap to decision-making posts. Contribution to human development in Argentina]. No. 8. Retrieved July 2016 from www.redetis.iipe.unesco.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ PNUD_El-genero-en-el-trabajo.pdf . United Nations Development Programme. (2014c). Gender equality in public administration. Retrieved December 2015 froms www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ librarypage/democratic-governance/public_administration/gepa.html.

9 WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST A Region of Gender Equality Paradoxes Ghada Barsoum

Over the last several decades, women living in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region1 have experienced significant improvements in their health and educational attainment. Paradoxically, this trend has not been matched with women’s progress in the public sphere, especially with regard to their participation in the labor market and their representation in public service. A second major gender-related paradox in the region is the disparity in women’s role in the public sphere across MENA countries, despite commonalities in religion and language. This chapter looks at these two paradoxes. It begins with a discussion of the legal and institutional framework for gender equality in the region followed by a look at changes in the status of women’s health and educational attainment. The next section provides a picture of women’s labor force participation and their representation in public service.The last two sections summarize the constraints facing women in the public domain and possible options for increasing their participation.

Legal and Institutional Framework for Gender Equality in the Region Legal and institutional frameworks are central to the understanding of women’s position in the public sphere in the MENA region. As background to the analysis in this chapter, it is relevant to note that the 18 Arab countries in the region have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).2 According to CEDAW, ratifying states are required to incorporate gender equality in legislation and to repeal discriminatory provisions identified in laws. Although signatories to CEDAW, all countries in the region have had reservations to some key articles, particularly those related to freedom of mobility, choice of residence and equality in marriage and family (World Bank,

144

Ghada Barsoum

2013). Some countries impose impediments to women’s mobility and personal autonomy. For example, in Saudi Arabia women must have the approval of a male guardian to apply for a passport, travel outside the country or work outside the home. Such constraints reinforce traditional gender norms and limit women’s participation in the public sphere. Moreover, while all countries in the MENA region have some form of national machinery to advance gender equality, their level of institutional strength and mandate varies across countries.

Women’s Progress in Health and Education The MENA region had the second largest rate of increase among all the world’s regions in the United Nations’ Human Development Index (HDI), a composite measure of “average achievement in three basic dimensions of human development – a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living” (United Nations Development Programme, 2015). There is, however, wide variation in human development among and within countries in the region. In the 2015 HDI, the five Gulf States – Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait – ranked in the top tier of the index (very high human development). Four countries ranked in the second tier (high human development) – Oman, Jordan,Tunisia and Algeria. Five ranked in the third tier (medium human development) – Egypt, West Bank/Gaza, Iraq, Morocco and Syria. Two countries – Yemen and Djibouti – exhibit what the UN defines as a low level of human development. It is important to note that these HDI rankings do not indicate the status of women. For example, in another UNDP measure, the Gender Inequality Index, Qatar with a ranking of 32 among all countries in the HDI, ranked 116 with respect to gender equality. But, even with this variation among MENA countries, “there are enough similarities . . . in terms of common language and culture to warrant studying their human development” characteristics as a region (Salehi-Isfahani, 2010, p. 2).

Health Several indicators show improvement in the health of women in the MENA region. For instance, the life expectancy for women increased dramatically from 47 years in 1960 to 75 years in 2014 (World Bank, 2013). Maternal mortality fell by 59 percentage points between 1990 and 2008 – the largest rate of decline among all the world’s regions (World Bank, 2013, p. 33). And in a region where girls may not be ‘valued’ as highly as boys, the phenomenon of “girls missing at birth”3 is very low, even in countries where gender selection would be affordable (World Bank, 2011).

Education Women in most parts of the MENA region have also shown significant progress with regard to educational attainment. The annual improvement in women’s

Women Leadership Positions in the Middle East

145

literacy in the region between 1985 and 2010 was about 1.5 percent, which compares favorably to other developing regions including South Asia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank, 2013). In addition, the average years of schooling completed for females aged 15 to 19 more than doubled from 3.5 years in 1980 to 8.1 years in 2010 (World Bank, 2013, p. 34). Between 1990 to 2010, the proportion of girls aged 6 to 12 in school increased from 75 to 88 percent (World Bank, 2013). Interestingly, in several countries, girls are doing better than boys, outperforming them in mathematics in grades four and eight according to data from the Third International Math and Science Survey (Fryer & Levitt, 2009).4 Particularly relevant to the discussion on women’s role in the public sphere, the ratio of female to male students enrolled in tertiary education in the MENA region tripled between 1975 and 2010 when it stood at 112 percent (World Bank, 2013). One of the key examples is Kuwait, where the ratio of female to male enrollment in tertiary education is above 200 percent (World Bank, 2013).Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates show similar trends, albeit at lower ratios (World Bank, 2013). However, the legacy of gender disparity in access to education still lingers in several countries, especially those at the lower end of the human development scale. A key example is Yemen where just 49 percent of females complete primary education compared to 72 percent of males (World Bank, 2013). The literacy rate among women also continues to lag behind that of men in most MENA countries although this gap is less pronounced among young people. For instance, in Egypt, the literacy rate is 82 percent among young females, compared to 88 percent among young men (World Bank, 2008). A similar pattern holds for Algeria with a literacy rate of 89 percent for girls compared with 94 percent for boys (World Bank, 2008). The literacy gap among young people has also been narrowed in Libya, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and the West Bank/Gaza (World Bank, 2008).

Women in Public Life in the MENA Region: The Key Paradox The key paradox related to women in the MENA region is that their participation in public life is generally lagging even in countries where the gender gap in health and education is closing.The limited role of women in public life is evident in the low female labor market participation and their limited presence in leadership positions in public life.

Labor Force Participation of Women The average annual increase in women’s participation in the labor force in the MENA region was just 0.17 percentage points over the past 30 years (World Bank, 2013). In 2014, the region had the lowest female labor force participation

146

Ghada Barsoum

ira

w Ar ab

Em

Ku

te

ai

s

t

ti ou

ar

jib D

t

at Q

yp

e

Av A

Eg

a si ni

Tu EN

U

ni

te

d

M

n ia in Pa

le

st

er ag

n

s

rd a Jo

rie

q Ira

Te

rri to

co

ia ra b

or oc M

Sa

ud

iA

Ye

m

en

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

FIGURE 9.1 Male and Female Labor Market Participation across the MENA Region

Source: Reproduced from World Bank (2013, p. 45).

rate among all the world’s regions standing at 21.9 percent.5 In all MENA countries, the female labor participation rate is significantly below that of men6 (see Figure 9.1). The low female labor participation rate in the region is accompanied by a high unemployment rate. On average, up to one-fifth of women in the MENA countries were unemployed in 2014, compared to less than 10 percent of men.7 The unemployment rate is highest among young women, exceeding 47 percent in 2014 (International Labour Organization, 2014) even though the majority received secondary or post-secondary education. In Egypt, for example, the unemployment rate among female youth is more than five times that among male youth (38.1 percent versus 6.8 percent), according to a recent school-to-work transition survey (Barsoum, Ramadan, & Mostafa, 2014). The NEET (not in employment, education or training)8 rate in Egypt is also very high among female youth reaching 49.5 percent compared to a rate of 9.3 percent among male youth (Barsoum, Ramadan, & Mostafa, 2014). A similar gender disparity prevails throughout the region. Among women who are employed, almost half are in jobs that do not provide social protection or work stability (World Bank, 2011). For instance, over one-fifth of working women in Egypt are “unpaid family workers,” i.e., women working primarily in household-based enterprises and receiving no wages (CAPMAS, 2012). Agriculture, the sector with a large proportion of working women in the MENA region, provides virtually no job protection for its workers, whether they are wage or non-wage workers.

Women Leadership Positions in the Middle East

147

The public sector continues to be the employer of choice for young workers, both female and male (Barsoum, 2015, 2016). With its minimum requirement of a secondary education certificate for entry, the public sector is also the employer of choice for women with higher levels of education. In addition to job security, the public sector offers more extensive female-specific benefits such as maternity and childcare leave than does the private sector (OECD/CAWTAR, 2014).The public sector also provides higher salaries than most private sector employers in the region. In fact, public sector wages are above those in other regions in the developing world. In addition, for women working in the public sector, perceptions of the risks of sexual harassment are reduced (Barsoum, 2004). Among MENA countries, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations9 show the highest rate of public sector employment for women. For instance, 47 percent of working women in Bahrain are employed in the public sector, as are 41 percent in Tunisia and 35 percent in Lebanon (OECD/CAWTAR, 2014). A key exception is Morocco, where just 8 percent of working women are employed by the government (OECD/CAWTAR, 2014). Other exceptions are primarily low-income countries that are highly dependent on agriculture and animal husbandry. For example, just 17 percent of working women in Yemen are employed in the public sector (OECD/CAWTAR, 2014). In many countries, women working in the public sector are well-represented in middle management. For example, in Bahrain and Tunisia, they account for 59 percent and 53 percent, respectively, of middle management positions. But, the glass ceiling is in place in all MENA countries (Mitra & Sumit, 2012) as evidenced by the much lower representation of women in higher level than in middle level positions. For instance, even in Tunisia, women account for 37 percent of upper level management positions, more than 20 percentage points below their representation in middle management positions.10 One exception to this pattern is in Bahrain, where women have not yet reached parity with men, but are getting closer with their 45 percent of senior management positions. Female entrepreneurs are an anomaly in the region. In a World Bank survey of companies in ten MENA countries, just 15 percent were female owned (2013). Most women are in low-productivity self-employment activities, generally referred to as “survival” activities (World Bank, 2013), where lack of access to business development services and finance remain a serious challenge. This, in turn, constrains their potential for growth and access to leadership positions in the private sector.

Women in Civil Society Organizations Globally, women have a strong presence in civil society organizations (CSOs), especially those that address poverty and marginalization issues (Bunch, 2012). In the MENA region, faith-based organizations predominate among CSOs (Clarke & Tittensor, 2014). CSOs active at the grassroots level focus on the delivery of

148

Ghada Barsoum

services, primarily targeting vulnerable groups such as orphans and widows.There are few advocacy-oriented organizations with the potential to impact policy. Furthermore, while CSOs provide opportunities for middle-class women to participate in the provision of social assistance ( Jung, Petersen, & Sparre, 2014), few women hold leadership positions in these organizations. Daly (2010) discusses the uncertainties and ambiguities expressed by young women who are active in civil society and their perceptions regarding the lack of leadership training programs that, when available, are externally funded. But she notes that these programs introduced global models of activism to young women, rightfully predicting that they would constitute activist “pipelines.” Ibrahim and Hunt-Hendrix (2011) highlight the role of volunteerism and these training programs in the role played by many of these young people in the 2011 political unrest and uprising in Egypt, generally described in the media as the “Arab Spring.”11

Women in Parliament and Legislation The second major gender-related paradox in the region is the disparity in women’s roles in government across the MENA countries. With the exception of the United Arab Emirates, where only a specified group of citizens of either gender may vote (Metcalfe, 2008), women have been given suffrage across the region. However, while Egyptian women have had the right to vote since the 1950s, it was not until 2005 that women in Kuwait gained suffrage and it was not until 2015 that Saudi women were able to vote in local government elections.12 Even with full suffrage rights, female representation in parliaments in the region was 18.4 percent in 2015, below the world average of 22.8 percent,13 the second lowest rate of female representation worldwide.14 No woman in the region has ever held the position of parliament president (OECD/CAWTAR, 2014). While most countries have no overt regulations against female representation in parliament, only a few such as Tunisia specifically incentivize their inclusion. In Tunisia, a 2014 electoral law specified that “[party] applications for candidacy [for legislative elections] shall be presented on the basis of the principle of parity between women and men, and the rule of alternately ranking women and men on the list”(OECD/CAWTAR, 2014, p. 131). In 2015, Tunisia reached a female representation in parliament of 31.3 percent.15 This is slightly above the target of 30 percent established by the 1995 Beijing Platform of Action as the critical threshold for women’s legislative representation (OECD/CAWTAR, 2014). Algeria has also surpassed the threshold, with female representation of 31.6 percent in 2015.16 This was achieved after political parties were legally mandated by the government to have women account for at least one-third of their candidates (OECD/CAWTAR, 2014). In Egypt, the 2015 parliament had the largest female presence in the country’s history, with 89 female representatives holding 14.9 percent of the seats.17

Women Leadership Positions in the Middle East

149

Although below the 30 percent threshold, this represents a jump of women’s representation from 2 percent in 2012 and 8.9 percent in 2005 in the lower house.18 Five MENA countries remain at single digit representation of women in parliament: Lebanon, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar had no female representation in 2015.19

Women in the Judiciary Similar to women’s presence in the legislative branch of government, women’s representation in the judiciary varies among MENA countries. In Egypt, for example, women account for 0.4 percent of all judges in the country (National Council of Women, 2014), far below the 28 percent in Tunisia. In fact, in 2012, a woman served as president of an administrative court in Tunisia (OECD/ CAWTAR, 2014) – a position not yet attained by another woman in the region. In Algeria, 23.5 percent of the judges are female as are 20 percent of judges in Jordan and Morocco (OECD/CAWTAR, 2014). In general, women in the MENA region have better representation in lower courts such as administrative, economic or family courts, a pattern consistent with the global experience (OECD/CAWTAR, 2014). In Egypt, female judges are routinely assigned to the family court, although not to the administrative court (OECD/CAWTAR, 2014). In Lebanon, women constituted 41 percent of judges in administrative courts in 2010 (OECD/CAWTAR, 2014, p. 19). Just Tunisia, Morocco and Lebanon have had women sitting in supreme courts (OECD/ CAWTAR, 2014). Overall, there are few female prosecutors in the region, with the key exceptions of Tunisia, Lebanon and Morocco. In Tunisia, female prosecutors jumped from 25 percent in 2005 to 52 percent in 2010 (OECD/CAWTAR, 2014). This, again, is the highest proportion in the region in terms of female representation.

Constraints to a Greater Leadership Role of Women in the MENA Region The most common reason given to explain women’s limited participation in public life in the MENA region has been the role of cultural norms (United Nations Development Programme, 2006; World Bank, 2013). According to the Arab Human Development Report of 2005, the prevailing masculine culture gives men “priority both in access to work and the enjoyment of its returns” (United Nations Development Programme, 2006, p. 91). A continuing patriarchal culture and a religion-inspired value system are also factors used to explain women’s limited presence in the public sphere (Metcalfe, 2008; United Nations Development Programme, 2006). This culturalist view, unfortunately, locks the debate on women’s participation in the public sphere in a static corner of ideology. Relying on this explanation also reduces the analysis of women’s complex

150

Ghada Barsoum

situation to traditional and religious texts and constrains any meaningful discussion of the structural reforms needed to address these barriers. Moghadam (1998) shifts the focus on restricting women’s work and participation in the public sphere in the region to the impact of the oil boom. In oil producing countries, the boom increased family incomes making it unnecessary for women to work outside the home, thus restricting their labor force participation. In non-oil producing countries in the region, the migration of men to oil-rich countries had similar effects (Moghadam, 1998). The migration of men placed significant demands on women to play the role of the caregiver in the absence of the father. This situation, Moghadam (1998) argues, re-enforced the patriarchal notions of man as the only breadwinner and women as the domestic caregivers.While oil prices have fluctuated since then, the socioeconomic structure affecting family dynamics remains in effect. The social contract thesis has more recently spurred some attention to explain women’s low economic participation in the region (World Bank, 2013). The concept, with its roots in the Hobbes political philosophy, generally refers to an agreement between governments and their citizens, defining and limiting the rights and responsibilities of each (Hinnant, 1980). In MENA countries, the social contract has involved the provision of jobs in the public service to the educated, with relatively generous benefits compared to the private sector (Karshenas & Moghadam, 2009).The contract has also involved generous subsidies for some food items and oil products (Karshenas & Moghadam, 2009). These policies resulted in bloated public sectors in most countries and heavily distorted and highly segmented labor markets (Assaad, 2014). For women, this specifically translated into the continued preference for public sector employment. Some researchers argue that subsidies and family benefits helped reduce vulnerability and poverty that, in turn, discouraged married women from seeking employment and reinforced the tradition of women as homemakers (Karshenas & Moghadam, 2009). The legal framework in many countries has also been cited as a reason for the low labor force participation of women in MENA (OECD/CAWTAR, 2014). Several countries have regulations against the transfer of nationality for children born to foreign fathers, restrictions on mobility and personal autonomy and on inequality in marriage and family life (OECD/CAWTAR, 2014). These regulations reinforce patriarchal norms. Moreover, the weak enforcement of equal pay mandates and maternity leave further constrains women’s participation in the public sphere (OECD/CAWTAR, 2014). Finally, while more women have access to education in the MENA region, the limited work opportunities open to women and the common problem of skill mismatch curtail the potentials for this education to translate into productive employment prospects (World Bank, 2008). While there are more educational opportunities in the region for women, very little of this education can be considered as “empowering education” (Shor, 2012), leading to changing society and providing enabling conditions for personal autonomy and independence.

Women Leadership Positions in the Middle East

151

The Way Forward: Increasing Women’s Presence in Leadership in the MENA Region Gender disparity in the MENA region requires concerted and focused efforts to improve the presence of women in leadership positions. While gender inequality is a global challenge, it is actualized in diverse ways in localized settings. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) offers a five-pronged framework for advancing global gender equality (OECD/ CAWTAR, 2014). The framework starts with a focused strategic vision for the compliance with international standards. This is particularly relevant to the MENA region, where there are reservations regarding some of the CEDAW articles. This vision is to be combined with the second element of the framework that relates to the need for effective institutions for gender equality that would be responsible for oversight, monitoring and accountability for progress. For the third element, the framework highlights the importance of country-level tools for gender mainstreaming such as gender impact assessments, gender sensitive budgeting and gender-disaggregated results. These three elements address governance and institutional arrangements leading to gender disparity. The last two elements of the OECD framework focus on gender balance in the public and private sectors in relation to women’s labor force participation and access to leadership positions along with family responsibilities and access to justice.These two elements have been addressed in several studies, most notably in the World Development Report of 2012 (World Bank, 2011). This report was particularly focused on gender balance in the public and private sectors, highlighting the importance of addressing gaps in female mortality and education; improving access to economic opportunities for women; increasing women’s voice and decision-making power in the household and in society; and limiting gender inequality across generations (World Bank, 2011). In the World Bank report, recommendations focused on three specific areas of intervention for countries in the MENA region.The first is to make women’s time more manageable by improving access to affordable child care, implementation of parental leave policies and the improvement in infrastructure such as transportation in cities and electricity and water in rural areas. The second area of intervention focused on strengthening women’s land and ownership rights and improving their access to credit markets (World Bank, 2011). The third area addressed breaking down discrimination in labor markets through female-focused labor market policies such as training programs, job placement services and access to entrepreneurial support. This would also entail establishing female networks and removing discriminatory treatment in labor laws and regulations. The World Bank report also recommended policies to increase women’s participation in the political sphere including quotas for women in the electoral process and making women’s voices heard within households. The latter recommendation requires, for example, efforts to eliminate laws related to women’s mobility and personal autonomy.

152

Ghada Barsoum

Conclusion MENA is a region of gender equality paradoxes. The first paradox relates to their lack of equality in the public sphere relative to the progress they have made in health and education. The low female labor force participation and the minimal representation of women in most countries in the region in parliament, the judiciary and civil society organizational leadership show that there is a long road for MENA women to travel before they reach gender equality in the public sphere.The second paradox relates to the heterogeneity of MENA countries when it comes to women’s equality.While some countries have reached global milestones in women’s representation, others lag behind even in women’s access to basic human rights such as education and health care let alone their participation in the public sphere. The debate on the factors contributing to women’s limited role in the public sphere is far from over.The culturalist argument remains inadequate to explain the uneven development of gender equality in the region by failing to explain variations within the region. Other factors such as the nature of the economies in the region provide more nuanced reasons to explain the challenges woman face in their efforts to participate more fully in the public sphere. There is a need for women’s equality issues to move to the policy agenda of all countries in the MENA region. Resolving the first paradox regarding gender equality across all domains will mean that women will close the gender gap not only in health and education but also with regard to labor market and public life participation. Resolving the second paradox concerning the wide variation among MENA countries across domains will require changes to the existing institutional framework and the implementation of policies focused on gender equity. In time, the growing awareness of women in the MENA region of their rights should accelerate their journey along the road to gender equality.

Notes 1 The World Bank defines the MENA region as Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates,West Bank/Gaza and Yemen. All countries in the region but two – Israel and Iran – are what can be referred to as “Arab countries.” These 18 countries are referred to as the MENA region throughout the chapter. 2 The Convention consists of a preamble and 30 articles defining discrimination against women and setting up the agenda for state-level action to end it. Iran, one of the two non-Arab countries in the region, is not a signatory to CEDAW. www.ohchr.org/EN/ ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CEDAW.aspx. 3 According to the World Health Organization, this term refers to the 1.4 million girls who are “missing” at birth, in any given year due to gender-biased sex selection. 4 The Third International Math and Science Survey (TIMSS) is a major source for internationally comparable data on the mathematics and science achievement of students in the fourth and eighth grades. The analysis by Fryer and Levitt covers countries with data on TIMSS results including Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Tunisia. 5 Based on http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.CACT.FE.ZS?locations=ZQ.

Women Leadership Positions in the Middle East

153

6 It is relevant to note that data from oil-rich countries includes foreign female workers. 7 Source: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.TOTL.FE.ZS. 8 The NEET rate encompasses the unemployed, but all also extends to all those not in employment, education or training. This way, it does not rely on the job search criterion, which is key to the definition of unemployment. 9 Includes Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). 10 The data in this paragraph are based on the MENA-OECD Survey on National Gender Frameworks, Gender Public Policies and Leadership, which was updated in 2014. The survey covered Egypt, Yemen, Lebanon, Tunisia and Morocco (OECD/ CAWTAR, 2014, p. 163). 11 The “Arab Spring” is a term often used in the media to refer to the political unrest and mass demonstrations that took place in large cities in 2011 starting with Tunisia and followed by Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen. 12 There are no other elections in the country since it is a monarchy with the government appointed by the monarch. 13 http://news.yahoo.com/initial-results-show-3-saudi-women-elected-first123633610.html. 14 Based on data presented by the Inter-Parliamentary Union on www.ipu.org/wmn-e/ world.htm. 15 www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm. 16 www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm. 17 Based on the report by Egypt Independent (www.egyptindependent.com/news/ women-s-representation-new-parliament-highest-egypt-s-history). 18 Historical data are based on www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm. Egypt eliminated its Upper House in 2015 based on constitutional changes. 19 www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm.

References Assaad, R. (2014). Making sense of Arab labor markets: The enduring legacy of dualism. IZA Journal of Labor & Development, 3(1), 6. Barsoum, G. (2004).The employment crisis of female graduates in Egypt: An ethnographic account. Cairo Papers, 25(3). Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press. Barsoum, G. (2015). Striving for job security: The lived experience of employment informality among educated youth in Egypt. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 35(3–4), 340–358. Barsoum, G. (2016). The public sector as the employer of choice among youth in Egypt: The relevance of public service motivation theory. International Journal of Public Administration, 39(3), 205–215. Barsoum, G., Ramadan, M., & Mostafa, M. (2014). Labour market transitions of young women and men in Egypt. Geneva: International Labour Organization. Work4Youth Publication Series No. 16. Bunch, C. (2012). Opening door for feminism: UN world conferences on women. Journal of Women’s History, 24(2012), 213–221. CAPMAS (Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (2012). Labor force survey quarterly results. July, August, September 2012. November. CAPMAS. Clarke, M., & Tittensor, D. (Eds.). (2014). Islam and development: Exploring the invisible aid economy. Oxford: Ashgate Publishing Ltd. Daly, S. (2010). Young women as activists in contemporary Egypt: Anxiety, leadership and the next generation. Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, 6(2), 59–85.

154

Ghada Barsoum

Fryer, R., & Levitt, S. (2009). An empirical analysis of the gender gap in mathematics. (Working Paper 15430). Cambridge, MA: The National Bureau of Economic Research. Hinnant, C. H. (1980). Thomas Hobbes: A reference guide. Boston, MA: G. K. Hall & Co. Ibrahim, B. L., & Hunt-Hendrix, L. (2011). Youth, service and pathways to democracy in contemporary Egypt. Paper presented at the annual meeting for the Society of Biblical Literature, Amman, Jordan, April 16–17. International Labour Organization. (2014). World of work report 2014. Developing with jobs. Geneva: ILO. Jung, D., Petersen, M. J., & Sparre, S. L. (2014). Politics of modern Muslim subjectivities: Islam, Youth, and social activism in the Middle East. Dordrecht: Springer. Karshenas, M., & Moghadam, V. (2009). Bringing social policy back in: A look at the Middle East and North Africa. International Journal of Social Welfare, 18(S1), 52–61. Metcalfe, B. D. (2008). Women, management and globalization in the Middle East. Journal of Business Ethics, 83(1), 85–100. Mitra, A., & Sumit, S. (2012). Gender-role stereotypes: Perception and practice of leadership in the Middle East. Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues, 5(3), 146–162. Moghadam, V. (1998). Women, work and economic reform in the Middle East and North Africa. London: Lynne Rienner. National Council of Women. (2014). Egypt review report on Beijing +20. New York: National Council for Women. Retrieved June 2016 from www2.unwomen.org/~/media/ headquarters/attachments/sections/csw/59/national_reviews/egypt_review_ar_ beijing20.ashx?v=1&d=20140927T020835. OECD/CAWTAR. (2014). Women in public life: Gender, law and policy in the Middle East and North Africa. Paris: OECD Publishing. Retrieved June 2016 from http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1787/9789264224636-en. Salehi-Isfahani, D. (2010). Human developmessnt in the Middle East and North Africa. Human Development Research Paper 2016/26. New York: United Nations Development Programme. Shor, I. (2012). Empowering education: Critical teaching for social change. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. United Nations Development Programme. (2006). Arab human development report 2005: Towards the rise of women in the Arab world. New York: Regional Bureau of Arab States, cosponsored with the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and the Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Organizations. United Nations Development Programme. (2015). Human Development Report 2015: Work for human development. New York: UNDP. World Bank. (2008). The road not travelled, education reform in the Middle East and North Africa. Washington, DC: The World Bank. World Bank. (2011). World Development Report 2012: Gender equality and development. Washington, DC: The World Bank. World Bank. (2013). Opening doors: Gender equality and development in the Middle East and North Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank Publications.

10 WOMEN GOVERNING The Egyptian Perspective Laila El Baradei

Women in the Egyptian public service are quite challenged. There are, however, women who have managed to overcome the hurdles to realize significant achievements. For example, the first female to head a political party in the country was elected in 2014, putting a crack in Egypt’s political glass ceiling. This chapter will provide a synopsis of Egyptian women’s participation in several areas of public service: in the government bureaucracy, in parliament, in the development field, and in the nonprofit sector. The chapter begins with a brief overview of the socioeconomic conditions and cultural climate within which women work and participate in the political sphere. The remainder of the chapter is divided into three sections.The first discusses women in the Egyptian government.The second looks at women in the political arena as members of political parties and as parliamentarians. The third section focuses on women who have made a mark in the nonprofit sector and in the development field. The chapter concludes with some observations about what is needed to further empower Egypt’s women.

Overview Traveling back in time, we see that women in ancient Egypt had more rights and privileges than did women living in ancient Greece, Rome, and China. In fact, in the 15th century BCE, Hatshepsut ruled as a Pharaoh in her own right. Other women wielded power from “behind the throne” and as Divine Wives of Amun, the king of all ancient Egyptian gods. But “women did not often take part in official roles in the administration, served only secondary roles in the temples, and were not as likely to be as educated as men” (Wordpress, 2014). Leaping forward several millennia, we find that the unequal treatment of women in Egypt continues even today in the country’s economic, political and social domains (See Appendix 10.1 for summary statistics).

156

Laila El Baradei

Several international organizations have ranked Egypt among the countries with the lowest gender equality. The 2015 Global Gender Gap Index, which measures disparities between men and women across countries, ranks Egypt at 136 out of 145 countries, worldwide (World Economic Forum (WEF), 2015). The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Social Institutions and Gender Index 2014 that measures legislation, practices, and attitudes restricting women’s rights and opportunities, classifies Egypt to be among the countries that are ‘very high’ in gender discrimination together with other countries in Africa and the Middle East (OECD, 2016). One area where the unequal status of females is particularly manifest is in literacy. It has been estimated that in 2014, close to one in every four Egyptian women was illiterate (Cairo Post, 2015). Female literacy lies at the core of equality for women, since it is often a precursor to political participation, greater access to the labor market, knowledge of legal rights, and other aspects of women’s agency. It is important to note here, however, that the literacy rate of young women aged 15–24 is above 90 percent. Moreover, the gross enrollment ratio of females in secondary education in 2013 was 87.8 percent. It is also noteworthy that in 2010, 41 percent of Egyptian women were registered to vote (See Appendix 10.1).

Women in the Egyptian Economy With its 93 million inhabitants, Egypt has the third largest population in Africa and the 15th largest population, worldwide. Its GDP reached an all time high in 2015 but, according to the World Bank: Economic growth in the past three decades has been moderate and uneven, and insufficient to reduce poverty or absorb the rapidly growing supply of labor. Poverty rates have been persistently high . . . concentrated in Rural Upper Egypt . . . unemployment remains high, particularly for women and youth (2016).1 In 2014, the unemployment rate for Egyptian women stood at 24 percent, ranking it among the highest in the world (World Bank, 2016). Related to the high unemployment rate for Egyptian women is their low labor force participation rate. In 2014, women’s participation in the labor force stood at 23.9 percent, putting it substantially below the world average of 39.6 percent although somewhat above the 21.3 average for other countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa (World Bank, 2016) with similar cultural environments. The most prevalent explanation for the low labor force participation rate of Egyptian women is the: [t]raditional gender paradigm [that] limits women’s ability to participate in labor markets. The main tenets of this traditional gender paradigm are the

Women Governing: The Egyptian Perspective

157

primacy of women’s familial roles in Arab culture, dominant gender norms that define the man as the breadwinner and the woman as the homemaker, and the social requirements imposed on women by the “code of modesty”. (Assaad, 2015, p. 2) Assaad argues, however, that the gender paradigm is only part of the explanation for the low participation of women in the labor force. He says that government policies also constrain their entry into the labor force (Assaad, 2015). Another reason given for the “official” low female labor force participation rate is the large proportion of women working in agriculture. The 2012 World Development Report on Gender Equality and Development reported that 46 percent of Egypt’s female workforce was employed in agriculture. These workers are not counted in official labor force statistics. Neither are the workers in the informal sector that employs large numbers of Egyptian women. “For illiterate females it is the most suitable sector and for educated females it could be a way to increase their incomes with no fixed working hours” (Social Research Center (SRC), 2016).

Women in Government In 2012, close to 50 percent of employed women in Egypt were working in the public sector compared to 20 percent of males (Assaad, 2015). The difference in these proportions drives some scholars to describe the Egyptian government as being “feminized” (SRC, 2016). Recent employment figures, however, indicate that the large proportion of women in government may be declining. In the past two years, 35 percent of employed female new entrants found jobs in the public sector (Assaad, 2015). Historically, Egyptian women have preferred working in the public sector for several reasons including the security and benefits available relative to the private and informal sectors (Abdelhamid & El Baradei, 2010; Barsoum, 2010). In the public sector, jobs are guaranteed for life and it is very difficult, and sometimes almost impossible, to be fired. Compared to the private and informal sectors, government jobs provide better benefits, especially for women, in the form of paid and unpaid leave and vacations.Working in the public sector, a woman can get up to six years of unpaid child care leave, two years at a time, for up to three children. She is also entitled to three months’ paid maternity leave and upon returning to work, she is permitted to leave one hour early to nurse her child for one year. If she wishes to accompany her spouse on travel to any place where he has a work contract, she may take an open-ended unpaid leave and still get promoted during that time. This does not happen in the private sector and certainly not in the informal sector. As discussed in Chapter 9 of this book, government jobs are also perceived to be safe and respected jobs for women, compared to most jobs in the private and informal sectors. Parents and husbands of working women are more likely to

158

Laila El Baradei

approve their working for the public sector than in the private or informal sectors. In some low and middle ranking positions, there is a perception that women may be less prone to sexual harassment than in other sectors. This is based on the notion that in other work environments, there are usually fewer employees and women may need to spend time alone with men in closed work setups; something parents and spouses may not appreciate.

Women in the Political Arena Although suffrage was not granted to Egyptian women until the mid 1950s, they were involved in the political life of Egypt as far back as the late 19th and early 20th centuries when a nascent feminist movement was taking hold in the country. In March 1924, at the height of the nationalist movement in Egypt . . . Egyptian women made an official request to the authorities to attend the opening of parliament. In 1925, a booth was set up in the parliament hall for women who wished to attend; a second was added later when more women insisted on attending. Egyptian women, however, only gained their political rights . . . in the wake of the 1952 Revolution which overthrew the monarchy and established Egypt as a republic . . . But even then . . . few women ran for parliament and fewer . . . managed to win. (Reda, 2016) Since the Revolution began on January 25, 2011,2 Egypt has gone through a very turbulent political period with several changes in presidents, prime ministers, and parliaments. Never before, over such a short time period, have Egyptians been asked to go to the polls as frequently, either for parliamentary elections, referenda, or presidential elections. During the early days of the Revolution, women were very active politically, whether as vocal demonstrators or as voters making up nearly 50 percent of the voting population.They were less forthcoming in choosing to run for public office. This is not surprising given the findings of a study conducted by El Baradei and Wafa (2013) that Egyptian women have limited confidence in their own capabilities as well as those of other women to be effective parliamentarians. In the study, among those who reported that there were women candidates in their districts, just 41 percent said they had voted for them. This meant that women did not automatically vote for female candidates. In the 2013 El Baradei and Wafa study, when asked to evaluate the performance of women parliamentarians before and after the Revolution, more than 70 percent of the participants stated that the performance of women MPs was ineffective both before and after the Revolution. When the participants were asked to name the main challenges to women winning parliament seats, the most significant responses included: cultural barriers, lack of qualifications/experience, need for funding, corrupt and unfair elections, and lack of free time. The three most

Women Governing: The Egyptian Perspective

159

important perceived prerequisites for success in parliament included: experience and knowledge of the political sphere, public awareness of women’s important role in politics, plus personal and interpersonal skills that would enable women to campaign and do well in parliament (El Baradei & Wafa, 2013). When President Abdel Fattah El Sisi took over the Egyptian government in 2015, he along with the military, police, and national security agencies, began to cut back on the available space for real political participation and freedom. The restrictions applied to women as well as men.

Women in Parliament Historically, women have not had a strong representation in the Egyptian parliament. Since the 1970s, quotas to encourage their participation have been instituted, abolished, and reinstated. In 1979, Law No. 21 was issued requiring the allocation of a minimum of 30 seats for women, which accounted for almost 9 percent of the total number of seats (Saber, 2014). In 1983, the number was increased to 31 seats. The quota was abolished in 1986 when it was perceived to be unconstitutional, but was reinstated in 2009 to allow women to hold 64 of the 454 seats in the national parliament (Saber, 2015). After the 2011 Revolution, the quota was once again nullified for the 2012 parliament in which women had just a 2 percent representation. A quota was again reinstated for the 2015 parliament (El Baradei & Wafa, 2013; Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR), 2016). The most recent Egyptian Constitution, adopted in January 2014, commits the government to “taking the necessary measures to ensure appropriate representation of women” (State Information Service (SIS), 2014, p. 7) in legislative bodies and other high public posts. In the recent 2015 parliamentary elections, women reached their historical high in terms of numerical representation in parliament, accounting for 14.9 percent of total available seats (CCTV-Africa, 2016). Reflecting the quota requirement, 75 women were elected out of 568 members. Fourteen more women were appointed by virtue of a presidential decree, thus bringing the total number of female members to 89 or 16 percent.This compares with a 12.7 percent representation in 2010, and a 2 percent representation in 2012 (CCTV-Africa, 2016). With the recent greater representation of women in parliament, the question remains as to how the women MPs will fare. Over time, we will be able to assess their performance.This will have to be done in the context of an assessment of the overall performance of parliament and to what extent it will effectively review the more than 500 laws that were issued by President Abdel Fattah El Sisi during the suspension of the legislative body in 2015. There are also questions and doubts as to whether the 2015 parliament is representative of Egyptian voters. Although there were no serious charges about election rigging, there was a very low turnout in the parliamentary elections. Official figures show a 26.5 percent voter turnout, much less than the turnout immediately after the 2011 Revolution.The turnout for Egypt’s 2012 parliament was 59 percent

160

Laila El Baradei

for the first round and 52 percent for the second round,3 the highest in Egyptian parliamentary elections for more than four decades (Ahram Online, 2015).

Women in Line Ministries and Subnational governments The first ministerial portfolio held by a woman in Egypt was in 1962. Since then, women have held ministerial positions in social affairs and insurance (1962, 1971, 1978, 1996), health (2013), manpower and immigration (2005, 2015), and in international cooperation (2004, 2015) (WGL, 2016). Women accounted for 3.6 percent of ministerial (or higher) positions in the public sector in 2010/2011 and for 0.6 percent of vice-ministerial positions (See Appendix 10.1). At the subnational government level, women have even less of a role. The first female mayor was elected in 2008 in a governorate in Upper Egypt – a very rare occurrence (Al-Ahram Weekly, 2009).

Organizations for Women’s Rights As stated earlier, Egyptian women were visible in the political arena long before they were given the right to vote. In modern Egypt, there have always been Egyptian women leading philanthropic efforts, mobilizing for elections, and fighting and advocating for women’s rights. From 1970 to 2011, it was the wife of Egypt’s President who took charge of women’s issues. Several laws and institutions related to women in Egypt are linked to efforts by two first ladies: Jehane El Sadat, the wife of Anwar Sadat (1970–1981), and Suzanne Mubarak, wife of Hosni Mubarak (1981–2011). Holding a PhD from Cairo University, Jehane El Sadat worked on several issues of import to women. She was a strong advocate for a new family law, later referred to as “Jehane’s law,” that gave women more rights including those related to alimony and custody of children in the event of divorce. Suzanne Mubarak, a graduate of the American University in Cairo, was known for her efforts in the establishment of two governmental institutions: the National Council of Women (NCW) and the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM). The NCCM was established in 1988 and the NCW in 2000, by presidential decree. In line with international trends, the NCW worked with line ministries, with oversight of Suzan Mubarak, to ensure that issues related to gender were mainstreamed in the 2002–2007 National Development Plan of Egypt. Indicators were developed to monitor implementation, and training of female leaders in local government administration was conducted. An ombudsman office that receives women’s complaints through a hot line, free of charge, was established. The NCCM started a national campaign to fight female genital circumcision, a widespread practice, especially in rural Egypt. In June 2011, the so-called ‘Alliance for Arab Women’ and the ‘Egyptian Women Coalitions’ reportedly collected half a million signatures on the demands

Women Governing: The Egyptian Perspective

161

of women after the 2011 Revolution.Among the main demands were the following: (UN Women, 2011). •

•

• • • •

Women should not be excluded or discriminated against. They should be included in the constitution writing committee, in the dialogue forums, in political parties’ electoral lists, in parliamentary elections, in the judicial system, and in leadership positions based on their competencies. Government should uphold its commitment to the international conventions signed, including the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Women have the right to equal opportunities, fair and just laws, human security, education, and healthcare. All discriminatory legislation against women should be reviewed. A national women’s machinery should be established to support and activate the role of women. Media should support a positive image for women and contribute to raising awareness about their rights and opposing stereotypes.

Since the 2011 Revolution, women’s rights organizations have been trying to find ways to separate themselves from the traditional state dominance. Women’s traditional organizations, plus new evolving movements and coalitions led by the younger generation, are using non-conventional means, including social media, to mobilize and rally support for women’s issues, many times in opposition to the government’s authoritarian rule (Sika & Khodary, 2012). Advocating for women’s rights, however, is not always easy. In a country where citizen rights are routinely violated, many think that women’s rights should not be discussed out of the larger context (Gaess & Soriano, 2008).

Significant Success Stories across Domains Despite the many challenges and obstacles facing women in Egypt, there are success stories of women in different domains who have tried to change the status quo. Although it is difficult to select examples, and the women included here are by no means a representative sample, they share several common characteristics. They all have high ethical standards, have causes they are fighting for, and did not choose the easy way out.

Georgette Qallini: A Lawyer Fighting for Minority Rights Georgette Qallini, who received her PhD in Commercial Law from Cairo University, is a prominent example of success in the field of law. She was a distinguished lawyer and parliamentarian during the Mubarak era (1981–2011). In 2000, she was appointed to parliament by Presidential decree where she was

162

Laila El Baradei

very vocal in defending women’s rights and the rights of Egypt’s Copts.4 Prior to the Revolution, she was known for her strong opposition to the Head of Parliament, Fathy Serour, especially when it came to Copts rights. She was also one of the key advocates for establishing a quota for women in the Egyptian parliament. After the 2011 Revolution, she was appointed Minister for Migration and Egyptians Abroad Affairs in the short-lived cabinet led by General Ahmed Shafiq, from 29 January to 3 March 2011 (Al-Ahram, 2011;Women and Memory Forum (WMF), 2015).

Heba Handoussa: An Economist Shifting Her Career to Grass Roots Development Heba Handoussa is a prominent economist and scholar with a PhD in Economics from the University of London who moved from academia to be the lead author of Egypt Human Development Reports from 2007 to 2010. In 2011, she initiated the Egypt Network for Integrated Development (ENID) to ensure that the development theories she has taught and discussed over the years would be implemented. ENID, which started as a UNDP funded project, is now a registered foundation in Egypt. Its objective is to create sustainable development and employment opportunities in Upper Egypt where poverty prevails. Four main programs are implemented under ENID covering economic empowerment of youth and women, promoting micro and small enterprises, upgrading basic services in rural Upper Egypt, and enhancing sustainable agricultural development (ENID, 2015; WMF, 2015).

Hoda El Sadda: English Literature Professor and Political Activist Hoda El Sadda is an English Literature faculty member at Cairo University, who received her PhD in English Literature from Cairo University. In 1996, she initiated and co-founded the nonprofit organization Women and Memory Forum (WMF). This organization advanced El Sadda’s belief in the importance of documenting Egyptian women’s success stories and keeping these stories alive in the memories of Egyptian people. The long-term objective of the WMF is to produce and make available “alternative cultural information about Arab women that can be used for raising awareness and empowering women” (WMF, 2015). In 2013, she was selected as a member of the National Constitution Writing Committee and chaired the committee responsible for political rights and freedoms (Al-Ahram, 2013).

Mona Mina: Physician Concerned with Reform of the Medical Profession Mona Mina is a physician who works in the government sector and advocates for the rights of doctors working in public sector hospitals. Mina graduated from

Women Governing: The Egyptian Perspective

163

Ein Shams Medical School in Egypt in 1983 and received a graduate diploma in pediatric medicine in 1990. ‘Doctors Without Rights’ was the name of the movement she established to fight for doctors’ rights during Mubarak’s era. During the 2011 Revolution, she played a prominent role in providing emergency medical services to the demonstrators.

Human Rights Advocates Heba Morayef is a human rights advocate and former Director of the Middle East and North Africa office in Human Rights Watch International. Morayef has an undergraduate degree in political science from the American University in Cairo and a certificate in general international law from London School of Economics. She was selected in 2013 as one of the “Power Women” and named in the Forbes list of women who have made a “measurable difference” in business, politics, art, and technology. Before joining Human Rights Watch, she worked with Amnesty International in London and was a human rights campaigner in Libya and Tunisia (El Shiaty, 2014). In 2013, she was described in the English online version of the Egyptian Al-Ahram national newspaper as being “a guardian of rights in postrevolutionary Egypt” (Trew, 2013). Currently she is working as a researcher in the Law and Society Research Unit at the American University in Cairo. Ragia Omran is a young lawyer and feminist, who in addition to her career in corporate law, is an avid fighter for human rights in Egypt, volunteering her services in lawsuits where the accused has no one to stand for his/her rights. Omran established a “Rapid Response Network” of nearly 100 lawyers and 40 organizations to provide legal assistance to Egyptian citizens who are arrested for political reasons, or simply for protesting. In 2013, she was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights 30th annual award for her work and commitment to human rights in Egypt.This award is dedicated to journalists, writers, and human rights activists who go to great measures and bear risks for the purpose of advocating for human rights (Lawyers for Lawyers, 2014). Currently, Omran is a member of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights. Some commonalities among the six women previously described are their high quality education, their strong belief in the cause they are pursuing, their confidence, and their persistence in fighting for their beliefs. Morayef did not give up on the cause of human rights advocacy in Egypt, despite the dismal situation. Omran continues to shame violators of human rights and to visit prisons and report on deficiencies, despite the government’s severe resentment of those who highlight the government’s human rights violations. Handoussa continues to provide assistance to poor and marginalized communities in Upper Egypt and to promote income generating activities that address the needs of women and men in these communities. Mina fights for physicians’ rights and participates actively in physicians’ syndicates, and is very vocal about the need to improve their working and living conditions so that they can do a better job in public hospitals. Qallini,

164

Laila El Baradei

the Coptic lawyer, continues to call for the rights of the Coptic minorities in Egypt. El Sadda continues to work hard to document Egyptian women’s history and show case their success stories over time. They are all persistent and courageous and provide examples for other women as to what can be done.

Empowering Egyptian Women Three main prerequisites are needed for the empowerment of Egyptian women in the public sphere: education, confidence, and persistence. First and foremost, education is key. The more educated women become, the more able they will be to participate in public service and to take leadership positions. Higher educational attainment would also enable women to participate more actively in elections and in the representation of citizens’ interests in parliament. Higher female education levels have been found to lead to higher employability. Thus, there is a need to reduce the school dropout rate of girls and to improve the quality of education for girls (Abdel Mowla, 2009). The need for more systematic gender disaggregated data is a first step. Further, conditional cash transfers, as well as flexible and unconventional learning modes may be used to increase girls’ preprimary, secondary, and tertiary enrollment rates. Women have to have confidence in their abilities and not allow negative societal or cultural values to hold them back. As seen in the elections study conducted by El Baradei and Wafa (2013), some women do not have sufficient confidence in their abilities, nor in the abilities of other women. This may be one of the main reasons why they do not vote for women candidates for parliament. Women’s confidence in themselves and in other women may be improved in several ways including (1) positive media portrayal of women’s achievements; (2) the systematic incorporation of sports and other activities in schools to build young women’s self-esteem; and (3) the creation of leadership training for young aspiring females.

Conclusion Women’s achievements in the various spheres of life in Egypt have been fraught with difficulty. Amid the evolving political, economic, social, and cultural landscape, women have faced significant challenges in their pursuit of public engagement. However, despite the challenges, there have been success stories that can encourage more women to be persistent in their pursuit of success and their advocacy for equal and full rights as citizens. Closing the gender gap is not going to be an easy task. There are numerous cultural, legal, social, political, and economic hurdles. Persistence in calling for women’s rights is a key prerequisite to success. Through persistence, building women’s confidence, and increasing their educational attainment, there is hope for reducing the gender gap in Egypt.

Women Governing: The Egyptian Perspective

165

Notes 1 2

3

4

Upper Egypt is an administrative and geographical region of Egypt extending south from Cairo to Sudan. The area to the north of this is referred to as “lower Egypt.” The January 25th Revolution in Egypt took place in 2011. It included mass protests that resulted in the eventual overthrow of the 30-year regime of Hosni Mubarak. It was mainly ignited by youth, but women from all walks of life participated and were at the forefront of the protests. Parliamentary elections of 2015 were set up to occur in two rounds in October and December. The first round was to take place for voters in 14 of Egypt’s governorates and the second round was for voters in the remaining 13 governorates. A governorate is an administrative division in Egypt referred to in other countries as either states, provinces, or colonies. Copts represent one of the oldest Christian communities in Egypt. They make up the majority of Christians in Egypt, and belong to the Coptic Church.

References Abdelhamid, D., & El Baradei, L. (2010). Reforming the pay system for government employees in Egypt. International Public Management Review, 11(3), 59–87. Abdel Mowla, S. (2009). Education and economic empowerment of women in Egypt (Working Paper). Cairo: American University in Cairo-Social Research Center. Ahram Online. (2015, October 21). Turnout at 26.5% in Egypt elections. Retrieved 7 January 2017 from http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/164/161509/Egypt/ Egypt-Elections-/Turnout-at--in-Egypt-elections,--independents-secu.aspx. Al-Ahram Weekly. (2009, January 1). “Girl power: first female mayor.” Retrieved 15 January 2017 from http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/archive/2009/928/li1.htm. Al-Ahram Weekly. (2011, June 17). The MP Georgette Qallini: I called for a Women’s Quota seven years ago. Al-Ahram. Retrieved 5 January 2017 from www.ahram.org.eg/ archive/Women-Child/News/84152.aspx (in Arabic). Al-Ahram Weekly. (2013, December 8). Dr. Hoda the secretariat for the political rights and freedoms committee: The constitution is not sufficient to activate freedoms and rights. Al-Ahram. Retrieved 5 January 2017 from www.ahram.org.eg/NewsQ/246741.aspx (in Arabic). Assaad, R. (2015). Women’s participation in paid employment in Egypt is a matter of policy not simply ideology (Policy brief No. 022). Retrieved 17 January 2017 from http://enid.org. eg/Uploads/PDF/PB22_women_employment_assaad.pdf . Barsoum, G. (2010). When there is ‘No Respect’ at work: Job quality issues for women in Egypt’s Private Sector. OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development, 1(1), 67–80. Cairo Post. (2015). 24.7% of Egypt’s women, 36.7 of men are illiterate: health ministry. Retrieved 18 January 2017 from http://thecairopost.youm7.com/news/154325/ news/24-7-of-egypts-women-36-7-of-men-are-illiterate-health-ministry. CCTV-Africa. (2016). Women’s representation in new parliament highest in Egypt’s history. Retrieved 5 February 2017 from http://cctv-africa.com/2016/01/06/womensrepresentation-in-new-parliament-highest-in-egypts-history/.

166

Laila El Baradei

Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR). (2016, February 17). Egyptian women in 2015 parliamentary elections. Egyptian Center forWomen’s Rights. Retrieved 13 February 2017 from http://ecwronline.org/?p=6788. Egyptian Network for Integrated Development (ENID) (2015). Retrieved 1 March 2017 from www.enid.org.eg. El Baradei, L., & Wafa, D. (2013). Women in the second Egyptian parliament post the Arab Spring: Do they think they stand a chance? Journal of International Women’s Studies, 14(3), 42–63. El Shiaty, N. (2014). Egypt’s power women: Outstanding women who gained international recognition for their achievements. AUC Business Review, Spring, 20–21. Gaess, R., & Soriano, E. (2008). Interview: Fatma Khafagy. Middle East Policy, 15(2), 31–39. Lawyers for Lawyers (2014). Egypt L4L speaks to Ragia Omran. Retrieved 25 December 2016 from www.advocatenvooradvocaten.nl/9594/egypt-l4l-speaks-to-ragiaomran/. OECD Development Center. (2016). Social institutions and gender index – Egypt country profile. OECD Development Center. Retrieved 5 February 2017 from www.genderindex. org/sites/default/files/datasheets/EG.pdf . Reda, A. (2016, 4 January). 87 women in Egypt’s 2015 parliament: Not good enough. Retrieved 14 January 2017 from http://en.wataninet.com/politics/parliament/87women-in-egypts-2015-parliament-not-good-enough/15471/. Saber, A. (2014).Women’s political participation. Retrieved 15 February 2017 from https:// kenanaonline.com/users/drsaber/posts/672098 (in Arabic). Saber, D. (2015). The Constitutional Development of Women’s Political Rights in Egypt: A Comparative Study. Cairo: Dal El-Nahda Al-Arabia (in Arabic). Sika, N., & Khodary, Y. (2012). One step forward, two steps back? Egyptian women within the confines of authoritarianism. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 13(5), 91–100. Social Research Center (SRC). (2016). Research on the economic participation of women in Egypt. Social Research Center (SRC). Retrieved 12 January 2017 from www1.aucegypt. edu/src/wsite1/research/resear4.gif. State Information Service (SIS). (2014). Constitution of Egypt. Retrieved 13 January 2017 from www.sis.gov.eg/Newvr/Dustor-en001.pdf. Trew, B. (2013, 1 January). Heba Morayef: A guardian of rights in post-revolutionary Egypt. Ahram Online. Retrieved 20 December 2016 from http://english.ahram.org.eg/ NewsContent/1/0/69246/Egypt/Heba-Morayef-A-guardian-of-rights-in-postrevolutio. aspx. UN Women. (2011). Egyptian women’s charter: Partners in the revolution and in building democratic Egypt. UN Women. Retrieved 15 February 2017 from www.unwomen.org/~/ media/Headquarters/Media/Stories/en/charteregyptianwomenenpdf.pdf. Women and Memory Forum (WMF). (2015). Who is she in Egypt?. WMF. Retrieved from http://whoisshe.wmf.org.eg/ar/expert-profile/%D8%AC%D9%88%D8% B1%D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%AA-%D9%82%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%8A (in Arabic). Wordpress. (2014). Ancient Egyptian history. Accessed 25 September 2017 at http:// ancientegyptianhistory.wordpress.com/tag/men-and-women/. World Bank. (2016). World development indicators: Egypt.World Bank. Retrieved 17 February 2017 from http://data.worldbank.org/country/egypt-arab-republic.

Women Governing: The Egyptian Perspective

167

World Economic Forum (WEF). (2015). Global gender gap report.WEF. Retrieved 12 January 2017 from www3.weforum.org/docs/GGGR2015/cover.pdf . Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership (WGL). (2016). Egypt country profile. Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership. Retrieved 3 March 2017 from www.guide2womenleaders. com/Egypt.htm (in Arabic).

11 WOMEN GOVERNING IN CHINA Not Yet Holding Up Half the Sky Marilyn Marks Rubin and Wenxuan Yu

Mao Tse Tung, the founding father of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), is often quoted as proclaiming that women “hold up half the sky.” This vision stands in stark contrast to the historic image of women in China with the “binding of feet,” perhaps the most renowned symbol of their subservient status. Notwithstanding the many criticisms of his regime, Mao is generally credited with the improvement in the status of China’s women while he was President of the PRC from 1949 until his death in 1976 (Tamura, Menton, Lush, & Tsui, 1997). How does Mao’s vision of gender equality apply in modern day China? Do women hold up half the sky? To fully answer these questions would require an assessment of women’s status across China’s legal, social, economic, cultural and political domains – an effort beyond the scope of this chapter.We focus, instead, on women in China’s political domain encompassing its elected officials and government employees. Not only is this focus consistent with the book’s “women’s governing” theme, but the extent of women’s participation and rights in the political sphere are key indicators of their progress in achieving equality with men (Moghadam & Senftova, 2005). Applying these metrics to women in China, we find that women do not yet hold up half the political sky; in fact, they do not yet hold up one-quadrant of the sky despite numerous proactive laws and policies adopted by the government to promote gender equality. We show that women in China continue to be underrepresented relative to men in national and subnational government political bodies as well as in high-level public service jobs relative to women in other countries. Knowledge of China’s past, especially the dominance of Confucian ideology,1 is key to understanding women governing in China today. The chapter thus begins with a brief overview of the role of women in Chinese history to set the context for their current status. The second section describes the institutional

Women Governing in China

169

framework to promote gender equality that has evolved since 1949 when the Communist Party of China (CPC) assumed control of the country. In the third section, we use data from official PRC published statistics and from Chinese media to show that gender equality in the nation’s political domain has yet to be achieved. Then we discuss the disconnect between the strong institutional framework for women’s political participation and the reality of women in China’s political domain. We conclude with some observations on the future for women’s political participation in China.

A Brief History of Women’s Status in China In 221 BCE, ending centuries of rivalry among independent principalities, China was unified under the Qin dynasty, the country’s first imperial dynasty,2 that ruled from 221 to 207 BCE. In the Qin dynasty, women “(just like in most ancient cultures) . . . stayed home and did housework . . . obeying the . . . male in the house” (Song, 2013, p. 1).Women’s subservient role was solidified during the Han dynasty (202 BCE–CE 220) when Confucianism became the prevailing state ideology. Confucius, writing in the 5th century BCE, and his followers sought order in society and in the family. All family members were subordinate to the eldest male just as all loyal subjects were subservient to the Celestial Emperor. After Confucianism was adopted by the Han dynasty, the patriarchal structure of the family and society would provide the justification for the subjugation of women in China for the next two millennia even when conflicting non-Confucian philosophical schools predominated.3 Beginning with the Qin and Han dynasties, China was ruled by centralized imperial dynasties interspersed with periods of warlord control and other forms of governance until the successful 1911 revolt against the Qing dynasty – the country’s last imperial dynasty. The subordinate status of women based on Confucian hierarchical precepts was reinforced by prescriptions in guides such as those written by Ban Zhao, a female Confucian scholar during the Han dynasty. In her Book of Women’s Indoctrination, for example, Ban Zhao wrote “Yang (male) and Yin (female) are opposites, just as men and women are distinctly different. The former should be macho, the latter gentle. A man should strive to be masculine and strong, a woman feminine and weak” (Wong, 1995, p. 347). Ban Zhao’s writings presaged the subservient role of Chinese women for the next two millennia, but not all women would fit her prescribed mold. For instance, there were several empresses who “when an aging emperor became weak or impotent or when the emperor was very young because the father emperor died early . . . would hold court from behind a screen or take charge of governance openly” (Wang, 2004, p. 93). One woman, Wu Zetian (625–705), actually became emperor during the Tang dynasty (618–907). From her days as monarch until the present time, opinions have differed as to whether Wu was a successful ruler who was able to introduce

170

Marilyn Marks Rubin and Wenxuan Yu

governmental reforms or an unscrupulous schemer willing to kill her own relatives to gain power.4 Wu, herself, was aware of these conflicting opinions. On her deathbed, she ordered that “nothing be inscribed on her tombstone so that future generations would be free to judge whether she had been an evil woman or someone who had contributed greatly to the development of the Tang dynasty” (Tao, 2004, p. xxii). More than a few other women became well-known throughout Chinese history primarily as artists and poets.5 It was, however, not until the final decades of the Qing dynasty at the end of the 19th century that the overall status of women in China began to improve. This change was primarily brought about by the opening of China to western influence after its long period of isolation (Zhou, 2003) and the introduction of formal education for women. Following China’s defeat in a series of military confrontations with western powers, so-called “treaty ports” were opened to European, American and Japanese traders. Foreign residence and trade were permitted, and foreigners, especially Christian missionaries, were allowed to travel around China spreading western ideas as they moved about. Schools for girls began to appear in 1842, first sponsored by missionaries and later by the Chinese themselves (Wong, 1995). In all of China’s history, prior to the establishment of these schools, formal education outside the home had been available only to males. With few exceptions6 females had been informally educated at home primarily for domestic chores such as cooking and sewing (Wong, 1995). After all, as spelled out by the Han dynasty’s Ban Zhao, “As far as knowledge goes, a woman need not be extraordinarily intelligent” (Wong, 1995, p. 347). This “ignorance as virtue view of women was at its apex at the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) when almost all learned and gifted women were treated as though they were loose-living” (Wong, 1995, p. 354). Increasing levels of education brought more women into the public space. Many were involved in the Revolution of 1911 that overthrew the Qing dynasty – China’s last imperial dynasty (also known as the Manchu dynasty). While women regarded themselves as integral to the success of the Revolution, they were also fighting for gender equality. However, most men, including leaders of the Revolution, expected women to return to their subservient roles once the Revolution was over (Zhou, 2003). Ironically, the last of China’s imperial dynasties was under the control of a woman, Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi (known as Cixi), who ruled from behind the throne and never took supreme power in her own name. Cixi has been seen by many historians as the “wicked witch of the east” (Fiegl, 2008) whose actions contributed to the downfall of dynastic rule in China. But she has also been seen as one of the most powerful and politically astute woman in China’s history (Chang, 2013).

Women in Post-Revolutionary China In 1912, the Republic of China was established, ending two millennia of imperial dynastic rule. Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the Revolution, was selected to serve as

Women Governing in China

171

the newly constituted nation’s Provisional President but was ousted in less than two months reflecting the turmoil among warring post-revolutionary factions. Sun’s successor,Yuan Shikai, ruled until his death in 1916. A decade of chaos and warlordism followed Yuan’s death with regional military leaders in control of large areas of the country (Clubb, 1978). In the midst of the general chaos, what is known as the “May 4th Movement” of 1919 took place. On that date, there was a mass demonstration in Beijing initiated by college students protesting against what they saw to be the Chinese government’s weak response to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I.7 The May 4th Movement, often seen as setting the stage for the start of the CPC, catalyzed efforts to emancipate Chinese women (Chow, 1960). However, while the May 4th Movement increased efforts to emancipate China’s women, it did not fundamentally change their status in society. What began as the May 4th Movement in 1919 continued into the early 1920s as did China’s tumultuous political situation in which the country was divided in a power struggle between the newly formed CPC and Sun Yat-sen’s party, the Kuomintang (KMT). The KMT would be victorious and would rule over China until 1949. Song Ching-ling, Sun’s Yat-sen’s second wife and a leading figure in the 1911 Revolution, was appointed head of the Women’s Department of the Party in the new KMT government. The KMT enacted laws giving women legal rights in several areas including marriage, education and property ownership. But, even with the creation of the Women’s Department of the Party and other initiatives to improve the status of women, during its years in power (1928–1949) the KMT did not fundamentally change China’s patriarchal system and had limited success in improving the status of Chinese women (Zhou, 2003). Following another tumultuous period in Chinese history, the Kuomintang lost the leadership of the nation to the CPC and migrated to Taiwan in 1949 where it remains the major political party. Interestingly,Taiwan elected its first female president in early 2016. Regarding Song Ching-ling, she was the first spouse of a political leader anywhere in the world to be seen as “First Lady” (Chang, 1986). In the decades after Sun’s death, Song would become increasingly disillusioned with the KMT’s leadership and would remain on the Chinese mainland after the country’s takeover by the CPC. Song would also become actively involved in the new government. She was honorary President of the All-China Women’s Federation, was named honorary Chairman of the PRC shortly before her death in 1981 and is often referred to as the “mother of modern China” (Chang, 1986).

The PRC: The Institutional Framework for Gender Equality In 1949, the CPC took control of the nation’s government, renaming the country the People’s Republic of China (PRC). From its very beginnings in the early 20th century, the CPC made efforts to promote gender equality as illustrated by

172

Marilyn Marks Rubin and Wenxuan Yu

the establishment of a special women’s department at its Second Party Congress in 1922. Among the department’s objectives were two giving women the right to vote and to hold office. Twenty-five years later, the CPC’s objective to foster gender equality was reflected in the Party’s actions even before it formally took over the political leadership of China in October 1949. What is now called the All-China Woman’s Federation (ACWF) was established in April 1949, preceding the founding of the PRC by six months.8 Since its creation, the ACWF has played an important role in promoting gender equality in several ways including recommending female candidates for leadership positions in government and implementing projects to encourage women’s political participation. In September 1949, a month before the founding of the PRC, the Common Program,9 which served as the country’s provisional constitution until 1954, was adopted at the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). The CPPCC, discussed in the next section of this chapter, is an entity comprised of delegates from the CPC, other political parties, civil society organizations and representatives of China’s professional, business and other sectors. The 69 women at the First Plenary Session accounted for 10.4 percent of all participants (Wang, 2004). Article 6 of the Program adopted by the CPPCC stipulated that the PRC “shall abolish the feudal system which holds women in bondage” and guarantee equal rights for women in all aspects of life (Fordham University, 2016, p. 1). The PRC’s 1954 Constitution again stated that the rights of women were to be equal with those of men. Article 86 reiterated stipulations in the 1953 election law that “women have equal rights with men to vote and stand for election” (PRC, 1954), and Article 96 stated that “Women in the People’s Republic of China enjoy equal rights with men in all spheres of political, economic, cultural, social and family life” (PRC, 1954). The 1982 Constitution significantly advanced the legal framework for women’s political rights. Chapter 2, Article 48 stated that: “The state protects the rights and interests of women, applies the principle of equal pay for equal work for men and women alike, and trains and selects cadres from among women” (HKHRM, n.d.).10 Subsequent laws and regulations continued the efforts of the PRC to promote gender equity. For example, Article 2 of the 1992 Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women adopted at the Seventh National People’s Congress declared that “The State shall guarantee that women enjoy equal rights with men relating to their persons” (PRC, 1992). In 1995, the Program for China Women’s Development (1995–2000),11 the country’s first program specifically targeted at gender equality, was adopted. Among its several objectives were to improve the participation of women in the decision-making and management of state and social affairs and to increase the representation of women in government leadership positions. That same year, China was host to the United Nations 4th Conference on Women, often seen as

Women Governing in China

173

the turning point for women’s progress in China (Guo & Zhao, 2009) and globally. The conference unanimously adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a roadmap for gender equality.The conference’s theme of gender equality suggested that women and men would be equally represented in government power structures. In his opening address to the conference, while not specifically committing to a 50-50 gender apportionment in the PRC power structure, China’s then President Jiang Zemin affirmed that China was opposed to discrimination of any kind against women. He stated that China “has taken concrete steps to maintain and protect the equal status and rights of women in the country’s political, economic and social life” (UNDP, 1995). In 2000, five years after the UN Conference and Jiang’s affirmation of China’s goal to promote gender equality, the PRC enacted the National Program for Women’s Development in China, 2001–2010 (the Program). Since 2000, China has included the Program in each of its five-year National Economic and Social Development Plans.12 For example, the Outline of the 12th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China (2011–2015) adopted in 2011, specifies that governments at all levels are required to incorporate the Program for Women’s Development in five areas: national and local rules, regulations and policies; master plans and special programs for economic and social development; government budgets at various levels; development projects that bring real benefits to the people; and government work agenda and responsibility assessment. Given the importance of China’s Five-Year Plans in setting government priorities and performance targets, the specific inclusion of a woman’s program is a strong indication of government’s continuing goal to promote gender equality. The PRC has also established the Evaluation and Reporting System for managing and monitoring progress in women’s political participation. In addition, it has integrated performance indicators related to gender equity and women’s political participation in the “Targets and Responsibilities System” to track the performance of party and government leaders and agency heads. Local governments are required to report their progress in implementing the program to upper level governments.

Women’s Political Participation in China: The Reality Despite the fact that women’s rights have been deeply entrenched in the PRC’s Constitution and other laws since its assumption of power in 1949, gender equality in the nation’s political domain has yet to be achieved. Because the CPC “is China’s dominant political institution, exercising leadership over the entire political system” (Lawrence, 2013, p. 2), the section begins with a brief description of the CPC and female representation in the Party’s political bodies. This is followed by a discussion of women’s participation in the PRC’s formal government structure.

174

Marilyn Marks Rubin and Wenxuan Yu

Women’s Participation in the Communist Party of China The Constitution of the CPC, which is separate from the Constitution of the PRC’s formal government, states that “the Party commands the overall situation and coordinates the efforts of all quarters, and the Party must play the role as the core of leadership among all other organizations at corresponding levels” (Lawrence, 2013, p. 2). There are more than 85 million members of the CPC, representing about 6 percent of China’s 1.35 billion people (Lawrence, 2013). In 2014, women accounted for 24.7 percent of the Party’s membership, an increase of 10 percentage points over their 1990 representation of 14.5 percent (Xinhua, 2014). The CPC has a pyramid type of structure whose base is comprised of locallevel party organizations across the PRC. At the top of the pyramid is the National CPC Congress that meets once every five years bringing together more than 2,000 delegates from local congresses held throughout the country. At the 18th Congress in 2012, of the 2,270 delegates, 521 (23 percent) were women, somewhat less than their overall 24.7 percent representation in the CPC (CPC, 2012). Women’s representation declines moving up through the next levels of the Party’s structure. The primary function of the National CPC Congress is to select a Central Committee of about 200 full members and 150 “alternate members.” As shown in Figure 11.1, at the latest convening of the Central Committee in 2012, of the 205 members, 10 (4.9 percent) were women. This is half the 10.3 percent of the Central Committee in 1973 when there were 20 females out of 195 members (PRC National Bureau of Statistics, 2012). 12.0% 10.3% 10.0% 8.0%

7.6%

7.0%

6.3%

6.4%

5.7%

6.0%

4.9%

4.0%

4.1%

5.2%

4.1%

2.5%

2.0%

FIGURE 11.1

2) 01

7) 18

th

(2

00

2) 17

th

(2

00

7) 16

th

(2

99

2) 15

th

(1

99

7) 14

th

(1

98

2) (1 th 13

12

th

(1

98

7) 97

3) th 11

th 10

(1

97

9)

(1

96 (1 h

9t

8t

h

(1

95

6)

0.0%

Gender Representation in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, 1956–2012

Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China, Women and Men in Society in China: Facts and Data (2012), p. 97.

Women Governing in China

175

One of the primary functions of the Central Committee is to select the 25 people who will serve on the Political Bureau (Politburo), the center of power in the CPC. In 42 of the 87 years since its creation in 1927, no women have been members of the Politburo. Currently, of the Politburo’s 25 members, two are women: Sun Chunlan and Liu Yandong, both among China’s most prominent politicians. Sun was CPC Secretary of Fujian Province and later of Tianjin, one of China’s four direct-controlled municipalities.13 Sun’s position in Fujian made her just the second woman to serve as provincial-level party chief since the founding of the PRC in 1949 (Brookings, 2016a). Liu, recently named Vice Premier of the PRC, was previously State Councilor, a position immediately below that of the Vice-Premiers (Brookings, 2016b). The only other time that there has been more than one woman on the Politburo was in 1969 when Jiang Qing, the wife of Party Chairman Mao Zedong, and Ye Qun, wife of Vice Chairman Lin Biao, were members. Power in the Politburo is centralized in its Standing Committee whose membership can range from seven to nine people. Currently membership stands at seven. No woman has ever served on the Politburo’s Standing Committee, the most powerful political body in the PRC whose decisions, de facto, have the force of law. There has, however, been some recent speculation that Sun Chunlan could be the first woman to become a member of the Committee (Diplomat, 2015). The supremacy and dominance of the CPC in China is largely manifested in its control by the Organization Department of the Party regarding hiring and promoting personnel in “the three state-controlled systems: the civil service, state-owned enterprises, and government-affiliated social organizations such as universities or community programs” (Li, E.X., 2013). Due to the control of the CPC over personnel decisions, Party members are more likely to be promoted and to occupy leadership positions in the formal government and state-owned enterprises.

Women’s Participation in the Formal Government of the PRC The formal legal structure of the government is set forth in chapter 3 of China’s 1982 Constitution entitled Structure of the State. It describes the country’s unicameral legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), as “the highest organ of state power” (HKHRM, n.d.).The NPC’s role includes “supervising” the work of four political bodies: The State Council, The State Central Military Commission, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.

The National People’s Congress According to Articles 57 and 58 of the 1982 PRC constitution, “The National People’s Congress and its Standing Committee exercise the legislative power of the State” (HKHRM, n.d.). The approximately 3,000 delegates to the Congress

176

Marilyn Marks Rubin and Wenxuan Yu

are elected for five-year terms via a multi-tiered representative system starting with provincial people’s assemblies and moving through a series of tiers to the local people’s assemblies that are directly elected by the people. The NPC meets for about two weeks each year to review and approve new laws, policy directions, the budget and major personnel changes. In practice, the NPC and People’s Congresses at every level of government are controlled by the CPC and thus have only limited control over the institutions officially under their supervision. As depicted in Figure 11.2, in 2013 at the 12th NPC, women accounted for 699 (23.4 percent) of the 2,987 delegates. This was an increase of two percentage points over their 21.3 percent representation at the 11th Congress. The previous peak of female representation in the NPC of 22.6 percent was reached in 1975. This timing is not surprising since “the 1970s became the most remarkable era for women’s political participation in contemporary China” (Guo & Zhao, 2009, p. 54). Because the NPC meets just once a year, most duties and responsibilities are vested in its Standing Committee, a permanent body of the NPC whose members are “elected” from among the NPC delegates for five years – the same term as all NPC delegates. At the most recent meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th NPC that took place in 2013, of the 175 members 27 (15.4 percent) were women, eight percentage points below their representation on the NPC as a whole. Furthermore, female representation at the 12th Standing Committee meeting was a decrease of 1.2 percentage points from their representation at the 11th Standing Committee held in 2008 (Xinhua, 2008, 2013).

25% 22.6%

21.8% 21.3% 21.2% 21.2% 21.3% 21% 23.4% 20.2%

20% 17.8%

15% 12%

12.2%

10%

5%

(1 95 9) (1 96 4) 4t h (1 97 5) 5t h (1 97 8) 6t h (1 98 3) 7t h (1 98 8) 8t h (1 99 3) 9t h (1 99 10 8) th (2 00 11 3) th (2 00 12 8) th (2 01 3)

FIGURE 11.2

3r d

2n d

1s t(

19 54 )

0%

Gender Representation: National People’s Congress, 1954–2013

Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China, China Statistical Yearbook 2015.

Women Governing in China

177

The State Council Article 85 of the 1982 PRC Constitution describes the State Council as “the highest organ of state administration” (HKHRM, n.d.). It oversees the state bureaucracy and manages day-to-day administration of the country. The Council is chaired by a Premier who is nominated by the President of the PRC and approved by the NPC.The current State Council was formed in 2013. Of its 35 members, two are women, one less than the three at the previous Council established in 2003 (PRC State Council, 2015). As with women in the CPC, their representation declines significantly moving up through the levels of the formal government structure.

Additional Governmental Entities The Supreme People’s Court is the highest court in the PRC judicial system. In the current Court, two of the 16 court leaders are women (PRC Supreme People’s Court, 2016). An increasing number of women are becoming judges throughout China’s judiciary system. In 2013, 28.8 percent of judges were women, an increase of 12 percentage points over 1995 (PRC State Council Information Office, 2015). The Supreme People’s Procuratorate is the highest authority at the national level responsible for both prosecution and investigation in the PRC. No woman has ever been head of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. Neither has a woman ever been chairperson, vice chairperson or a member of the Central Military Commission – China’s supreme military authority that commands and controls the People’s Liberation Army. Its chairperson, elected by the NPC Congress, is the commander-in-chief of China’s armed forces. Although the PRC constitution does not explicitly call for “Party leadership of the legislature, the State Council, the courts, and the prosecutor’s office . . . [it] . . . is implied. In practice, the Party nominates the leaders of all four bodies and operates Party committees within each of them” (Lawrence, 2013, p. 2).

Other Institutions in the PRC Governmental System The other two institutions in the PRC governmental system are the eight socalled “democratic parties” and the CPPCC. Most of the democratic parties were established before the Communists came to power. They pledge loyalty to the CPC and are represented on the CPPCC.The CPPCC, established in 1949 by the Communist Party, is not a constitutionally designated part of the legal structure of the Chinese government. It is, however, referred to in the preamble to the PRC 1982 Constitution as: [a] broadly representative organization of the united front, which has played a significant historical role and will continue to do so in the political and social life of the country, in promoting friendship with the people of other countries and in the struggle for socialism. (HKHRM, n.d.)

Marilyn Marks Rubin and Wenxuan Yu

20.0% 18.0% 16.0% 14.0% 12.0% 10.0% 8.0% 6.0% 4.0% 2.0% 0.0%

17.7% 17.8% 16.8% 14.7%

14.5%

15.5%

9.2%

8.9% 8.1%

FIGURE 11.3

3) 01

8) h 12 t

(2

00

3)

(2 h

th 10

11 t

00

8)

(2

99

3) h 9t

(1

99

8) h 8t

(1

98

3) h 7t

(1

98

8) h 6t

(1

97

5) h 5t

(1

97

4) h 4t

(1

96

9) (1 d

d

(1

19

95

54

)

6.1%

2n

1s t(

13.8%

11.4%

3r

178

Gender Representation in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, 1954–2013

Source: Before 2008, National Bureau of Statistics of China, Women and Men in Society in China: Facts and Data (2012); 2012 data, National Bureau of Statistics of China, China Statistical Yearbook 2015.

Delegates to the CPPCC include, but are not limited to, representatives from the Communist Party and the eight democratic parties mentioned earlier, representatives from the nation’s autonomous regions14 and representatives from China’s civil society organizations. Several luminaries, such as world renown movie actor Jackie Chan, are delegates to the CPPCC as are top Chinese executives whose companies are listed on the Shanghai and other stock exchanges. The CPPCC generally holds its annual meeting in conjunction with the annual sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC) of the CPC. As shown in Figure 11.3, in 2012 at the 12th CPPCC, the 398 women in attendance accounted for 17.8 percent of the 2,237 delegates, the highest proportion since the first conference held in 1954 when women represented 6.1 percent of all delegates. This increase in female representation is, however, on an entity that, in theory, is the political advisory body to the PRC government but whose real impact is questionable. In a report prepared for the European Union, Cabestan writes: “Although every year CPPCC members make thousands of proposals to the governments, their impact is minimal” and no criticisms from members concerning specific policies or decisions have “challenged the system” (Cabestan, 2011, p. 2).

Women’s Participation in Subnational Governments The government of the PRC is a unitary system consisting of the central government and five levels below the central government. They are: provinces, prefectures,15 counties, townships and villages. The provincial level encompasses 22 provinces,16 five autonomous regions, four municipalities under the direct control of the central government (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing) and two Special Administrative Regions (Hong Kong and Macau).17 Of the 22

Women Governing in China

179

provinces, just one has a female governor. Of the four municipalities under the direct control of the central government, all mayors are male. In the five autonomous regions, only the Chairman of Ningxia is female. At the provincial level, of 308 high-level government officials 29 (9.4 percent) are female (Ma & Li, 2015). Although similar data are not readily available for local governments in China, a 2011 survey of employees in the government of Hangzhou City, the capital of Zhejiang Province, provides an illustration of the distribution by gender at different “administrative ranks” in local government (Guo, 2013). In China, public employees can attain five ranks.They are from the highest to the lowest: Minister/ Provincial governor (Sheng/Bu); Bureau Director/Deputy Director (Ting/ Fu Ting); Division Head/Deputy Division Head (Chu/Fu Chu); Section Head/ Deputy Section Head (Ke/Fu Ke); and Employee level (Ke Yuan). A mayor of a prefecture is generally at the level of Deputy director (Ting). Ranks Chu and Fu Ting and above are considered leadership position in local governments. Table 11.1 depicts the gender disparity in leadership positions in 2011 in Hangzhou City. Of all female government employees, 7.9 percent were at the Chu level compared with 20 percent of male officials; 7.4 percent of women were at the Fu Ting rank and above, compared with 18 percent of male employees. People holding Chu and Ting positions meet the definition of what are called “public sector leaders” in the EY Worldwide Index of Woman as Public Sector leaders discussed in Chapter 6 of this book. In the Index, public sector leaders are defined “as non-elected senior executives across federal or national governments or the executive ranks of the core civil service in central governments” (EY, 2015) in the 19 countries who are members of what is called the Group of Twenty (also known as the G20), an organization of governments from the world’s 20 major economies.18 As shown in the Index, women in China are under-represented in senior government positions as well as elected legislative positions and ministerial positions, ranking 16th, 11th and 16th, respectively, among the G20 countries. Comparisons among countries should, however, be made with caution due to differences among them as to how public service leaders are defined. It should also be noted that the rankings and the numbers underlying them change year on year.

TABLE 11.1 Gender and Administrative Ranks in Hangzhou

City, 2011 Administrative Ranks

Female %

Male %

Ke below Ke (including Deputy Ke) Deputy Chu Chu Deputy Ting and above Total

19 38 28 8 7 100

8 27 27 20 18 100

Source: Guo (2013).

180

Marilyn Marks Rubin and Wenxuan Yu

China’s Gender Equality Laws and Women’s Political Participation: The Disconnect Low political participation rates are not unique to Chinese women. Even in Canada, the country that stands first among major economic powers in the proportion of women in public sector leadership positions, parity with men has not yet been attained. Several factors contribute to the low political participation of women worldwide. For example, “Gender stereotypes can be a disadvantage to women in management roles around the world, but this is especially true in China, Japan and Korea . . . ‘which share a male-dominant Confucian culture’” (EY, 2015, p. 11). In China, traditional gender stereotypes and biases have a history of more than two millennia that continues today.These include, for example, the belief that “males are superior to females, men are bread earners and women are homemakers, and women should not interfere with politics” (Yu & Shuo, 2010). A 2010 survey conducted by the ACWF and China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that “61.6% of men and 54.6% of women agree that the field for men is in public and the domain for women is within household – respectively increases of 7.7 and 4.4 percentage points compared with the year 2000” (ACWF, 2011, p. 3). In the US, several studies conducted in the later decades of the 20th century found that perceptions of women lacking attributes linked to success such as selfconfidence, ambition and leadership ability were widely shared by men and women.19 These perceptions have been slowly losing ground in the US and other western countries, most certainly among women. In China, however, re-enforced by traditional Confucian ideology and culture, they are still widely accepted, even among female government officials (Cai, 2002, Zhang & Jiang, 2007). Some studies have found because of the perceptions that women are inferior to men and that women’s roles are ancillary to those of men, many women in leadership positions in China have low motivation and morale (Guo, 2013; C. Li, 2010; Yuan & Meng, 2004).

Dual Responsibilities of Women After the establishment of the PRC and under the strong influence of Mao Tse Tung, a wide range of policies and programs were put in place to increase women’s education level and labor force participation. While both significantly improved the social and economic status of women, they also resulted in women having to cope with the dual roles and pressures coming from family and the workplace. Similar to other countries but more so due to the enduring Confucian influence, Chinese women are seen as responsible for housework and childcare. They are also expected to work full-time to augment family income. Several surveys have shown that family responsibilities are one of the most significant barriers for women’s career development in government in China (Guo, 2013; Li, N., 2013; Yuan & Meng, 2004). In fact, some surveys have found that before women have children “female cadres are promoted at nearly the same rate as men.

Women Governing in China

181

But when women reach the peak of their childbearing years around age thirty, the rate at which they are promoted falls far behind that of equally qualified men” (Wang, 2004, p. 103).

Government Policy Design and Implementation Although the Chinese government has implemented numerous programs, policies and administrative procedures to promote women’s political participation, many are ambiguous and/or ill-defined. Language such as “an appropriate number of women” and “women’s participation should be gradually increased” has been too vague to substantially advance women’s representation in governmental bodies in China (Guo & Zhao, 2009). A study by the United Nations entitled Who Answers to Women: Gender and Accountability (UNIFEM, 2008) suggests that special measures are the way to increase women’s political participation. These measures include, for example, quotas to bring more women into party leadership positions. China already has quotas in place to promote women’s political participation, but the intent of the law has not been achieved. Quotas mandating that “at least one woman or more” have often been interpreted as “only one woman” (Guo, 2013; Zeng, 2014). Furthermore, these quotas provide a low bar and recommendations have been made that “there should be rules for the systematic increase of current gender quotas” (Wang, 2004, p. 104). Progress in women’s political participation at all levels of government is monitored by the previously mentioned All-China Women’s Federation and by the Organization Department of the CPC, the department of the Secretariat of the Party’s Central Committee responsible for employee recruitment. The government is required to report the progress annually. But, unsatisfactory performance in increasing women’s political participation or failure to meet policy targets are rarely punished and do not affect the promotion of government officials in charge. Compounded by the ambiguity of policy goals and language, many laws, programs and policies to increase women’s political participation are largely symbolic and produce minimal pressure on the male-dominated party-state (Guo & Zhao, 2009; Zeng, 2014). The legal retirement age for civil servants also has negative effects on women’s political participation. Currently, according to China’s “Civil Servant Law,” the retirement age for males is 60; for females it is 55. In practice, many female civil servants retire earlier than 55 years of age. Differential retirement ages constrain women’s civil service career prospects, leading to low morale and low expectations among female public officials (Guo, 2013).

The Future for Women Governing in China Wang writes “there is a positive correlation between a woman’s level of education and her political participation” (Wang, 2004, p. 102). Advances in education for

182

Marilyn Marks Rubin and Wenxuan Yu

Chinese women should thus bode well for increasing their political participation. According to the latest information issued by the PRC State Council Information Office (2015), in 2013 the illiteracy rate for females of 15 years of age stood at 6.7 percent, down 17.4 percentage points from 1995.The average number of years of schooling for females ages six and over was 8.4 years in 2010, an increase of 1.3 years over 2000. The 2010 level places China in the category of countries labeled by the United Nations as “high human development,” the second of four levels in their Human Development Index (United Nations, 2015). According to 2015 State Council data, in 2014 women accounted for 52.1 percent of China’s undergraduate students, 51.6 percent of its postgraduate (master’s degree) students and 36.9 percent of its students studying for PhD degrees. In 1947, two years before the PRC took power, female students accounted for 17.8 percent of all students enrolled in higher education institutions (Ma, 2004). Women are also increasing their enrollment in Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) programs across China.While no data are available on the exact number of women enrolled in China’s more than 225 MPA programs, 54 percent of institutions responding to an email survey we conducted in spring 2015 reported that more than half of their students were female.20 Since a primary objective of MPA programs worldwide is to provide skills to students to prepare them for leadership roles in public service, increasing female enrollment in these programs again would seem to auger well for China’s women. The evolving free market economic system in China should also have a positive effect on women including their political engagement. Guo and Zhao observe: As women’s awareness of individual rights develops, the granting of political rights becomes inevitable as it serves as an extension of their material interests under the free market system. In addition, the open-door policy has accelerated the alignment of Chinese women’s pursuit of equal opportunity and favorable gender policy with international norms. (Guo & Zhao, 2009, p. 51) However, while job opportunities for women have increased as China’s economy has evolved, so too have gender disparities in income and job security, especially for women living in urban areas (Wang, 2004). But, it is more likely that they will become politically involved than women living in rural areas where the agricultural economy still predominates and women can account for up to 80 percent of the workforce. The many hours rural women spend on farm and domestic work are major impediments to their political participation (Wang, 2004).

Conclusion Understanding China’s past and the role that Confucian ideology has had across its political domain is key to understanding the low profile of women governing in present day China. Throughout 2,000 years of imperial dynastic rule, women

Women Governing in China

183

assumed a subordinate position to men within the Confucian structure of society. It was not until the decades leading up to China’s 1911 Revolution ending imperial dynastic rule that women would begin to slowly emerge from male dominance. And, it was not until the CPC came into power in 1949 that there would be an institutional framework put in place to improve women’s position in China’s economic, social and political domains. Today, gender equality is embedded in the PRC constitution and there are myriad other laws and regulations to promote equal treatment of men and women.They are, however, not reflected in the reality of China’s political domain. Women are under-represented or non-existent in the ruling bodies of the CPC, in the nation’s formal governmental structures and in non-elected public sector leadership positions. The ambiguity and/or ill-defined language in many of China’s gender equality laws is one explanation for the unequal treatment of women in the political sphere as are the low quotas set for women’s participation. Other explanations include gender stereotypes that are disadvantageous to women and the dual pressures coming from family and the workplace that constrain women’s political participation and career development in both the private and public sectors. Gender stereotyping and the dual pressures of family and workplace also help to explain the low political participation of women worldwide. But few countries have lived under more than two millennia of Confucian ideology and its subservient treatment of women. In fact, in Japan and South Korea, two other countries with a strong history of Confucian influence, women’s political participation is below that of China. In 2014, the three countries ranked 17th (China), 18th (South Korea)21 and 19th (Japan) among G20 countries in their proportion of women as public sector leaders (EY, 2015). In China, during the early decades following the CPC takeover of the nation’s government, Confucianism was considered to be “the ideology of the feudal” that needed to be eliminated and “the public ideology of the People’s Republic . . . abandoned Confucian teachings” (Berling, 1996). But Confucianism never really disappeared, it just went underground, and, in recent years, it has been regaining its role as the “core cultural value” of the nation (Lam, 2008). As a new generation of women comes of age in China, a key question is to what degree will the resurgence of the Confucian ideology influence political participation as they become more educated and the country continues its move toward a more open and market driven economy. And, perhaps more important, to what extent will the PRC increase efforts to enforce its gender equality laws. Only time will tell.

Notes 1 Confucianism is a philosophical school based on teachings of Confucius contained in The Analects, a collection of sayings and ideas attributed to him and his contemporaries and believed to have been written by his disciples. 2 There were earlier dynasties in China but the Qin dynasty was the first in which there was an emperor of a unified country explaining the sobriquet “imperial dynasty.”

184

Marilyn Marks Rubin and Wenxuan Yu

3 Other philosophical schools that have predominated in China at different points in its history include, for example, Legalism which emphasizes law, or a set of codes, to govern the nation. It is a philosophy in which people are seen to be self-serving and are not expected to behave in a moral way. This contrasts with Confucianism with its emphasis on familial love and people’s responsibilities for each another. 4 See, for example, two books on Wu reviewed by Howard Levy (1958): The Empress Wu by C. P. Fitzgerald and Lady Wu: A True Story by Lin Yutang. 5 See, for example, Women Writers of Traditional China: An Anthology of Poetry and Criticism by Chang, Sun and Kwong (1999) and Views From Jade Terrace: Chinese Women Artists, 1300–1912 by Weidner, Laing, Lo, Chu, and Robinson (1988). 6 Throughout China’s history there were women, primarily from elite families, who were taught how to read and write at home. 7 In 1898, Germany had acquired the use of Jiaozhou Bay, on the southern coast of the Shandong Peninsula, and the right to construct a naval base at Qindao in 1898. The Versailles Treaty transferred German concessions in Shandong Province, the birthplace of Confucius, to Japan instead of restoring Chinese sovereignty as had been expected. In 1929, sovereignty over Shandong Province was returned to China. 8 From 1949 until 1957, the All-China Women’s Federation was known as the All-China Democratic Women’s Federation. The organization’s name was changed in 1957. 9 Depending on the translation, the Common Program is sometimes referred to as the Common Principles. 10 A cadre is “any person in a position of authority . . . The term encompasses officials from the very highest leaders to the lowest ranking and includes people in leadership positions in all types of institutions and settings, not just political” (Joseph, 2014, p. 495). 11 Based on the translation, Program is sometimes referred to as Outline. 12 Every five years since 1953, the PRC has issued a new Plan (referred to as the five-year plan) that provides a roadmap for the country’s economic and social development over a five-year period. 13 Currently, China has four municipalities that are under the direct control of the PRC State Council instead of under control of a province. The four are: Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjing and Chongqing. 14 China has five autonomous regions: Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia,Tibet (Xizang) and Xinjiang. These are areas where a high proportion of the population is classified as “minorities” by the PRC. 15 Prefectures are administrative divisions of China’s government. 16 PRC sources list 23 provinces including Taiwan. 17 China currently has two Special Administrative Regions (SARs), Hong Kong and Macau, which, at one time, were British and Portuguese colonies, respectively.The two regions are “special” in that they are managed under the PRC principle of “One China, Two Systems.” The two SARs are largely independent from the PRC and have their own governments, multi-party legislatures, legal systems and authorities. 18 The G20 is made up of the finance ministers and central bank governors of 19 countries plus a representative of the European Union. The countries are: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK and the US. 19 See, for example, Brenner, Tomkiewicz and Schein (1989); Ezell, Odewahn and Sherman (1980); Schein (1973); and Naff (1994). 20 Although survey participants were not selected randomly, given the geographic and size range of the schools that responded as well as anecdotal information we have collected, there is no reason to believe that data from the full population of MPA programs would differ substantially from the sample. 21 From 2013–2017, South Korea had its first female president, Park Geun-hye. She was the first woman to be elected head of state of an East Asian country.

Women Governing in China

185

References ACWF (All-China’s Women’s Federation). (2011). Report on major results of the Third Wave Survey on the social status of women in China. Resource Equity. Retrieved January 2016 from http://landwise.resourceequity.org/record/228. Berling, J. A. (1996). Confucianism. Focus on Asian Studies, 2, 5–7. Brenner, O., Tomkiewicz, J., & Schein, V. E. (1989). The relationship between sex role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics revisited. Academy of Management Journal, 32, 662–669. Brookings. (2016a). Sun Chunlan. Retrieved December 2016 from www.brookings.edu/ about/centers/china/top-future-leaders/sun_chunlan Brookings. (2016b). Liu Yandong. Retrieved December 2016 from www.brookings.edu/ about/centers/china/top-future-leaders/liu_yandong. Cabestan, J.-P. (2011). The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC): Its role and its future. Europe China Research and Advice Network (ECRAN). Retrieved January 2016 from http://eeas.europa.eu/china/docs/division_ecran/is29_assessment_ of_the_role_of_the_cppcc_jean-pierre_cabestan_en.pdf. Cai, M. (2002). Guan Zhu Nv Ling Dao: You Zhong Yang Guo Jia Ji Guan Nv Gan Bu Xian Zhuang Diao Cha Yan Jiu Jie Guo Yin Fa De Si Kao [Focusing on women leaders: Reflections on the findings of the survey of female cadres in central government agencies]. Ling Dao Ke Xue [Leadership Science], 2002(6), 8–9. Chang, J. (1986). Madame Sun Yat-Sen. Soong Ching-Ling [Lives of modern women]. New York: Penguin Books. Chang, J. (2013). Empress Dowager Cixi:The concubine who launched modern China. New York: Anchor Books. Chang, K., Sun, H. S., & Kwong, C.Y. (1999). Chinese writers of traditional China: An anthology of poetry and criticism. Stamford, CA: Stamford University Press. Chow, T. (1960). The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual revolution in modern China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Clubb, E. (1978). 20th century China. New York: Columbia University Press. CPC (Communist Party of China). (2012). News conference for the election of the representatives of the 18th National Congress of CPC. Retrieved 6 January 2016 from www.news.cn/ zhibo/20120814/zhibo.htm. Diplomat. (2015). Will China have its first female Politburo Standing Committee Member? Retrieved 6 January 2016 from http://thediplomat.com/2015/01/will-china-have-itsfirst-female-poliburo-standing-committee-member/. EY. (2015). Worldwide Public Sector Leaders Index. Retrieved October 2015 from www. ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY_-_Worldwide_Women_Public_Sector_ Leaders_Index_2014/$FILE/EY_Worldwide_Index_of_Women_22Oct14.pdf. Ezell, H. F., Odewahn, C. A., & Sherman, J. D. (1980). Perceived competence of women managers in public human service organizations: A comparative view. Journal of Management, 6, 135–144. Fiegl, A. (2008). Cixi: The woman behind the throne. Retrieved January 2016 from www. smithsonianmag.com/history/cixi-the-woman-behind-the-throne-22312071/. Fordham University. (2016). The Common Program of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, 1949. Internet Modern History Sourcebook. Retrieved January 2016 from http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1949-ccp-program.html. Guo, X. (2013). Can Yu Bing Fei Ling Dao: Gong Gong Zu Zhi Zhong Nv Xing Di Wei De San Di Xun Huan Ji Qi Cheng Yin [Participating but not leading: Women’s

186

Marilyn Marks Rubin and Wenxuan Yu

under-representation in government leading positions and its constructive deficiencies]. Gong Gong Xing Zheng Ping Lun [Journal of Public Administration], 2013(4), 50–81. Guo, X., & Zhao, L. (2009). Women’s political participation in China. East Asian Policy, 3, 50–60. Retrieved December 2016 from www.eai.nus.edu.sg/. . . /files/BB453.pdf. HKHRM (Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor). (n.d.). Constitution of the People’s Republic of China 1982. Joseph, W. A. (Ed.). (2014). Politics in China: An introduction (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Lam, J. (2008). China’s revival of Confucianism. USC-US-China Institute. Retrieved December 2015 from http://china.usc.edu/chinas-revival-confucianism. Lawrence, S. V. (2013). China’s political institutions and leaders in charts. Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service. Retrieved November 2015 from www.fas.org/sgp/ crs/row/R43303.pdf. Levy, H. (1958). Book reviews (The Empress Wu. by C. P. Fitzgerald; Lady Wu: A true story by Lin Yutang). Journal of Asian Studies, 17, 617–619. Retrieved November 2015 from http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=719812 8&fileId=S002191180016379X. Li, C. (2010). The social consequences of the May Fourth Movement. Chinese Studies in History, 43(4), 20–42. Li, E. X. (2013, January–February).The life of the party:The post-democratic future begins in China. Foreign Affairs. Retrieved January 2016 from www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ china/2012-12-03/life-party. Li, N. (2013). Fu Nv Ling Dao Te Zhi Yu Shi Ye Fa Zhan [Leadership Characteristics of Women Leaders and Career Development], Xin Shi Ye [Expanding Horizons], 6, 111–114. Ma, J., & Li, X. (2015). Nv Xing Gao Ji Ling Dao Gan Bu: Na Ge Bu Men Zui Duo [Which Agencies Have More Senior Women Leaders]. Xin Jing Bao [New Beijing Newspaper]. Retrieved 29 May 2016 from http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2015-09-01/ doc-ifxhkafi9724312.shtml. Ma, W. (2004). The Readjustment of China’s higher education structure and women’s higher education. In J. Tao, B. Zheng, & M. L. Shirley (Eds.), Holding up half the sky (pp. 109–122). New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York. Moghadam,V. M., & Senftova, L. (2005). Measuring women’s empowerment: Participation and rights in civil, political, social, economic, and cultural domains. International Social Science Journal, 57(184), 389–412. Naff , K. C. (1994). Through the glass ceiling: Prospects for the advancement of women in the Federal Civil Service. Public Administration Review, 54, 507–514. PRC (People’s Republic of China). (1954). Constitution of the People’s Republic of China. Peking [sic]: Foreign Language Press. Retrieved 1 June 2016 from www.hkpolitics.net/ database/chicon/1954/1954ae.pdf . PRC. (1992). Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women. Retrieved 25 May 2016 from www.china.org.cn/english/government/ 207405.htm. PRC National Bureau of Statistics. (2012). Women and men in society in China: Facts and data. Retrieved 20 February 2016 from www.unicef.cn/cn/uploadfile/2014/0109/ 20140109024405457.pdf . PRC State Council. (2015). Guo Wu Yuan [State Council]. Retrieved 6 June 2016 from www.gov.cn/guowuyuan/.

Women Governing in China

187

PRC State Council Information Office. (2015). White paper on gender equality and women’s development in China. Retrieved 5 June 2016 from http://language.chinadaily.com. cn/2015-09/22/content_21949015.htm. PRC Supreme People’s Court. (2016). The Supreme People’s Court’s leadership. Retrieved 8 June 2016 from www.court.gov.cn/jigou-fayuanlingdao.html. Schein, V. E. (1973). The relationship between sex role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics. Journal of Applied Psychology, 57, 95–100. Song, K. (2013). The Qin dynasty warfare spiritual and religious power physical environment concept of civilization ancient China social structures. Retrieved October 2015 from https:// prezi.com/3pw0jlw237wi/qin-dynasty/. Tamura, E., Menton, L. K., Lush, N. W., & Tsui, F. K. C. (1997). China, understanding its past, Vol. 1. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press. Retrieved December 2015 from https://books.google.com/books?id=O0TQ_Puz-w8C&printsec=frontcover&source =gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. Tao, J. (2004). Introduction. In J. Tao, B. Zheng, & M. L. Shirley (Eds.), Holding up half the sky (pp. xxi–xxxvi). New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York. United Nations. (2015). Human development report. Retrieved January 2016 from http:// hdr.undp.org/en/content/mean-years-schooling-adults-years. UNDP. (1995). Speech by Jiang Zemin. Retrieved December 2015 from www.un.org/esa/ gopher-data/conf/fwcw/conf/gov/950905171157.txt. UNIFEM. (2008). Who Answers to Women: Gender and Accountability. Retrieved January 2016 from www.unifem.org/progress/2008/media/POWW08_Report_Full_Text.pdf. Wang, Q. (2004). The history and current status of Chinese women’s participation in politics. In J. Tao, B. Zheng, & M. L. Shirley (Eds.), Holding up half the sky (pp. 92–105). New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York. Weidner, M., Laing, E. J., Lo, I. Y., Chu, C., & Robinson, J. (1988). Views from Jade Terrace: Chinese women artists, 1300–1912. Indianapolis, IN: Indianapolis Museum of Art and Rizzoli. Wong,Y. L. (1995). Women’s education in traditional and modern China. Women’s History Review, 4(3), 345–367. Retrieved November 2015 from www.tandfonline.com/doi/ pdf/10.1080/09612029500200092. Xinhua. (2008). Zhong Hua Ren Min Gong He Guo Quan Guo Ren Min Dai Biao Da Hui Gong Gao [The First Announcement of the National People’s Congress]. Retrieved January 2016 from www.china.com.cn/policy/txt/2008-03/15/content_12714092.htm. Xinhua. (2013). Zhong Hua Ren Min Gong He Guo Quan Guo Ren Min Dai Biao Da Hui Gong Gao [The First Announcement of the National People’s Congress]. Retrieved January 2016 from news.xinhuanet.com/2013lh/2013-03/14/c_115030607.htm. Xinhua. (2014). Zhong Guo Gong Chan Dang Dang Nei Tongji Gong Bao [Chinese Communist Party’s Internal Party Statistical Report]. Retrieved January 2016. http:// news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2015-06/29/c_1115760045.htm. Yu, Y. W., & Shuo, Y. L. (2010). Holding up half the sky? Are Chinese women given equal rights in political participation? IDAS Symposium: The Rising Asia Pacific Region: Opportunities and Challenges for Cooperation. National Chengchi University. Retrieved January 2016 from http://nccur.lib.nccu.edu.tw/handle/140.119/41451. Yuan, X., & Meng, L. (2004). Nv Xing Ling Dao Ru He Jiu Zheng Cong Zheng Xin Li Pian Cha [Women leaders need to correct psychological biases for political participation]. Ling Dao Ke Xue [Leadership Science], 2004(2), 42.

188

Marilyn Marks Rubin and Wenxuan Yu

Zeng, B. (2014). Women’s political participation in China: Improved or not? Journal of International Women’s Studies, 15(1), 136–150. Retrieved January 2016 from http:// vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol15/iss1/9. Zhang, B., & Jiang, Z. (2007). Qian Lun Fu Nv Can Zheng Bu Zu De Yuan Yin Ji Dui Ce [Women’s Insufficient Political Participation: Reasons and Solutions]. Hunan Xing Zheng Xue Yuan Xue Bao [Journal of Hunan Administration Institute], 2007(5), 30–31. Zhou, J. (2003). Keys to women’s liberation in communist China; An historical overview. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 5(1), 67–77. Retrieved December 2015 from http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/9.1/lee.html.

12 WOMEN IN INTERNATIONAL NGOS Status, Challenges, and Opportunities Shamima Ahmed

In recent decades, so-called “third sector” organizations that are neither private nor governmental have played a growing role in providing services historically delivered by governments in most countries across the world.These organizations, referred to as nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), also play an important role in social mobilization and in advocating for women. However, while women account for a preponderance of the nonprofit sector workforce, they are under-represented in organizational leadership roles. The lack of women in top positions is similar to that in the public and private sectors, but what makes the vacuum in NPOs/NGOS different is the fact that so many of them work to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. This is certainly true of international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) that are the focus of this chapter. Little is known about women in leadership positions in INGOs. As a step to closing the research gap, I conducted an exploratory study of leaders in INGOs associated with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). My findings from the study are presented in this chapter. I begin with a discussion of women as leaders in the nonprofit world, in general.This is followed by a look at female leaders in INGOs based on information from my study. The chapter closes with some general comments on support systems and processes that have to be put in place to promote women in leadership positions in INGOs.

Women in NPOs and NGOs In the US, although women account for almost three in four staff positions in nonprofit organizations (Lennon, Spotts, & Mitchell, 2013; Outon, 2015), they lag behind men in leadership roles. For example, the National Journal’s 2014 biennial

190

Shamima Ahmed

salary survey of nonprofit CEOs in Washington found that women made up 22 percent of the 644 current and former CEOs in the survey (Goldmacher, 2014). Similarly, women occupy 20 percent of CEO positions in the 142 largest NPOs in Massachusetts (Kelley, 2013). It should be noted, however, that while most research corroborates these findings, a few “outlier” studies have found a greater representation of female leaders in US nonprofits (Horiuchi, 2014). In Canada, women account for 39 percent of senior executive positions of the largest 100 charities (Rankin & Stewart, 2012). “Although the sector is predominantly female . . . the proportion of men increases through the ranks: from support staff to top executives” (Veldhuis, 2011). In other countries, the proportion of women in leadership roles varies dramatically. Women, for example, head 90 percent of NGOs in Kyrgyzstan and 80 percent in South Korea (Hunt, 2007). In contrast, they hold just 15 to 20 percent of NGO director positions in Kenya and South Africa (Marston, 2013). In the US, when women are leaders in the nonprofit sector, they generally head organizations with smaller budgets. For instance, Hrywna (2006) found that 92 percent of organizations with female CEOs had budgets of less than $10 million. In contrast, almost 85 percent of the chief executive officers in nonprofit organizations with $50 million at a minimum are male (Perry, 2007).

Board Membership In general terms, the board of directors provides oversight and guidance to the executive director and the nonprofit’s other staff members. The board ensures that the organization stays aligned with its mission and values in addition to complying with all federal and state laws. (Cullinane, 2014, p. 1) Bradshaw, Murray, and Wolpin (1996) analyzed data from 276 nonprofit organizations in Canada.They found a relationship between the gender of the CEO and the proportion of women on the board. Organizations with female CEOs were more likely to have higher percentages of women on their boards.They also found though that a higher percentage of women was associated with lower board prestige, and that organizations highly funded by government grants tend to have more women. In the US, Abzug (1999) found that women generally serve on boards of small nonprofits. This is still true almost 20 years later as illustrated by a study of boards of nonprofit environmental organizations that found: There is a significant gender gap as more than 70% of the presidents and chairs of the board of conservation/preservation organizations are male. Size matters too.The presidents of the largest conservation and preservation organizations (budgets over $1 million) are overwhelmingly male (90%). (Taylor, 2014)

Women in International NGOs

191

There are several factors that can explain the limited representation of women on nonprofit boards. One is the traditional process for nominating and selecting new board members. Most nominations are made by current board members, the majority of whom are men. Another factor is the lengthy tenure for current nonprofit board members. Some boards do not have term limits so that the men who sit on them continue to hold a significant majority of seats. A third reason is the “spirit” of corporate philanthropy in which for-profit businesses who contribute to nonprofit organizations are generally run by men who are asked to serve on nonprofit boards. Lack of respect for female leaders also explains the low representation of females in leadership positions (Marston, 2013). The lower representation of women on nonprofit boards is significant for several reasons.The first is that boards are responsible for recruiting and hiring executives. The second is that board composition affects fund raising potential. As Korbel and Evans (2012, p. 5) write: “Most non-profits are targeting women philanthropists as a special group, noting U.S. women control a growing amount and majority of the wealth.” They also report that women are more likely to contribute to charities having a significant presence of women on their boards. A third reason is the unique dynamic that emerges in a mixed gender board. “Women bring a collaborative leadership style that benefits boardroom dynamics by increasing the amount of listening, social support and win-win problem solving” (Kramer, Konrad, & Erkut, 2006, p. 2) that may lead to a more cooperative work culture.

Women in INGO Leadership Positions INGOs, sometimes referred to as transnational associations, typically have objectives similar to those of NGOs, but (as their name implies) their purview is international. In general, they have branches in locations across the world enabling them to address issues across national boundaries. INGOs are major players on the international scene “paralleling, although not . . . equaling, the expanding role of inter-governmental organizations in the political sphere and the rapid globalization of business in the economic sphere” (Ritchie & Rice, 1995). In fact, for the United Nations, INGOs have been “a critical element in the work of the Commission on the Status of Women . . . [and] have been influential in shaping the current global policy framework on women’s empowerment and gender equality” (www.unwomen.org/en/csw/ngo-participation).Yet, there are no studies that have focused specifically on female leadership in these organizations. In an effort to narrow this gap, I conducted a study in 2014 of the 371 INGOs associated with UNESCO. Since its founding, UNESCO has sought to collaborate with NGOs, which are fundamental civil society partners for the implementation of the Organization’s activities and programs. Over the years, UNESCO has built up a valuable network of cooperation with NGOs having an expertise in its

192

Shamima Ahmed

fields of competence, i.e. education, science, social and human sciences, culture, communication and information. (http://en.unesco.org/partnerships/ non-governmental-organizations) In the first phase of my research, I collected information from INGO websites and sent emails requesting information as to the gender of their leaders and the size of their budgets. In the second phase, I contacted the heads of the 25 INGOs with the largest budgets to request personal interviews; ten agreed to be interviewed via Skype. The results reported below summarize the findings from these interviews.

Phase I: Collecting INGO Information Of the 371 agencies with information concerning their agency heads on their websites (see Appendix 12.1 for summary table), two-thirds had male leaders and 18 were either all male or all female organizations, e.g., the International Network of Women Engineers and Scientist (all women) and the World’s Alliance of Young Men’s Christian Association (all men). My research excluded these uni-sex organizations. Of the remaining 353 INGOs, 71 percent were led by men. Looking at board members, of the 218 agencies for which board information was available, 68 percent of seats were held by men. Of the 371 agencies in the sample, revenue information from 69 was available. Of the agencies sampled, 45 have this information posted on their websites, either on their annual information reports or annual budget documents.Agency revenues ranged from $1,830 to more than $9 billion dollars. Of the ten richest INGOs, just one had a female CEO.

Phase II: The Interviews Female leaders of the top 25 ranked INGOs (based on revenues) were contacted to request personal interviews regarding their experiences in leading their agencies, the challenges they faced, and suggestions to address these challenges. Ten leaders agreed to participate in this phase of the study, each of whom had occupied a leadership position in one or more INGOs or nonprofits for at least a decade. The interviews were conducted during January and March of 2015. The topics to be covered were sent prior to each session. The questions and responses are summarized below. Question 1: What are the major challenges that women face when they assume leadership positions in INGOs? Seven of the respondents emphasized the challenges in maintaining a balance between family and work life. One woman noted the difficulties in working with

Women in International NGOs

193

an international board dominated mostly by men coming from the private sector saying that “sometimes there are differences in priorities.” Seven women emphasized gender differences in leadership style. For instance, one woman said that: “We (women) work in a very collaborative and consensual manner, sometimes that becomes a challenge when the traditional work culture has been somewhat patriarchal.” Another challenge was learning to work with branches across the globe and in different time zones. For example, one organization included in the interviews has branches in 55 countries. Three of the women interviewed mentioned the challenge of working in countries where women are not treated as equals. As one explained, “gender is as much as an issue of cultural differences. There are culture specific definition of gender – women are seen differently in different cultures, sometimes questioning women’s legitimacy and authority.” Interestingly, two of the interviewees emphasized that gender was not an issue, but that the issue was “geography” and facing common or normal organizational challenges. However, one of the two did say that a reason that her gender was not an issue might be that she did not have a family requiring work-family balance. Developing self-confidence and understanding the responsibilities that come with leadership roles were challenges for four of the women who were interviewed. One said that, “Learning to be the final decision maker and assuming responsibility for colleagues’ employment, developing self-assurance to be the leader, and being recognized as the leader by staff ” were challenges during her first year in office. Question 2: What attributes or factors have contributed to your assuming a leadership role? The women interviewed mentioned several factors, some emphasizing skills and experience, others emphasizing motivation and hard work. According to one woman, her work experience with community and various boards, extensive exposure to the political environment, and her significant policy background were important factors for her success. She also emphasized that “different ways of working, promoting innovation, bringing dollars on a continuous basis” were additional factors. Prior work experience in the nonprofit sector was emphasized as a factor contributing to success by eight of the ten women interviewed. Strong interpersonal skills and appreciating diversity were also identified as important factors. One woman emphasized the importance of “having clarity and ease of oral communication in at least two languages, support from spouse, and passion for the field” as very important contributing factors. The value of education, particularly a legal background, was mentioned by two of the interviewees. “Integrity, genuine concerns for the interests of those who give their time and talents to our humanitarian efforts” were also mentioned by one person. Another

194

Shamima Ahmed

pointed to somewhat different reasons for success, explaining that the search committee “was looking for sort of fresh eyes and open mindedness to look at things differently, and interest to work in the international arena, and my mobility helped.” Question 3: What was the greatest challenge you faced when you assumed your leadership position? Working with people, different languages, different ideas and interpretation of what they should be doing were some common responses. One can reasonably assume that men face the same challenges. However, the issue of gender did come up in responses to this question. One person explained that “many old agencies have their traditional ways of doing things, men expect that you will answer to them.” A similar comment was made by another interviewee who said that: [t]he previous leadership was more like an old boys club. Ours is membership based agency, usually led by philanthropic men who would give speech at dinners. I brought some significant ideas as to what our agency could achieve and had to take some tough positions which some men found difficult to accept. One example was a president leading a staff meeting who did not like the direction it was going in, so he threw the flip chart across the room. His view was that his role was to give direction and the agency should just follow that. Another woman talked about issues with senior staff acceptance, the challenges to restoring the financial well-being of the organization, and getting recognition for the work of the organization. Communication around the world, particularly in countries where the infrastructure was not adequate, was a big challenge for several interviewees. As one explained, “The challenge is not ideology or time, it is more of the issues of communication.” She also pointed out that since she was unmarried, she might not face the same challenges as married women. Three of the interviewees had to initiate certain organizational changes and that was a challenge for them. One described her experience in changing organizational culture as very stressful and challenging, stating that “Changing the organizational culture that fostered a traditional culture, where role of staff was not effective, changing the attitudes, ways things were done, and bringing professionalism were not easy.” The challenges female leaders face working in a patriarchal culture were mentioned by six of the ten interviewees. One of them said that, “Communicating in cultures where women are not given equal status to men, where women are not even visible . . . ignorance and arrogance of men in some societies were huge challenges for me.”

Women in International NGOs

195

Question 4: Do you foresee, in the near future, more women in leadership position with INGOs? All interviewees were confident that they would see more women in INGO leadership positions in the future. According to one, “Women tend to have good interpersonal skills. Leadership positions are usually linked to social concerns and women are drawn to these areas, but the pay is probably lower than in industry so it attracts few men.” Another pointed out that there were already many women in fairly senior positions, but that the top was still mostly occupied by men. She said that change would come, but not that easily and that it was a complicated issue. Another person said that the main reason for her positive outlook was that “women are becoming more self-confident.” Question 5: Do you think that male leaders face different challenges compared to those that female leaders face? The gender differences surfaced again during discussion on this question. One person said that “Male leaders face different challenges . . . working with people is an instinct to most females; some men lack that skill.” Another person explained that: [m]en often have to work with female dominated staff. I recall a situation where the president was a male but the rest of the staff members were females. To motivate females, men need to adopt a different leadership style – more consensual and respectful of each other.Typical male leader’s style is absolute – this is the way it is. Females do not see weaknesses in discussing alternatives, but men do. Successful male leaders have to become consensus builders. Similarly, another interviewee emphasized that “perhaps men have less need to assert themselves initially, but personal characteristics determine this.” Some women also emphasized the positive qualities of male leadership. One said: Women had to fight for their positions. Men always go in comradeship. Females . . . go their own path, women are jealous of each other, don’t help others. Our own club does not integrate their own gender. Women give up a lot more and lose the emotional path. Another interviewee mentioned that the only difference in challenges might be traveling since this could be more an issue for women than men. Question 6: Are there supportive conditions (e.g., agency policy) that would facilitate more women assuming leadership positions with INGOs? The need for mentoring and training women was mentioned by all the interviewees. Some also emphasized the importance of providing flexibility with

196

Shamima Ahmed

regard to job-related traveling requirements. Professional development and opportunities for collegial support came up as very important factors for women aspiring to be leaders in INGOs. Networking came up as another important factor in several interviews. One woman said that it was “very important for me to have a network of people that I can draw from, trust them, and still draw from them for advice. This type of support is critical to achieve and also maintain the leadership role.” Providing opportunities that help develop confidence, creativity, and innovation were also identified as important support factors. Another woman said that “unfortunately two key issues are time and workload. INGOs are almost always struggling with not enough resources and too much work so leadership mentoring though offered is difficult to take up.” Referring to her mid-level managers, one of the interviewees emphasized that “I try to develop them and push them to join the board, attend professional lectures and present at different venues.” Developing family friendly policies was emphasized by nine of the ten interviewees. The “trailing spousal issue,” i.e., following someone’s partner to another city or place due to work assignment, and the challenge it presents to women were mentioned by four interviewees. One, however, had a different perspective. She argued that “Given the increasing number of role models of successful high-flier women, it is for each women to assume their own right to leadership – their strength and self-belief must come from within ultimately . . . it is lonely at the top.” She was apparently referring to women’s self-confidence as one of the major factors explaining women’s ascendancy to leadership positions.

Conclusion Women account for the preponderance of the nonprofit workforce but for relatively few of their leaders. There is little information available about these leaders especially when it comes to those who are at the top of INGOs. The findings I have presented in this chapter provide an initial look at these women. Although the research is in its exploratory stages, I think that it provides an interesting perspective on women at the top of nonprofit organizations. My research identified some of the challenges women in INGO leadership positions face and their perspectives of the future for women in their positions. I found that balancing family life with the need for frequent travel is one such challenge. Cultural differences with regard to how women are perceived is another. This is particularly the case for women who travel internationally and have to form collaborative relationships, deliver services, and attend meetings in different countries. Some of these countries are still operating under a patriarchal structure compounding the challenge. Six of the women I interviewed emphasized their initial difficulties in adjusting to a male dominated industry and the differences between male and female leadership styles. Not surprisingly, these challenges are

Women in International NGOs

197

quite similar to those faced by women working in the private and public sectors throughout the world. Perhaps the most encouraging finding in my study is that female leaders believe they will be joined by more women at the top in the near future. This is consistent with the findings in other research. For example, in the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s 2014 poll, it was found that 57 percent of women in the nonprofit sector aspire to leadership positions in the sector. Among women ages 18 to 34, the proportion jumps to 72 percent (reported in Williams, 2015). So, when I conduct another survey in 2020, I expect the numbers will show that this aspiration has been actualized.

References Abzug, R. (1999). A diversity of board women: A study of nonprofits in six cities over a 60-year time span. In J. Johnson (Ed.), Perspectives on nonprofit board diversity (pp. 28–36). Washington DC: National Center for Nonprofit Boards. Bradshaw, P., Murray,V., & Wolpin, J. (1996). Women on boards of nonprofits: What difference do they make? Nonprofit Management & Leadership, 6(2), 241–254. Cullinane, M. (2014). Who’s in charge here? Role of the board of directors vs. role of the executive director. Retrieved November 18, 2016, from http://cullinanelaw.com/ nonprofit-board-vs-executive-director. Goldmacher, S. (2014). Women leaders: Yep, earning way less than men. Retrieved March 20, 2015, from www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/04/dc-s-womenleaders-yep-earning-way-less-than-men/360542/. Horiuchi, V. (2014). Most nonprofits in Utah run by women. The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved May 20, 2015, from http://archive.sltrib.com/story.php?ref=/sltrib/money/ 57609010-79/women-nonprofit-madsen-percent.html.csp. Hrywna, M. (2006). NPT salary survey: Women catching up with men, but neither with inflation.Retrieved February 9,2015,from www.nptimes.com/pdf/February0106SReport. pdf . Hunt, S. (2007). Let women rule. Foreign Affairs, 86(3), 109–120. Kelley, E. (2013). First census of women on nonprofit boards gives new insights. Retrieved September 21, 2017, from www.boston.com/business/blogs/global-business-hub/2013/05/ first_census_of.html. Korbel, P. W., & Evans, D. (2012). Women on boards: Peak performance in organizations. Denver, CO: Women’s Leadership Foundation, Inc. Kramer,V.W., Konrad, A. M., & Erkut, S. (2006). Critical mass on corporate boards:Why three or more women enhance governance. Wellesley, MA: Wellesley Center for Women. Lennon,T., Spotts, D. L., & Mitchell, M. (2013). Benchmarking women’s leadership in the United States. Denver, CO: Colorado Women’s College, University of Denver. Marston, A. (2013). Women in leadership: “It’s not going to work the way we’re doing it.” Retrieved August 14, 2015, from www.theguardian.com/global-developmentprofessionals-network/2013/aug/01/women-in-leadership-international-ngos. Outon, P. (2015). A movement for equality. Retrieved March 29, 2015, from https://philanthropy.com/article/Opinion-A-Movement-for/228889. Perry, S. (2007). Why women are held back in the nonprofit world. Retrieved November 10, 2015, from https://philanthropy.com/article/Why-Women-Are-HeldBack-in-the/191507.

198

Deborah Brennan and Sue Williamson

Rankin, P. L., & Stewart, J. (2012). Progress in inches miles to go: A benchmarking study of women’s leadership in Canada. Retrieved December 1, 2015, from www2.carleton.ca/ cwppl/ccms/wp-content/ccms-files/12-2999-Woman-Leadership-EN.pdf . Ritchie, C., & Rice, A. (1995). Changing relationships between international nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations. Retrieved November 18, 2016, from www.uia.org/archive/ingos-un. Taylor, D. E. (2014). Executive summary report. The state of diversity in environmental organizations. Retrieved November 18, 2016, from www.diversegreen.org/pdf-list/. Veldhuis, C. (2011). Women and work in the nonprofit sector. Retrieved November 18, 2016, from https://charityvillage.com/Content.aspx?topic=Women_and_Work_in_ the_Nonprofit_Sector#.WC3jCk0zXDc. Williams, K. (2015). Why female CEOs thrive in nonprofits. Retrieved December 2, 2015, from www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2015/04/24/why-female-ceos-thrivein-nonprofits/.

13 TIME TO CARE Paid Family Leave as Baseline Support for Gender Equality in Employment Deborah Brennan and Sue Williamson

Maintaining the delicate balance between work and family is a struggle for all women who work outside of the home. Several chapters in this book discuss how difficult it is to combine motherhood and life in the political arena. This is especially true with regard to pregnancy and the time spent tending to infants. Around the world, an increasing number of new parents have access to paid family leave through publicly funded programs or mandated employer arrangements. Until recently, Australia and the US were the only rich countries that did not provide paid parental leave. In 2011, the Labor government introduced a modest, taxpayer-funded scheme for Australia, leaving the US as the sole outlier. This chapter contributes to an understanding of women governing through an exploration of the place of parental leave within the broader domain of family policy. The first section provides an overview of the nature, scale and extent of paid parental leave across Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries and outlines the policy objectives that underpin the provision of such leave internationally. This is followed by a case study of Australia, one of the world’s last rich countries to introduce paid parental leave. The final section considers the impact of current policy on Australia’s public sector employees.

Overview The rapid expansion of policies supporting maternal employment in rich countries has been described as “a silent revolution” (Ferragina & Seeleib-Kaiser, 2014). Various forms of family leave, including maternity leave, paternity leave and parental leave, are now widespread.They have grown rapidly in developing countries and are near universal in rich countries – the USA being the only major exception (OECD, 2015a).

200

Deborah Brennan and Sue Williamson

Contemporary forms of family leave are quite different from those of previous eras. In the 19th century, some European governments introduced ‘protective’ legislation prohibiting women from being engaged in paid work around the time of childbirth.These measures were focused exclusively on women, were primarily health-oriented and often involved mandatory exit from the workforce. Today, family leave policies are generally rights-oriented rather than protective, and are designed to advance a range of social and economic objectives in addition to protecting the health of mothers and babies. Family leave refers to various forms of job-protected absence from work, including maternity, paternity and parental leave. Maternity leave is employmentprotected leave for women around the time of childbirth. In many countries, adopting parents are also eligible for maternity, paternity and parental leave. The International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 183 specifies that women should have a minimum of 14 weeks maternity leave with cash benefits equal to at least two-thirds of their normal wage during that period (International Labour Organization, 2014). In some countries such as Australia, Germany, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden, there is no separate period of maternity leave. Instead, time for mothers to recover from childbirth and begin breastfeeding is integrated into parental leave, as discussed below. Paternity leave is given to fathers around the time that a child is born or adopted. It is typically of short duration (2–10 days) and is offered at the discretion of the employer. Paternity leave is not subject to any international conventions. Parental leave provides job-protected absence from work enabling mothers and fathers (or same sex partners) to care for their young children, sometimes until the child is 18–24 months old. In the US, there is no national or universal system of paid family leave, but the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 enables eligible workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to deal with a range of medical and family issues including the birth of a child. A few states provide modest maternity or parental leave. In 2015, the White House issued a Presidential Memorandum directing agencies to give up to six weeks of paid sick leave to parents with a new child and calling on Congress to pass legislation giving federal employees an additional six weeks of paid parental leave (White House, 2015). While these are small measures in comparison with international developments, they indicate some positive movement in US family leave policy.

Maternity and Parental Leave in the OECD and European Union Maternity leave has a long history. Germany pioneered maternity rights, instituting protective measures in the late 19th century (Kamerman & Moss, 2009). By the beginning of World War I, there were 21 countries that had introduced laws protecting employed women around the time of childbirth. Many of these laws were paternalistic and exclusionary, making it illegal for women to engage in paid work

Time to Care: Paid Family Leave

201

around the time of childbirth. Other laws were more facilitative. In 13 of the 21 countries, financial compensation was provided to women who were mandated to take leave from work (Moss & Kamerman, 2009). Following World War II, maternity leave was progressively introduced across the industrialized world as well as in many developing countries. Such leave is linked to the World Health Organization’s recommendation that mothers be supported to breastfeed their infants for a minimum of six months. However, the health focus of maternity leave has gradually been extended to include a range of other objectives. In contrast to the early focus on maternity leave legislation that sought to exclude women from paid work around the time of childbirth, maternity and parental leave are now regarded as an effective way of strengthening women’s attachment to the labor force and encouraging return to work. Parental leave – a broader concept than maternity leave – is a more recent initiative. First introduced in Sweden in 1974, parental leave is at the heart of modern approaches to social welfare that emphasize the role of the state in encouraging and supporting employment of men and women (Moss & Kamerman 2009). The rising level of female employment is among the most significant changes to have taken place across the globe in the past 50 years. Approximately two-thirds of mothers with children aged 0–14 in OECD countries are in paid employment, although rates in individual countries vary considerably. In five European countries (Sweden, Denmark, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Austria) more than 75 percent of mothers are at work, with particularly high rates in Denmark (82 percent) and Sweden (83 percent). In most countries, maternal employment varies with the age of the youngest child, with mothers whose youngest child is aged 0–2 years having the lowest rates. Countries that offer strong family support including parental leave, child care and cash family benefits tend to have the highest rates of maternal paid employment. Thus, not surprisingly, the US has a lower rate of maternal employment than the OECD average (OECD, 2015a). Both maternity leave and parental leave are widely available across the European Union and OECD countries and are seen as preconditions for the labor market participation of women as well as being essential for gender equality (European Parliament, 2015; OECD, 2015b). On average, member states of the European Union offer 23 weeks of maternity leave with compensation at 90 percent of previous income (European Parliament, 2015). According to the European Parliament, the advantage of leave policies over other measures that promote reconciliation between work and family is that leave addresses the unequal gender division of paid employment and unpaid care and housework. Closing this gender gap has been described by the ILO as “possibly the most significant social development of the twenty-first century” (European Parliament, 2015, p. 11). Under an EU Directive issued in 2010, member states are required to offer at least four months parental leave as a condition of membership. However, the Directive does not specify minimum compensation or require that any part of the

202

Deborah Brennan and Sue Williamson

leave be reserved for the father, typically considered a strong gender equality measure (Fusulier, 2009). Generally, take-up rates by fathers remain low, which is likely to be related to the low compensation offered in most countries. Thirteen European Union countries provide 100 percent of women’s previous income during maternity leave, sometimes with a cap or ceiling on the amount replaced. The objectives of parental leave vary markedly among countries. In some countries, it has been redesigned so that each parent has an individual, non-transferable entitlement to a portion of the leave. In Iceland, for example, three months leave is reserved for the mother, three months for the father and three months can be taken by either parent. Leave is maximized if both parents take their share since the individual entitlements are provided on a ‘use it or lose it’ basis. In Sweden, where 480 paid days are available to be shared between parents, 60 days are reserved for each parent while the balance can be allocated as the family chooses (Chronlon, 2009; Duvander & Haas, 2015). Several countries have introduced measures of this type while others offer bonus weeks or months if both parents use a certain amount of leave (O’Brien, 2013). English-speaking countries, including the UK, Australia, Canada (other than Quebec), New Zealand and Ireland, were among the last to introduce paid maternity parental leave (Baird & O’Brien, 2015). At the beginning of the 21st century, Australia and the US were the only developed nations that did not provide paid leave to new parents either through a publicly funded program or mandated employer arrangements. In the next section, we explore the institutional and other changes in Australia that led to the introduction of paid parental leave.

Australia: A Late Arrival in Paid Maternity and Parental Leave Support for mothers in the form of a cash payment called Maternity Allowance dates back to 1912 in Australia. The Allowance was equivalent to about six weeks wages for a female factory worker and was seen by women as partial recognition by the government of their work as mothers. Maternity Allowance was paid regardless of the woman’s labor force participation and could not be considered, in any way, equivalent to a maternity leave payment. In the late 1960s, Australian State governments began to offer paid maternity leave to women employed as teachers and public servants. In 1973, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s government instituted 12 weeks paid and 40 weeks unpaid leave for female Commonwealth public servants. More controversially, it offered two weeks paid paternity leave to male public servants. Unions representing private sector employees sought to extend these benefits to their members through industrial bargaining but with limited success. By 2009, around half of all female and male employees had access to some paid maternity or paternity leave, but access was skewed. It favored, for example, public sector rather than private sector employees, full-time rather than part-time workers and high income rather than lower income workers. Paid leave complemented

Time to Care: Paid Family Leave

203

the unpaid leave available to most workers as a result of decisions made by the Federal Industrial Arbitration Commission. Eligible Australian women (those who had worked for the same employer continuously for at least one year at the expected date of delivery) have received one year of unpaid leave since 1979. In 1990 this was extended to male workers.The leave is an individual entitlement. The Commonwealth’s Fair Work Act 2009 enables parents to extend this period by another 12 months if the employer agrees, with the limitation that two working parents cannot exceed a total of 24 months between them per birth, and leave must be taken within 24 months of the birth (Whitehouse, Baird, Alexander & Brennan, 2015).

The Opposition Major business organizations actively opposed any form of subsidized paid leave for parents, arguing that it would be an unsustainable burden, especially on small businesses, would unfairly penalize industries with high concentrations of female employees and lead to employment discrimination against women in the childbearing years. Business organizations did, however, support the introduction of a universal taxpayer-funded paid parental leave scheme (Nader, 2008). It was not only employers who resisted the idea of maternity or parental leave. The historical strength of the male breadwinner family model in Australia meant that any proposal to provide financial support to employed mothers would be contested by ‘stay at home’ mothers’ groups and by members of parliament and political parties representing constituencies with high concentrations of women not in the paid labor force. These groups claimed that motherhood itself, rather than absence from work, should be the basis of entitlement to public support. In other words, they rejected the notion of maternity leave as a workplace entitlement and framed it as discriminatory because it did not support all women.Views like these were influential not only in the socially conservative National Party but also within parts of the Liberal and Labor parties.

Addressing the Opposition In 2002, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) – a statutory authority responsible for monitoring the implementation of Australia’s human rights obligations – entered the debate about paid maternity leave. The Commission was concerned that although Australia had ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), it did not comply with the provision concerning maternity leave.The Commission had entered a reservation stating that Australia was “not at present in a position to take the measures required . . . to introduce maternity leave with pay or with comparable social benefits throughout Australia” (cited in Brennan, 2009, p. 23).

204

Deborah Brennan and Sue Williamson

The Commission proposed that the Commonwealth introduce a governmentfunded maternity leave scheme structured so as to minimize costs to business. Under the proposal, the Commonwealth would fund 14 weeks of leave for employed mothers who were not eligible for employer-funded paid maternity leave, including self-employed, casual and contract workers.The proposal was intentionally minimalist because, in the words of the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, “Australia was still struggling with the concept of mothers working as a moral issue” (Goward, 2005, p. 179). Furthermore, “there was no point in muddying the waters further by devising a scheme that could be dismissed because it was unaffordable” (Goward, 2005, p. 179). Although the government did not make a formal response to the HREOC proposal, individual members of the governing party were highly critical. Finance Minister Nick Minchin attacked the proposal as ‘middle-class welfare’ even though, in reality, the proposal was structured to provide a safety net for low income women. One of the strongest comments was made by Workplace Relations Minister (later Prime Minister) Tony Abbott, who asserted that paid maternity leave would be introduced only “over this government’s dead body” (ABC Radio, 2002). Abbott, like Minchin, saw maternity leave as middle-class welfare. He also rejected it on the grounds that it advantaged one group of women (employed mothers) over another. Following a change of government in 2007, the newly elected Labor government referred the question of paid family leave to the Productivity Commission, a statutory body that provides research and analysis on economic issues. The Commission was asked to identify the costs and benefits of providing maternity, paternity and parental leave. Following a period of extensive research and consultation, and consideration of a variety of international policy designs and funding mechanisms, the Commission recommended a paid parental leave scheme linked to workforce participation rather than general support for the parents of newborn children. The key recommendation of the Commission was the introduction of 18 weeks Parental Leave Pay, at the minimum adult wage, to primary care givers who met a fairly minimal test of attachment to the workforce. Noting that many parents already had access to some paid leave, the Commission estimated that most children could be cared for exclusively by their parents for at least the first six months after birth. Those outside the labor force and employees not eligible for paid parental leave could apply for the Baby Bonus (a lump sum payment which has since been abolished).The scheme would be funded entirely from general revenue, with no contributions from employers or employees. Employer superannuation contributions were to be considered at a later stage, once the scheme had bedded down (Productivity Commission, 2009). The government accepted the Commission’s recommendations and, in May 2010 announced that it would introduce a national scheme of Parental Leave Pay. The new scheme, established in 2011, embodies elements of Australia’s maternalist

Time to Care: Paid Family Leave

205

history (i.e., its traditional support for mothers in the home) along with new employment-oriented and gender equality goals. The objectives of the scheme are to: 1

2 3

enhance the health of babies and mothers and the development of children by enabling working mothers to spend longer time at home with newborn children; facilitate women’s labor force participation; and encourage gender equality and improve the balance of family and work life for families.

Australia’s Parental Leave Scheme The scheme now in place closely follows the Commission’s recommendations. It provides up to 18 weeks Parental Leave Pay at the national minimum wage following the birth or adoption of a child. In order to be eligible for Parental Leave Pay, the primary care giver has to have worked in ten of the previous 13 months for a total of 330 hours (approximately one day per week). Self-employed, casual workers, workers on farms and family businesses are all eligible. Primary care givers (generally mothers) must have a taxable income of less than $150,000 per year, but there is no test on total family income. The Australian scheme, although formally a parental leave scheme, has strong maternalist elements. Under the rules of the scheme, the mother is assumed to be the primary care giver, although she can transfer her entitlement to the father or another eligible primary care giver. Despite the transfer provision, 99.4 percent of recipients of the scheme are mothers (Australian Government, 2014). Since January 2013, Paid Parental Leave has been supplemented by Dad + Partner Pay, a supplementary scheme enabling fathers or partners to receive up to two weeks pay, also at the national minimum wage, to help care for a newborn. Thus, if partners share the care and both are eligible, a total of 20 weeks pay at the minimum wage is available from the Commonwealth government. As foreshadowed by the Productivity Commission, many employees also receive payments from their employer through enterprise bargaining, negotiations or company policy. Complementarity between government-funded parental leave and employer payments was envisaged from the outset. By putting together the government entitlement and their employer’s offer, many employees are able to take at least 26 weeks leave (Productivity Commission, 2009, p. xxi), the amount of time recommended by the World Health Organization as being most beneficial to mothers and babies. In spite of their former trenchant criticism of paid parental leave, the Liberal and National parties reversed their position and, in 2013, proposed a new paid parental leave scheme that would have increased both the duration and the level of compensation to new mothers. It would have provided 26 weeks paid maternity

206

Deborah Brennan and Sue Williamson

leave with full wage replacement for women earning up to $100,000 (Abbott, 2014). This would have made the scheme one of the most generous in the world. Fathers would have received two weeks paternity pay at their current wage or the national minimum wage, whichever was higher. The two weeks for the father would have been deducted from the 26 weeks available to the mother (Coalition Parties, 2013, p. 5). Some of Abbott’s own Coalition party ministers, however, together with the business community, opposed the scheme, mainly because it would have been partially funded through increased taxes on business (Anderson, 2014). In February 2015, the Prime Minister announced that an expanded paid parental leave scheme was off the table (Abbott, 2015). The Prime Minister’s announcement, however, did not end debate around paid parental leave. In 2015, Treasurer, Joe Hockey announced that the government would legislate to prevent parents from accessing both the existing, universal paid parental leave scheme and their employer’s scheme. Despite the fact that Commonwealth legislation described the two schemes as complementary, accessing both schemes was described by government ministers as fraudulent (Hockey, 2015). The comments made by several senior ministers (on Mother’s Day, of all days) described mothers who took both government Parental Leave Pay and their employer’s payment as endorsed by the legislation as cheats and double dippers. The Bill was introduced into the Australian parliament in June 2015 (Morrison, 2015). It was subsequently amended so that employees would be able to access 18 weeks of paid parental leave by combining any employer-provided scheme with a government ‘top up,’ to bring the total amount of paid parental leave to 18 weeks (Berkovic, 2015). Large groups of employees – such as public sector workers – would still receive less parental leave payments than previously. The revised amending legislation had not been presented to parliament at the time of writing.

Paid Parental Leave in the Australian Public Sector Employees We now turn to the impact of paid parental leave on Australian public service employees. This is of particular interest given that in the US the current federal government administration has sought to extend family leave mainly through an extension of the entitlements of public servants (Whitehouse, 2015). There are almost two million employees in Australia’s public sector that comprises three levels of government – the Australian central government, state and territorial governments, and local governments. Public sector employees are persons who work in public service departments and agencies, government-owned business enterprises, universities and the military (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2015). The core public service consists of employees of government agencies and those who provide direct services, such as primary and high school teachers and nurses. It excludes those in the military, university employees and employees in government businesses. In 2014, the New South Wales (NSW) state government employed the

Time to Care: Paid Family Leave

207

largest number of public servants, with just over 327,000 workers (NSW Public Service Commission, 2014, p. 11). The Australian public service had just over 150,000 employees as of June 2015 (Australian Public Service Commission, 2015a). Employer-funded paid parental leave is more common in the public than in the private sector. In a survey conducted in August 2013, about 70 percent of public sector employees stated that they were entitled to paid maternity or parental leave, compared with 40 percent of private sector employees (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2014). There are two reasons why paid parental leave is more prevalent in the public sector. First, the Australian public sector workforce is more unionized. In August 2013, of all public sector employees, 42 percent were union members compared with 12 percent of private sector employees (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2014). The relatively high level of unionization in the public sector strengthens the bargaining power for collective agreement negotiations that set the terms and conditions of employment for large public sector workforces. Gains in the duration and level of compensation of paid maternity and parental leave in some public sector jurisdictions have been achieved through collective bargaining between unions and public sector agencies (Baird, Frino & Williamson 2009; Baird & Murray, 2014). In Australia, collective bargaining for improved terms and conditions occurs at the workplace level between an employer and employees who may be represented by a union. Gains in the public sector have been achieved through gradual improvements to paid parental leave provisions negotiated by unions and public sector agencies, usually every three years. The second reason that paid parental leave is more prevalent in the public sector is that government has traditionally been regarded as a model employer for women, with the provision of family-friendly working arrangements, including paid parental leave, being seen as an indication of best practices (Rubery, 2013). The Australian public service was a leader in providing paid maternity leave. As discussed earlier, legislation was passed in 1973 that provided eligible employees with 12 weeks pay at replacement wages and additional weeks of unpaid leave so that employees could access a total of 12 months leave. Foreshadowing the Paid Parental Leave Act, the legislation was an attempt to enable female employees of the Australian public service to combine a career with motherhood and to ensure income maintenance throughout the leave period. The legislation also provides a female employee with a right to return to her former or similar position once the leave period had ended (Cameron, 1973).This legislation, along with the Australian Public Service Award 2015, which provides the minimum terms and conditions for the whole of the APS, continues to provide the minimum level of paid maternity leave for employees and also references the Fair Work Act discussed earlier that provides unpaid supporting partner/ paternity leave. The mid-1990s saw the spread of New Public Management, with an emphasis on smaller government through downsizing and outsourcing and a focus on making the public sector more efficient (Colley, 2012). Accordingly, collective

208

Deborah Brennan and Sue Williamson

bargaining in the Australian public service was devolved to individual agencies and, where uniform pay and conditions of employment had once prevailed, fragmentation and differentiation started to occur.Terms and conditions of employment were negotiated at the enterprise level with central oversight from the government.The Australian Government issued policy guidelines for negotiations which, in recent years, contained the maximum for various conditions of employment, including paid parental leave (Australian Public Service Commission, 2011). At the time of writing, agencies could not increase any conditions of employment unless there were “exceptional circumstances” (Australian Public Service Commission, 2015b). The state and territory jurisdictions were not subject to the same level of industrial decentralization as the Australian public service. Some jurisdictions do engage in collective enterprise bargaining, and this mechanism therefore contains paid parental leave provisions. Other industrial instruments apart from legislation, awards and enterprise agreements provide additional paid parental leave for public sector workers to that required by the Paid Parental Leave Act. Paid parental leave provisions in some state and territories for public sector employees are contained in other industrial instruments, e.g., government determinations and directives, that may be made by a minister. In NSW and Tasmania, paid parental leave is an industrial award entitlement.1 In Queensland, public servants access paid parental leave provisions through a government directive as well as through an award. In Victoria, paid parental leave provisions were finalized by the Fair Work Commission in an arbitrated determination. In the Commonwealth, Western Australian, South Australian, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory (ACT) jurisdictions, paid parental leave is included in enterprise agreements, although the minimum for APS employees is also set through legislation and an award, as discussed earlier. The states and territories were slower than the Australian public service to introduce paid maternity leave for public servants and it was not until 2008 that all jurisdictions provided some level of paid maternity leave (Baird et al., 2009).2 The provision of paid leave for fathers – or supporting partners – was slower still. Researchers who have examined the level of paid maternity leave and paid parental leave across all public service jurisdictions found that in 2002 just two jurisdictions provided paid paternity leave, of one week’s duration. By 2014, all jurisdictions provided paid supporting partner leave of up to four weeks (See Table 13.1) (Williamson, 2015). Paid parental leave schemes for state and federal public servants include a unique range of conditions. Analysis of the paid parental leave provisions in the major industrial instruments covering core public sector workers as at June 2014 shows that the majority of jurisdictions enabled mothers to double the duration of parental leave by receiving half pay. In 2014, 78 percent of public servants had access to flexible paid parental leave payments (Department of Employment, unpublished data).

Time to Care: Paid Family Leave

209

TABLE 13.1 Level of Paid Parental Leave in the Australian Public Sector

Jurisdiction

Paid Maternity Leave (in weeks)

Amount of Paid Supporting Partner Leave

Commonwealth

14 to 18 weeks depending on agency agreement 14 weeks 14 weeks 14 weeks 14 weeks 16–18 weeks 12 weeks 14–18 weeks 14 to 18 weeks depending on agency agreement

2 to 4 weeks depending on agency agreement 1 week 2 weeks 1 week 1 week 1 week 1 day 1 week 2 to 4 weeks depending on agency agreement

New South Wales Victoria Queensland Western Australia South Australia Tasmania Northern Territory Australian Capital Territory

Sources: Workplace Agreements Database; Crown Employees (Public Service Conditions of Employment) Award 2009 (NSW); Victorian Public Service Workplace Determination 2012; Qld Government Directive 26/10; Family Leave (Qld Public Sector) Award – State 2004; WA Public Service and Government Officers General Agreement 2011; South Australian Public Sector Wages Parity Enterprise Agreement: Salaried 2012; Tasmanian State Service Award; Northern Territory Public Sector 2013–2017 Enterprise Agreement. (Reproduced from Williamson, 2015)

Some jurisdictions are even more flexible, providing the payment as a lump sum in advance, or even in two lump sums. Generally, a woman can work for as long as she wishes before commencing paid maternity leave, provided that she has a medical certificate. Most of the jurisdictions also provide a range of leave provisions while a woman is on maternity leave, which either enable her to extend her paid maternity leave with the use of sick leave or to use annual or long service leave during the period of unpaid parental leave. Six jurisdictions provide paid maternity leave when an employee gives birth while on unpaid maternity leave, so that the employee was not required to fulfill an additional qualifying period. In some cases, the employee did not need to return to work to access this subsequent leave. Finally, some employees whose pregnancy terminated could access paid maternity leave if the termination occurred after 20 weeks of pregnancy. This is an important provision, enabling the employee to recover physically and emotionally.

Conclusion This brief review of paid parental leave entitlements across the OECD and EU shows the uneven development and spread of paid maternity, paternity and parental leave across countries, with the US continuing to lag behind. The case study of paid parental leave in the Australian public service highlights the uneven development of paid parental leave within Australian jurisdictions, with different entitlements continuing to be a feature of leave provisions. Nevertheless, the universal

210

Deborah Brennan and Sue Williamson

scheme in Australia provides important entitlements for employees in both the public and private sectors and demonstrates the fragility of these provisions as they are again under threat. Paid parental leave is widely regarded as a foundational component of social and/or industrial policy in modern societies. It recognizes that since both women and men now participate in paid employment, periods of financially compensated leave from work are essential. Parental leave is rarely a stand-alone policy. It is generally accompanied by other measures such as subsidies, early childhood education/ care, flexible working arrangements and part-time work for parents, time off to care for sick children and cash family benefits. For this reason, it is difficult to ascribe particular outcomes (e.g., increased maternal labor force participation) to a single policy such as paid family leave. Maternity and parental leave are ‘near universal’ across the OECD and the European Union, although there is wide variation in the design of schemes, particularly with respect to eligibility, duration, level of payment and funding base. While schemes differ, however, the underlying aims are similar across countries – to strengthen women’s labor market attachment and to promote gender equality. Most importantly, family leave is no longer regarded narrowly as a ‘women’s issue.’ It is now widely recognized as an essential support for labor force participation and gender equality that benefits society as a whole.

Notes 1 2

Industrial awards in Australia are instruments that usually contain the terms and conditions of employment for whole industries or occupations. They are usually negotiated between employers and unions. All jurisdictions apart from Western Australia provided paid maternity leave in 2002. Western Australia was the last jurisdiction to provide paid maternity leave, in 2008.

References Abbott,T. (2014, 30 April). Joint press conference, Geelong,Victoria. Retrieved 9 August 2017 from http://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-23462. Abbott, T. (2015, 10 May). Joint press conference, Sydney. Retrieved 9 August 2017 from http://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-24438. Anderson, F. (2014, 15 May). “Doubt over Parental Leave Scheme.” Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 9 August 2017 from www.afr.com/business/health/doubts-overpaid-parental-leave-scheme-20140514-iucig. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2014). Employee earnings, benefits and trade union membership, August 2013 (Cat. No. 6310.0). Canberra, Australia: ABS. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2015). Employment and earnings, public sector, 2013–2014 (Cat. No. 6248.0.55.002). Canberra, Australia: ABS. Australian Government. (2014). Paid parental leave scheme, review report, Department of Social Services. Retrieved 9 August 2017 from www.dss.gov.au/our-responsibilities/familiesand-children/benefits-payments/review-of-the-paid-parental-leave-scheme/paidparental-leave-review.

Time to Care: Paid Family Leave

211

Australian Public Service Commission. (2011). Recommended common APS terms and conditions of employment. Retrieved 9 August 2017 from www.apsc.gov.au/publicationsand-media/archive/publications-archive/aps-public-service-bargaining-framework/ common-terms. Australian Public Service Commission. (2015a). Australian Public Service Statistical Bulletin. Retrieved 9 August 2017 from www.apsc.gov.au/about-the-apsc/parliamentary/apsstatistical-bulletin. Canberra, Australia: Commonwealth of Australia. Australian Public Service Commission. (2015b). Workplace Bargaining Policy 2015. Retrieved 9 August 2017 from www.apsc.gov.au/priorities/workplace-relations/australiangovernment-public-sector-workplace-bargaining-policy. Baird M., Frino, B., & Williamson, S. (2009). Paid maternity and paternity leave and the emergence of “equality bargaining” in Australia: An analysis of enterprise agreements, 2003–2007. Australian Bulletin of Labour, 35(4), 671–691. Baird, M., & O’Brien, M. (2015). Dynamics of parental leave in Anglophone countries:The paradox of state expansion in the liberal welfare regimes. Community, Work and Family, 18(2), (Special Issue. Leave Policies in Challenging Times: Reviewing the Decade), 198–217. Baird. M., & Murray, J. (2014). Collective bargaining for paid parental leave in Australia 2005–2010: A complex context effect. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 25(1), 47–62. Berkovic, N. (2015, 16 December). MYEFO: Christian Porter Finds $36m to soften double-dipping. The Australian. Retrieved 9 August 2017 from www.theaustralian. com.au. Brennan, D. (2009). Australia:The difficult birth of paid maternity leave. In S. B. Kamerman, & P. Moss (Eds.), The politics of parental leave: Children, parenting, gender and the labour market (pp. 15–32). Bristol, UK: Policy Press. Cameron, C. (1973). Parliament of Australia, House of Representatives, Second Reading Speech, Maternity Leave (Australian Government Employees) Bill, 24 May, Canberra, Australia: Commonwealth of Australia. Chronlon, A. (2009). Sweden: Individualisation or free choice in parental leave? In S. B. Kamerman, & P. Moss (Eds.), The politics of parental leave: Children, parenting, gender and the labour market (pp. 227–242). Bristol, UK: Policy Press. Coalition Parties. (2013).The Coalition’s policy for paid parental leave. Retrieved 9 August 2017 from https://lpaweb-static.s3.amazonaws.com/The%20Coalition%E2%80%99s% 20Policy%20for%20Paid%20Parental%20Leave.pdf . Colley, L. (2012).Weathering the storm: Australian public sector employment security during decades of public management reform and the recent economic downturn. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 32(1), 87–101. Duvander,A. Z., & Haas, L. (2015) Sweden country note. In P. Moss (Ed.), International review of leave policies and research 2014. Retrieved 9 August 2017 from www.leavenetwork. org/lp_and_r_reports/. European Parliament. (2015). Maternity, paternity and parental leave: Data related to duration and compensation rates in the European Union. Brussels, Belgium: EU Publications. Ferragina, E., & Seeleib-Kaiser, M. (2014). Determinants of a silent (R)evolution: Understanding the expansion of family policy in rich OECD countries. Social Politics, 14(22), 1–37. Fusulier, B. (2009). The European Directive: Making supra-national parental leave policy. In S. B. Kamerman, & P. Moss (Eds.), The politics of parental leave: Children, parenting, gender and the labour market (pp. 243–258). Bristol, UK: Policy Press.

212

Deborah Brennan and Sue Williamson

Goward, P. (2005). Reforming the policy framework. In P. Grimshaw, J. Murphy, & B. Probert (Eds.), Double shift:Working mothers and social change in Australia (pp. 177–183). Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne Publishing Group. Hockey, J. (The Hon.) (2015). Interviewed by L. Oakes, Channel Nine, (10 March Transcript). Retrieved 9 August 2017 from http://jbh.ministers.treasury.gov.au/transcript/ 093-2015/. International Labour Organization (ILO). (2014). Maternity and paternity at work law and practice across the world. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Kamerman, S. B., & Moss, P. (2009). The politics of parental leave policies: Children, parenting, gender and the labour market, Bristol, UK: The Policy Press. Morrison, S. (2015, 25 June). Parliament of Australia, House of Representatives, 2nd Reading Speech, Fairer Paid Parental Leave Bill. Moss, P., & Kamerman, S. B. (2009). Introduction. In S. B. Kamerman, & P. Moss (Eds.), The politics of parental leave policies: children, parenting, gender and the labour market (pp. 1–13). Bristol, UK: The Policy Press. Nader, C. (2008, April 8). Top trio press for baby leave. The Age. Retrieved 9 August 2017 from www.theage.com.au/news/national/top-trio-press-for-baby-leave/2008/04/07/ 1207420303595.html. NSW Public Service Commission. (2014). A better picture: State of the New South Wales public sector 2014, Sydney, Australia: Author. O’Brien, M. (2013). Fitting fathers into work-family policies: International challenges in turbulent times. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 33(9/10), 542–564. OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). (2015a). Family Database, Maternal Employment. Retrieved 9 August 2017 from www.oecd.org/els/ family/LMF_1_2_Maternal_Employment.pdf . OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). (2015b). Key characteristics of parental leave systems. Retrieved 9 August 2017 from www.oecd.org/els/ soc/PF2_1_Parental_leave_systems.pdf . Productivity Commission. (2009). Paid parental leave: Support for parents with newborn children. Canberra, Australia: Commonwealth of Australia. Rubery, J. (2013). Public sector adjustment and the threat to gender equality. In D.VaughanWhitehead (Ed.), Public sector shock:The impact of policy retrenchment in Europe (pp. 43–85). Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. White House (Office of the Press Secretary). (2015, 14 January). Fact Sheet: White House unveils new steps to strengthen working families across America. Retrieved 9 August 2017 from www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/14/fact-sheet-white-houseunveils-new-steps-strengthen-working-families-acr. Whitehouse, G., Baird, M., Alexander, M., & Brennan, D. (2015). Australia country note. In P. Moss (Ed.), International review of leave policies and research 2015. Retrieved 9 August 2017 from www.leavenetwork.org/lp_and_r_reports/. Williamson, S. (2015). A case study of regulatory confusion: Paid parental leave and public servants. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 26(3), 430–447.

14 INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISMS FOR ADVANCING GENDER EQUITY IN EDUCATING FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE Nadia Rubaii

University-based programs that educate current and future public administrators are uniquely positioned to influence gender equity. If they effectively recruit female students and faculty, provide an inclusive and supportive environment that fosters success, and incorporate issues of gender equity in the curriculum, they have the potential to influence not only who enters the public service and rises to leadership positions, but also how prepared and motivated they are to respond to inequities. There are many forces within education that can constrain women’s empowerment such as the absence of role models, lack of relevant curricula content, insensitive advising, and differential treatment in the classroom and in grading. Explicit attention to promoting gender equity is essential to overcome these forces. While arguably gender equity should be a priority for all academic disciplines, public service programs have a particular responsibility to be its champion. History demonstrates, however, that opportunities and moral obligations to advance social change are not always sufficient, and that external pressures to implement and institutionalize change may be required. This chapter examines specialized program accreditation, a particular type of external pressure for promoting gender equity in programs that educate for the public service. The focus is on systems of accreditation specifically targeted at public service education. Systems of accreditation that are national or regional in scope, apply to entire institutions, use generic standards for programs across disciplines, and those that are targeted to other professions are referenced only for purposes of comparison. Because of the interest in advancing gender equity across the globe, particular attention is given to standards of accreditation for public service education that exist on an international scale, with an eye on determining the extent to which they promote gender equity among students and faculty, and in

214

Nadia Rubaii

the curriculum.The underlying assumption is that greater gender equity in public service education can, in turn, help more women rise to positions of authority in the public and nongovernmental sectors and facilitate more widespread and effective public policies and organizational practices to combat legal, cultural, and institutional barriers to gender equity.

Educating for Public Service Education for public services takes many forms around the world in part because public service careers are themselves quite varied. An important aspect of women governing is that of elected positions. As earlier chapters have illustrated, women assume leadership positions in government in a variety of ways. Their route to elective office may be linked to male relatives, most typically husbands or fathers, or may be independent of such contacts. Some women have used existing party structures to rise to power whereas others have challenged the system by forming new political parties. Deliberately emphasizing one’s unique qualities as a woman leader and prioritizing the issues of gender equity have been central to the campaigns and governance of some, while others have governed no differently than their male counterparts in terms of style or policies. These women leaders may have advanced education or not, and those that do have a formal education could be schooled in any number of disciplines. Public service careers are not, however, limited to elected office, and most public service education places greater emphasis on preparing people for appointed positions. Traditionally, these have been positions in government but increasingly they include positions in nongovernmental organizations as well. Given the range of public services provided by government and nonprofit organizations, educating individuals to pursue such positions of responsibility in the public or nonprofit sectors takes many forms. An educational route to a public service career is not as systematized as in other professions such as business, law, engineering, and medicine that require specific degrees and licensures. Individuals may enter appointed or elected positions in government or in nonprofit organizations with degrees in law, political science, public policy, public administration, business, economics, or a multitude of other disciplines. The level of their education may also vary. While the US offers professional degrees largely at master’s level, in many countries the undergraduate level is where professional education is provided to prepare students to begin their professional careers. Of course, it is also possible to enter public service with no higher education and to work one’s way up the organizational ladder. Additionally, many countries have institutes of administration or government that prepare current and future government officials through training and professional development programs. These may be highly selective and prestigious entities that serve as gatekeepers to government positions, or they may just offer workshops and training opportunities to anyone who has already secured a government position.

Advancing Gender Equity

215

An increasingly popular and important educational path to professional public service takes the form of a professional master’s degree in public administration (MPA), public policy (MPP), public management (MPM), or public affairs (MPAff ), including a growing number with specializations in nonprofit administration. These programs are well established in the US and are being developed rapidly in other parts of the world in recognition of the need for public administrators who have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to address the complex challenges of 21stcentury governance. This is the type of public service education that is the focus of this chapter. As public administration, public policy, and nonprofit management are recognized as fields that demand high level competencies, there is pressure to professionalize and systematize the educational preparation for those careers.This brings with it a need to monitor the quality of educational programs and to share information about quality with interested parties. While it is not the primary objective of quality assurance or accreditation, there is an opportunity for these systems to serve as mechanisms to advance gender and other forms of equity.

Structures and Processes of Quality Assurance and Accreditation In a world characterized by escalating global interdependency, there is increased demand for higher education (Lopez-Segrera, 2010; Martin & Stella, 2007), a proliferation in the number and diversity of higher education suppliers in many countries (Lopez-Segrera, 2010; Martin & Stella, 2007), and a corresponding growing concern about disparities in higher education quality (Martin & Stella, 2007). In response to these conditions, there has been an increasing demand for quality assurance and accreditation of pedagogical programs in all parts of the world. Accreditation can, in turn, provide a mechanism for advancing social goals such as gender equity. Quality assurance is a broad concept that entails initial approvals or authorizations for higher education institutions and programs, as well as periodic internal or external assessments, audits, and evaluations.At its highest level, quality assurance takes the form of accreditation.The US Department of Education defines accreditation as a status granted that indicates an institution or program is “meeting its mission and the standards of the accreditation organization and seems likely to continue to meet that mission for the foreseeable future” (Office of Postsecondary Education, n.d.). Accreditation take various forms. It may be mandatory or voluntary. It may be provided by governmental agencies within a Ministry or Department of Education or by other government entities, by universities, or by private or nonprofit organizations. It can be national, regional, or international in scope. It can be for institutions and/or programs. Program accreditation may be available or required at the undergraduate and/or graduate levels, and for all disciplines or only select fields. It can evaluate inputs (monetary, staff, and infrastructure resources), outputs

216

Nadia Rubaii

(numbers of students, number of publications) and/or outcomes (student learning, competencies, impact on the community), and it may be well established or relatively new.

Accreditation Entities Accreditation of public service programs is a relatively recent undertaking compared to accreditation of educational programs in other professional fields such as business, engineering, social work, counseling, or the medical professions. In most countries, public administration and public policy programs do not receive special attention within the realm of accreditation. If, however, a country requires or makes available program-level accreditation, public administration and public policy programs are eligible to seek and obtain such recognition. The first country in which a specialized accreditation entity was established and tailored accreditation standards were developed was the US.The accreditation model used in the US is both an anomaly and a world leader.Whereas most countries have government-controlled or government-regulated accreditation processes and a majority have some form of mandatory quality assurance review, the US relies on private and nonprofit accreditors who oversee a system of voluntary accreditation by peers. The Council on Higher Education Quality (CHEA) is a US-based association of 3,000 degree-granting colleges and universities that recognizes 60 institutional and programmatic accrediting organizations. Institutional accreditation is performed by regional accrediting agencies; specialized program accreditation is the job of organizations associated with various disciplines and professions. CHEA evaluates accrediting organizations based on six standards to gauge the extent to which their standards and processes advance academic quality, demonstrate accountability, encourage self-scrutiny and planning for change and improvement, employ appropriate and fair processes and decision making, demonstrate ongoing review of accreditation practices, and possess sufficient resources. Many accrediting organizations recognized by CHEA that began by offering services only to programs and institutions in the US now provide accreditation reviews on an international scale in the fields of business, engineering, and more recently public affairs education. Other accreditors recognized by CHEA, such as those in nursing and social work education, have retained their exclusive focus on accreditation within the US. CHEA recognizes one organization, NASPAA,1 as an accreditor of graduate level programs in public policy, affairs, and administration in the US and globally. NASPAA is an institutional membership organization with 284 members located in the US and 14 other countries. Although NASPAA’s Commission on Peer Review and Accreditation (COPRA) is the CHEA-recognized body that is responsible for NASPAA’s accreditation activities, in the rest of this chapter, standards are referred to as NASPAA standards.

Advancing Gender Equity

217

Founded in 1970, NASPAA began its process of peer review of member institutions in 1978 based on voluntary guidelines and published its first list of programs “in substantial conformity” with these guidelines in 1980. Formal accreditation of programs based on official standards began in 1986. According to NASPAA’s 2016–2017 Roster of Accredited Programs, accreditation status has been given to 191 programs at 177 schools in the US and three other countries (NASPAA, 2016). NASPAA accreditation has evolved through three distinct stages or what Rubaii and Calarusse (2012) call “generations.” First generation standards (1986– 1992) focused on assessing whether programs had: 1) sufficient resources in the form of faculty, classrooms, library holdings, budgets; 2) proper inputs for student learning in the form of prescribed subject areas in the curriculum and a minimum of credit hours; and 3) adequate autonomy and authority at the program level. Second generation standards (1992–2009) moved away from a focus on inputs and allowed greater flexibility in defining curriculum content linked to a program’s mission and goals.Third generation standards, which were adopted in 2009, maintain the centrality of the program mission and add an emphasis on public service values as an overarching framework.The 2009 standards also put a greater emphasis on measuring outcomes of student learning/competencies, as well as a program’s effectiveness in achieving its mission. The other organization that offers accreditation for public service programs on a global scale is the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA) that has nearly 200 members from more than 80 countries (IASIA, n.d.). IASIA has a long history of international engagement regarding public affairs education and training, but only recently entered the accreditation scene. In contrast to NASPAA that limits its accreditation to master’s degree programs, IASIA offers accreditation to a wide range of education and training programs, ranging from formal undergraduate, masters, or doctoral degree programs to single-day training activities. IASIA standards, which were developed in coordination with the United Nations Department of Social and Economic Affairs, are based largely on principles of continuous improvement toward a goal of excellence. Through the International Commission on Accreditation of Public Administration Education and Training (ICAPA), IASIA awarded its first accreditation in 2014 to the professional Master’s in Public Administration of the Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration (EBAPE) in Rio de Janeiro and the professional Master’s in Public Administration program of The Business Administration School of São Paulo (EAESP). In June 2015, several programs at the doctoral, masters, and training and certificate levels at Rutgers University–Newark were granted accreditation. One additional accrediting agency deserves attention as well despite not having a fully global reach. The European Association for Public Administration Accreditation (EAPPA) is recognized by the European Quality Assurance Registry for Higher Education (EQAR), accepted by the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE), and is a member

218

Nadia Rubaii

of the European Alliance for Subject-Specific and Professional Accreditation and Quality Assurance (EASPA). Since 1999, public affairs programs at the undergraduate and master’s level have been able to seek voluntary accreditation from EAPAA. Unlike NASPAA and IASIA, both of which are broad-based professional associations offering a range of services to their members, EAPAA is strictly an accrediting agency. As of 2015, EAPAA has accredited 37 programs at the baccalaureate and master’s levels from 22 universities in 12 countries (EAPAA, n.d.). EAPAA’s standards of accreditation and reporting requirements were initially based almost entirely on NASPAA’s second generation standards and have since evolved and been modified to better meet the diverse European context.

Promoting Gender Equity in Public Service Education Through Accreditation As mentioned earlier, accreditation is a means by which various stakeholders – students, families, government officials, employers of graduates, and the press – know that an institution or program provides a quality education. From the program or institutional perspective, accreditation provides a seal of approval that can provide some competitive advantage and can also contribute to continuous improvement through the systematic self-evaluation process and the feedback from the accrediting agency. Clearly the primary purpose of accreditation is not gender equality. It is, rather, a potential additional benefit which may be deliberately or unwittingly incorporated or omitted from the standards of an accrediting organization. However, accreditation policies have the potential to facilitate gender equity or to ignore the importance of gender issues. There are several means by which accreditation agencies, standards, and reporting processes can promote gender equity. At a most basic level, an accrediting body can call attention to gender equity as part of its guiding principles or values. Gender can also be incorporated into accreditation standards regarding faculty composition, student composition, the educational climate, the curriculum content, or student learning outcomes, and in specific reporting and transparency requirements. Finally, gender equity can be advanced by serving as a role model and having women in positions of organizational leadership. The following sections discuss to what extent and in what ways the policies and practices of the three international accreditors of public service education – NASPAA, IASIA, and EAPAA – promote the goals of gender equity to the extent that the information is available. The contributions of NASPAA are discussed in all sections, and references are made to IASIA and EAPAA where possible.

Guiding Principles and Values One way in which accreditation can promote the importance of gender equity is to identify it as a core value or goal. Many national systems of accreditation make

Advancing Gender Equity

219

reference to the values of equality, equity, and non-discrimination as guiding principles, and some even explicitly mention gender. For example, Nicaragua’s accreditation of higher education institutions identifies 17 fundamental values upon which the system is based, including gender equity. Ecuador’s quality assurance and accreditation agencies indicate that they advance practices designed to eliminate all forms of discrimination based on gender and other individual characteristics, and guarantee equal opportunity to groups that have traditionally faced discrimination. None of the public service education accreditors explicitly mentions gender in their core values and principles, but they do raise related issues of diversity and equity . In the Preconditions for Accreditation Review, the 2009 NASPAA standards require that programs affirm their commitment to public service values including those related to “demonstrating respect, equity, and fairness in dealings with citizens and fellow public servants” (NASPAA, 2014, p. 2). The Introduction to the IASIA Standards cites Wooldridge (2007) and the need for high performing organizations to value diversity (IASIA/UNDESA Task Force on Standards of Excellence for Public Administration Education and Training, 2008).The EAPAA standards focus less on universal values and more on the need for flexibility to be responsiveness to the diversity of educational contexts across Europe. To be effective, accreditation organizations must move beyond lofty statements about values and aspirations to articulate specific and measurable requirements in their standards, to enforce the standards, and to document the results. In a study comparing NASPAA and IASIA standards and processes with those of Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Paraguay, four countries that offer accreditation for graduate public affairs programs and publish their accreditation standards and processes online, Rubaii (2015) found that the national systems limit the discussion to the level of values and general principles, and do not translate these values into specific requirements or standards for reporting data on gender or having plans to improve gender equity. In contrast, the three public service education accreditors incorporate these requirements to varying degrees and in different ways within their accreditation standards and reporting requirements.

NASPAA Accreditation Standards and Reporting Requirements NASPAA standards address diversity, including gender diversity, in terms of faculty, students, and curriculum, with varying degrees of specificity. Standard 3.2 on Faculty Diversity requires that “The program will promote diversity and a climate of inclusiveness through its recruitment and retention of faculty members” (NASPAA, 2014, p. 5). Part of the rationale provided for this standard is that “the program’s faculty, as a group, should include a variety of perspectives and experiences (e.g., gender, ethnicity, race, disabilities) to invigorate discourse with each other and with students and to prepare students for the professional workplace” (NASPAA, 2014, p. 6). Similarly, Standard 4.4 on Student Diversity demands that

220

Nadia Rubaii

“the program will promote diversity and a climate of inclusiveness through its recruitment, admissions practices, and student support services” (NASPAA, 2014, p. 6). For both Standards 3 and 4, programs are required to provide and reference a formal, written, program-level diversity plan. In the self-study instructions, a list of possible strategies is provided as examples for inclusion in a diversity plan, several of which refer to how to better recruit and retain women faculty. To assist programs in the accreditation process, NASPAA regularly issues policy statements to clarify their interpretation and application of the standards. Between 2008 and 2015, five of the six policy statements have specifically reaffirmed the importance of faculty diversity, clarified the need for a program-specific diversity plan, and made reference to gender (COPRA Policy Statements 2008–2009, 2001, 2012, June 2013, October 2013, 2014). Self-Study Instructions for programs seeking NASPAA accreditation explicitly require data on faculty by gender, race, and ethnicity, and of students by gender, full- and part-time status, race, ethnicity, nationality, and whether they receive financial support from the program. Programs are also required to provide a narrative description of current faculty diversity efforts and a description of how faculty diversity of the program has changed in the preceding five years. Similarly, programs are required to explain any gender-based considerations made during student admissions decisions. NASPAA also promotes a level of transparency that many other accreditors do not in the form of a commitment on the part of NASPAA to “make publicly available program’s enrollment and its gender/ethnic composition.” Programs that do not provide these data to NASPAA for public release must provide an explanation as to why they have not done so and a rationale for how they consider themselves still in conformance with the standard. As NASPAA has expanded from its US roots to international accreditations, it has had to reconsider the meaning of diversity. While US-based programs are required by NASPAA to report faculty and student diversity using the demographic categories of race and ethnicity as defined by the US Bureau of the Census, NASPAA requires programs outside the US to identify the relevant diversity characteristics based on their own historic and social contexts. Notably, however, in defining diversity for purposes of documenting faculty and student composition, gender is the single characteristic that must be reported by all programs, reflecting NASPAA’s commitment to gender equity on a global scale, even while acknowledging that other aspects of diversity such as race may vary by context. As NASPAA standards have evolved, emphasis has shifted from curriculum content to student learning outcomes. With the standards adopted in 2009, NASPAA identified five universal competencies that programs must document their students have acquired (Standard 5).These universal competencies are intentionally broad, and programs are required to define them in the context of their own missions. Among the five competencies, none explicitly mentions gender,

Advancing Gender Equity

221

although one refers more generally to cultural competency and diversity. Programs must demonstrate that their students have the ability “to interact and communicate productively with a diverse and changing workforce and citizenry” (NASPAA, 2014, p. 7).There is certainly opportunity for programs to define this competency, or that regarding the ability “to apply a public service perspective” to encompass gender equity. In fact, in the appendices to the self-study instructions where sample definitions of this competency are provided, several of the options refer to gender (NASPAA, 2015, p. 67).

International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA) IASIA standards are somewhat different than NASPAA’s, in part because IASIA opens its accreditation to a broader array of programs, including those at the undergraduate and doctoral levels, professional development activities, and short training workshops. IASIA accreditation is based on eight Standards of Excellence addressing the program’s: 1) public service commitment; 2) advocacy of public interest values; 3) demonstrated combining of scholarship, practice and community service; 4) centrality of faculty; 5) positioning inclusiveness at the heart of the program; 6) having a curriculum that is purposeful and responsive; 7) adequacy of resources; and 8) balancing collaboration and competition (IASIA/UNDESA Task Force on Standards of Excellence for Public Administration Education and Training, 2008, pp. 4–5). Having a standard dedicated to inclusiveness provides an opportunity to call attention to equity issues. This is similar to the approach used in South African standards for institutional and program accreditation that include a separate standard on Diversity, Access, Redress, and Equity, in contrast to most other accreditation agencies that place diversity within the context of other standards (Van der Krogt, 2005). Again, because of the variety of programs that can seek IASIA accreditation, the standards and reporting requirements allow for some degree of flexibility. Each of the eight standards is linked to a series of institutional and program characteristics in a rubric with a series of criteria in five categories that programs use to rate their performance along each criterion. Despite a strong statement in the standards, the reporting requirements do not demand data on gender, but rather are limited to a self-assessment of the extent to which the program is achieving this goal.

The European Association for Public Administration Accreditation (EAPPA) EAPAA has perhaps the most explicit reference to women and gender of the three accrediting bodies discussed in this chapter in the accreditation standards themselves (see Table 14.1). In both standard 5.9.3 regarding diversity among the

222

Nadia Rubaii

TABLE 14.1 Public Service Program Accreditors and Gender-Related Criteria

Explicit Reference to Gender Equity in Guiding Principles and Core Values Standards on Faculty Diversity

NASPAA

IASIA

EAPAA

No

No

No

Yes, but no reference to gender Yes

Yes, but no reference to gender

Yes, with explicit reference to gender equality No

Self-Study Reporting Requirements on Faculty Gender Diversity Standards on Student Yes, but no Diversity reference to gender Self-Study Reporting Yes Requirements on Student Gender Diversity Standards on Gender and No, only Diversity Issues in the implied Curriculum

Standards Explicitly on No Diversity Publicized Data on Gender Yes

No

No

No

Yes, with explicit reference to gender equality No

Yes, implied in terms of No teaching about inclusiveness including related to gender orientation Yes No No

No

professional staff and standard 10.1 regarding admission of students, the language is that “the program strives for a balanced percentage of men and women . . . which is in accordance with the principles of gender equality as specified by the higher education institution hosting the program” (EAPPA, 2013, p. 9). However, despite the explicit reference to gender in the standards, the self-study instructions have no places where data on the gender composition of the faculty or students must be reported.

Gender Composition of Students and Faculty in Public Administration Programs Because it is the only public affairs program accreditor that requires programs to report data on gender, NASPAA is also the only one of the three that is able to aggregate and make public that information.The gender distribution in NASPAAmember programs has remained relatively consistent in recent decades, with women representing about 60 percent of all students (Primo, 2013). This total, however, masks considerable variation across programs. According to data reported

Advancing Gender Equity

223

by accredited programs in their annual reports and compiled by NASPAA, in 2014–2015, the percentage of women students in NASPAA accredited programs ranged from a low of 12 percent to a high of 90 percent, suggesting that the pressure of accreditation to achieve gender parity is not reaching all programs. The proportion of female faculty is considerably less than that of students. While women represented 34 percent of faculty in the period 2007 to 2013 – close to three times the 12 percent from 1992 to 1998 (Primo, 2013) – we are still far from gender parity. This has been recognized as a long-term “pipeline” challenge requiring attention to encourage more women to enter and complete doctoral programs in public administration and related programs and to enter the academy.

Female Leadership in Accrediting Organizations Since its formation in 1970, the growing role of women in NASPAA’s leadership reflects an intentional move toward greater gender equity in the organization. During its first 15 years from 1970 to 1985, all NASPAA presidents were men. The first woman elected by the NASPAA membership to serve as president was Astrid Merget in 1985–1986. During the next 15-year period, from 1985–2000, five women served as presidents, accounting for 33 percent of all people serving in that position. In the most recent period from 2000 to 2016, nine of the 16 presidents (56 percent) have been women. Among the women who have led NASPAA are those who have made their mark on the field in various ways, through scholarship and contributions to theory, stewardship of NASPAA and its accreditation processes, their roles as deans and directors of member schools and programs, and as role models to their students and other women faculty. An analysis of the presidential addresses of eight of the last nine women presidents shows that all but one made explicit references to diversity. Presidents of IASIA serve longer terms and thus there have been just 12 presidents in the Association’s 50+ year history, of whom two have been women. Joan Cokery from Ireland served from 1992 to 1995 and Valeria Termini from Italy was president from 2010 to 2012.

Gender Diversity Efforts of Other Specialized Accreditors At the start of this chapter, I made the assertion that public service educators have a heightened responsibility to promote gender equity relative to educators in other disciplines. As such, we might expect that accreditation of public service education would prioritize gender equity more than other specialized accreditors. For purposes of comparison, this section examines the standards of accrediting agencies with respect to gender diversity from three professional fields: engineering, business, and social work.These three were selected with the expectation that they would provide both contrast (engineering) and some potential for commonalities (business and social work) with the public service accreditors.

224

Nadia Rubaii

Perhaps not surprisingly, accreditors of public affairs education programs place a greater emphasis on gender equity than their counterparts in engineering where this concept is notably absent. The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), which accredits “college and university programs in the disciplines of applied science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology at the associate, bachelor, and master degree levels” throughout the world (ABET, n.d.), never uses the words gender and women, or even the broader concept of diversity, in either its 25-page standards document (ABET, 2015a) or the accompanying 30-page document with instructions on preparing the selfstudy report (ABET, 2015b). The only use of the word “equity” is in the first document and there only as part of ABET’s pledge to maintain confidentiality of information and to provide its services with “impartiality, fairness, and equity” (ABET, 2015a, p. 5). Clearly, accreditation is not functioning as an institutional mechanism to promote gender equity in engineering programs. According to the National Science Foundation (NSF), the number of women earning degrees in engineering has increased in the past 20 years; however, it remains “well below that of men at all degree levels and in all fields of engineering” (National Science Foundation, 2015, n.p.). In business education, there are three accrediting bodies. The Association of MBAs (AMBA) accredits MBA programs; the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accredits business schools; and the European Foundation for Management Development Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) accredits entire institutions. Accreditation by all three, i.e., “triple accreditation,” shows that a program has attained the gold-standard for business education accreditation. The three accrediting bodies differ in their focus and requirements. They also have different approaches to encouraging gender diversity. AACSB has been in the accreditation business since 1919. Its standards make repeated references to the importance of diversity within the context of requiring that schools demonstrate a commitment to corporate and social responsibility. The standards explain that: [d]iversity in people and ideas enhances the educational experience in every management education program. At the same time, diversity is a culturally embedded concept rooted in historical and cultural traditions, legislative and regulatory concepts, economic conditions, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic conditions, and experiences. (AACSB International, 2016, p. 6, emphasis added) Accreditation instructions “describe how the school defines and supports the concept of diversity . . . define the populations the school serves and describe the school’s role in fostering opportunity for underserved populations” (AACSB International, 2016, p. 6). There is, however, no mandate that a program explicitly focus on gender or address gender in its accreditation review.

Advancing Gender Equity

225

AACSB International (n.d.) publishes data on the gender composition of its graduates, although this is separate from its accreditation reporting requirements. According to AACSB International, in 2013–2014, the percent of MBAs awarded to women in 2013 varied by region with the lowest rates (33 percent) in the Latin American and Caribbean area and the highest (41 percent) in Europe and Oceania. In North America, 38 percent of MBAs were awarded to women. AMBA stresses the importance of diversity of students in its standards, but it defines student diversity in the context of international, not gender, diversity. In its ten-page standards document, diversity is also addressed in the standard regarding curriculum in terms of the need to “incorporate an understanding of management styles from different regions and cultures, and to include diversity in examples and/or case studies” (AMBA, n.d.a, p. 7). Similarly,AMBA’s Accreditation Guidance document refers to need for the curriculum “to build on the significant work experience and diversity amongst the student cohort” (AMBA, n.d.b, p. 21). EQUIS was launched in 1997 as an international system of strategic review initially intended and designed for the diverse European context and “the special needs imposed by extreme cultural diversity.” It is now available to “any cultural environment in any region” (EQUIS, 2015b, p. 4). EQUIS presents itself as promoting a quality improvement scheme more so than simply providing accreditation. Compared to the other business accreditors and compared to the accreditors of public service education, EQUIS has more detailed standards and more extensive instructions on reporting requirements for the self-study report. It also gives more explicit attention on issues of gender equity. The EQUIS Standards and Criteria comprise 78 pages. Gender is explicitly addressed in several places within the standards. Programs are required to describe their “current student population in terms of origin, previous study, age, and gender” and to analyze trends in those statistics, identify desired changes in the student mix, and planned recruitment actions to meet those objectives (EQUIS, 2015a, p. 31, emphasis added). The raw data and individual student profiles must also be made available to the external site visit team during the review. Similarly, in documenting the faculty composition, institutions must report to EQUIS on the gender mix of the faculty, and must provide in the self-study report a table showing key statistics for the faculty including gender distribution (EQUIS, 2015a, p. 40; 2015c, p. 29). Because EQUIS accredits at the institutional level, there is less attention to specific requirements within the curriculum. In social work, the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) is a nonprofit organization based in the US that has accredited more than 500 social work programs as of 2015 at the baccalaureate level and nearly 250 at the master’s level (Council on Social Work Education, n.d.). The accreditation standards make reference to general values of human dignity, social justice, and human rights, among others. Gender equity is not explicitly stated among the fundamental values, but it is implied. Gender is referenced in the standards, or what CSWE refers to as educational policies, regarding curriculum content and the learning

226

Nadia Rubaii

environment. Educational Policy 2.1.4 requires that the curriculum help “social workers understand how diversity characterizes and shapes the human experience”; the diversity factors explicitly mentioned include “age, class, color, culture, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, immigration status, political ideology, race, religion, sex, and sexual orientation” (CSWE, 2008, pp. 4–5). Educational Policy 3.1 uses the same list of diversity categories in describing the responsibility of programs to provide a: [l]earning environment (institutional setting, selection of field education settings and their clientele, composition of program advisory or field committees, educational and social resources, resource allocation, program leaderships, speaker series, seminars, and special programs, support groups, research and other initiatives, and the demographic make-up of its faculty, staff, and student body). (CSWE, 2008, p. 11) Although the references to gender are explicit within the standards, it is less clear how compliance is documented and evaluated. The Handbook that provides instructions on what to include in a self-study report simply requires that a program provide a series of narratives that demonstrate the program’s compliance with each of the educational policies (CSWE, 2012). According to CSWE statistics, approximately two-thirds of social work educators are women; however, they are more likely to hold the ranks of lecturer, instructor, or assistant professor and less likely than their male counterparts to hold the rank of associate or full professor. Not until the turn of the 21st century did women surpass men in their percentage of deans and directors of social work schools and departments (Lennon, 2005). Beyond its accreditation standards, CSWE offers a model of how a volunteer committee can keep gender equity issues on the agenda and advocate for necessary changes. CSWE’s Council on the Role and Status of Women in Social Work Education, referred to simply as the Women’s Committee (WC), began to examine the status of women in the late 1960s within the CSWE itself and within the profession and its educational programs more broadly. For more than 40 years the WC has helped to: [d]evelop educational resources relevant to women’s issues, eliminate procedures within academe that hinder full participation of women, make recommendations to the CSWE Board of Directors on matters of policy, and initiate and coordinate programs and activities related to women in social work education. (Alvarez, Collins, Graber, & Lazzari, 2008, p. 63) One issue that WC has examined is how accreditation standards can be used to promote gender equity.“Shaping accreditation standards has been used as a critical

No

Yes No

No No

Yes Yes No

No

Yes Yes

Yes Yes

No

No Yes

No No

No

Yes+ No

Yes+ No

No

No Yes

No

No No

No No

Yes

No No

No

Yes No

No No

No

No No

No

Yes Yes

Yes Yes

No

EQUIS

No Yes

Yes

Yes No

Yes No

No

CSWE

Social Work Accreditors

Note:Yes+ signifies that the standard not only references diversity or equity as a general principle but also makes specific reference to gender.

Reference to Gender Equity in Guiding Principles and Core Values Standards on Faculty Diversity Self-Study Reporting Requirements on Faculty Gender Diversity Standards on Student Diversity Self-Study Reporting Requirements on Student Gender Diversity Standards on Gender Issues in the Curriculum Standards Explicitly on Diversity Publicized Data on Gender

AMBA

AACSB

EAPAA

NASPAA

IASIA

Business Accreditors

Public Affairs Accreditors

TABLE 14.2 Accreditation Mechanisms to Promote Gender Equity: Comparison among Professions

No No

No

No No

No No

No

ABET

Engineering Accreditors

228

Nadia Rubaii

tool to ensure that content on women is included in social work curricula and that female faculty and students are not discriminated against” (Alvarez, Collins, Graber, & Lazzari, 2008, p. 72). Another issue identified by the WC was the need to increase the role of women in leadership positions in CSWE. A study of CSWE presidents and executive directors found that women held eight of 20 presidencies from 1952 through 2006. During its 54 years, although five of the organization’s 11 executive directors have been women, men have served for 44 years, whereas the women just ten years (Alvarez, Collins, Graber, & Lazzari, 2008, p. 78). Examined collectively, the examples of gender equity as a component of accreditation within engineering, business, and social work demonstrate that accreditation of public service education is doing better than some in promoting gender equity, but could also take lessons from accreditors in other fields (see Table 14.2).

Conclusion With a growing number of master’s level public affairs programs in which, on average, 60 percent of the students are women, there is considerable opportunity for these programs to play a significant role in preparing women for positions of leadership at all levels and types of governance. When we add to this the array of other educational and training programs for public service and the opportunity to prepare all graduates – women and men – to be advocates for policies and practices that promote gender equity, the potential for influence is even greater. Accreditation can contribute to these efforts to the extent that the guiding values, the standards, the reporting requirements, and the leadership of accreditation associations explicitly address gender equity. The evidence presented in this chapter demonstrates that there is room for improvement in this regard. All three accreditors of public service education reference the importance of faculty diversity, but only EAPAA explicitly highlights the need to pursue gender equality in the language of a standard, and only NASPAA requires data on gender distribution to be included in the self-study report. NASPAA and EAPAA standards also draw attention to student diversity, but once again only EAPAA uses the language of gender equality in the standard, and only NASPAA requires reporting of data on gender of the student body in both the self-study report and in data released publicly. IASIA standards come the closest to requiring issues of gender equity to be included in the curriculum, but none of the public affairs accreditors go as far as CSWE in this regard. Only NASPAA collects and publishes data on the gender composition of its accredited programs as a form of transparency to its stakeholders. NASPAA has made considerably more progress in modeling gender equity in its leadership in recent years, whereas IASIA leadership continues to be male dominated. If gender equity truly is a goal within public service education, there is a need to incorporate it more systematically within the accreditation framework, with explicit reference in the guiding principles or values, individual standards, reporting requirements, and results. Toward this end, public service accreditors

Advancing Gender Equity

229

could benefit from the creation of an entity modeled after the CSWE’s Council on the Role and Status of Women in Social Work Education. How about a Council on the Role and Status of Women in Public Service Education?

Note 1

The acronym NASPAA formerly stood for the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration. Since 2012, the acronym is for the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration.

References AACSB International. (2016). Eligibility procedures and accreditation standards for business accreditation (adopted April 8, 2013, updated January 31, 2016). Retrieved from www.aacsb. edu/~/media/AACSB/Docs/Accreditation/Standards/2013-bus-standards-update.ashx. AACSB International. (n.d.) Enrollment percentages by gender and region. Retrieved from www. aacsb.edu/knowledge/data/frequently-requested/enrollments/by-gender-region.aspx. ABET. (n.d.). About ABET. Retrieved from www.abet.org/about-abet/. ABET. (2015a). Accreditation policy and procedure manual. Retrieved from www.abet.org/ wp-content/uploads/2015/10/A001-16-17-Accreditation-Policy-and-ProcedureManual-11-1-15.pdf . ABET. (2015b). ABET self-study questionnaire: Template for a self-study report, 2016–2017 review cycle. ABET Applied Science Accreditation Commission. Retrieved from www. abet.org/accreditation/self-study-templates/. Alvarez, A. R., Collins, K. S., Graber, H.V., & Lazzari, M. M. (2008). What about women? Historical perspectives on the CSWE council on the role and status of women in social work education. Journal of Social Work Educaton, 44(1), 63–84. AMBA. (n.d.a). Criteria for the accreditation of MBAs. Retrieved from www.mbaworld. com/~/media/Files/Accreditation/MBA-criteria-for-accreditation.ashx. AMBA. (n.d.b). AMBA accreditation guidance for business schools. Retrieved from www. mbaworld.com/~/media/Files/Accreditation/Accreditation%20Guidance%20for%20 Business%20Schools.ashx. COPRA (various dates).COPRA Policy Statements.Retrieved from https://naspaaaccreditation. files.wordpress.com/2016/11/copra-policy-statement-10-201621.pdf. Council on Social Work Education. (n.d.). Accreditation. Retrieved from www.cswe.org/ Accreditation.aspx. Council on Social Work Education. (2008). Educational policy and accreditation standards. Retrieved from www.cswe.org/File.aspx?id=41861 (copyright 2008, revised 2010, and updated 2012). Council on Social Work Education. (2012). 2008 EPAs Handbook. CSWE Commission on Accreditation. Retrieved from www.cswe.org/File.aspx?id=64764. EAPAA. (n.d.). Accredited programs. Retrieved from www.eapaa.eu/accredited-programmes. EAPPA. (2013). Accreditation criteria, version 9. Retrieved from www.eapaa.eu/wp-content/ uploads/2015/04/EAPAAAccreditationCriteriaVersion9Jan2013.pdf. EQUIS. (2015a). EQUIS standards and criteria 2015. Retrieved from www.efmd.org/ images/stories/efmd/EQUIS/2015/EQUIS_Standards_and_Criteria.pdf. EQUIS. (2015b). EQUIS process manual 2015. Retrieved from www.efmd.org/images/ stories/efmd/EQUIS/2015/EQUIS_Process_Manual.pdf.

230

Sharon Mastracci

EQUIS. (2015c). 2015 EQUIS process manual annexes. Retrieved from www.efmd.org/ images/stories/efmd/EQUIS/2015/EQUIS_Process_Manual_Annexes.pdf. IASIA. (n.d.). Members. Retrieved from www.iias-iisa.org/iasia/members/. IASIA/UNDESA Task Force on Standards of Excellence for Public Administration Education and Training. (2008). Standards of excellence for public administration education and training: Final report. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)/International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA). Retrieved from http://iasia.iias-iisa.org/about-iasia/iasia-and-the-un/undesaiasia-standards-of-excellence/. Lennon, T. (2005). Statistics on social work education in the United States, 2003. Alexandria,VA: Council on Social Work Education. Lopez-Segrera, F. (2010). Trends and innovations in higher education reform: Worldwide, Latin America and in the Caribbean. Center for Studies in Higher Education, Research and Occasional Paper Series. Berkeley, CA: University of California. Retrieved from http:// cshe.berkeley.edu. Martin, M., & Stella, A. (2007). External quality assurance in higher education: Making choices. Paris: UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning. NASPAA. (2014). Accreditation standards for master’s degree programs (adopted October 16, 2009; amended November 6, 2014). Commission on Peer Review and Accreditation, NASPAA. Retrieved from https://naspaaaccreditation.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/ naspaa-accreditation-standards.pdf . NASPAA. (2015). Self study instructions. Commission on Peer Review and Accreditation, NASPAA. Retrieved from https://naspaaaccreditation.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/ ssi-instructions-2015-update-final.pdf . NASPAA. (2016). 2016–2017 Roster of accredited programs. Retrieved from https:// naspaaaccreditation.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/annual-roster-of-accreditedprograms-updated-09-01-15.pdf . National Science Foundation. (2015). Women, minorities, and persons with disabilities in science and engineering. Retrieved from www.nsf.gov/statistics/2015/nsf15311/digest/theme2.cfm. Office of Postsecondary Education. (n.d.). FAQs about accreditation. United States Department of Education. Retrieved from http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/FAQAccr.aspx. Primo, N. (2013). NASPAA diversity report 2013: Over a decade in review. Retrieved from http://naspaa.org. Rubaii, N. (2015, May). ¿Hasta qué punto puede la acreditación avanzar valores de inclusión, equidad y diversidad para programas en Asuntos Publicos en America Latina? Una comparación de acreditación nacional e internacional. Unpublished paper presented at the INPAE Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Rubaii, N., & Calarusse, C. (2012). Cultural competency as a standard for accreditation. In K. A. Norman-Major, & S. T. Gooden (Eds.), Cultural competency for public administrators (pp. 219–243). Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. Van der Krogt,T. (2005). Quality standards in public administration education and training: Issues, models, and contemporary evaluation policies. Paper of the IASIA/UNDESA Task Force on Standards of Excellence for Public Administration Education and Training. Retrieved from www.eapaa.eu/. Wooldridge, B. (2007). High performing schools and institutes of administration: The role of standards of excellence. In A. Rosenbaum, & J. M. Kauzya (Eds.), Excellence and leadership in the public sector (pp. 44–61). New York: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs/International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration.

15 GENDER EQUITY WORLDWIDE Where We Are and Where to From Here? Sharon Mastracci

In countries around the globe, achieving political and economic gender equity remains an unrealized goal. Worldwide, women’s pay in relation to men’s has not budged since the start of the global economic crisis that began in 2007. Women’s pay today is roughly equal to what men earned, on average, in 2006. In other words, women’s pay is about a decade behind men’s. At current rates of change, it will take 118 years, or to the year 2133, for women around the world to earn equal pay to men (Jowit, 2015). Economic and political gaps differ among countries.The purpose of this chapter is to review the status of women’s equity in each country and region discussed in the preceding chapters as well as to select policy tools examined in these chapters. The chapters in this book examine power, leadership and representation of women in public service throughout the world. The first chapters provide the trends and context in which women in public service can be studied. Rubin begins the book with an overview of the history of women in the public service in the US and in other countries around the world. She writes that, with few exceptions, women have historically been underrepresented at top levels of public administration in countries around the world. Even today, they encounter glass ceilings and glass walls that prevent their equal participation in decision-making positions. Levine and D’Agostino examine trends of women in the labor force. They show that despite significant gains, women remain a minority in leadership positions in both the private and public sectors. In public administration across the world’s regions they hold, on average, fewer than 30 percent of decision-making positions. Stivers explores the evolution of perspectives on women in public life, noting that the emergence of women in public roles is a relatively recent trend. The statistics provided by Rubin and by Levine and D’Agostino must be viewed in the

232

Sharon Mastracci

context of Stivers’ examination of gendered theories and practices that historically excluded women from public service. Guy and Larson’s chapter discusses ten exceptional women who, despite all the odds, have made it to top leadership position in their countries. The second set of chapters in the book examines women in leadership and public service role, worldwide and in selected regions and countries. KochMehrin and Schreiber set the stage in their respective chapters by examining women in elected and non-elected senior positions in governments around the world. Bishu, Gomez, and Barsoum examine women in leadership positions and in public service in Sub Sahara Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, respectively. El Baradei and Rubin and Yu follow with their respective analyses of Egypt and China. Ahmed completes this section with an examination of the role of women in nonprofit/nongovernmental organizations. The third set of chapters in the book analyze programs and policies to promote women in leadership positions and in public service worldwide. Illustrative of these policies, Brennan and Williamson examine family-friendly workplace policies and other strategies to balance work and non-work lives. Rubaii focuses on accreditation of academic programs as a particular type of external pressure for promoting gender equity in educating for the public service. In this closing chapter, I revisit the countries and regions examined in the preceding chapters and provide further evidence of the economic and political contexts for women in the public sphere. I also discuss which policy tools show the most promise to mitigate gender gaps in political representation and economic opportunity. Using statistical analysis, I examine which of the indicators—political, economic, health, or education—are most influential. Results reveal the importance of women’s representation in the public sphere to narrowing the global gender gap. I conclude with a discussion of the importance of women in public service globally.

Comparing Regions and Nations There are wide differences among regions and countries in the economic, political, and social status of women and in their standing compared with men. The Global Gender Gap Index, published as part of the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report (WEF), provides a way to compare these differences. The Index was developed by the WEF in 2006 partially to address the need for a consistent and comprehensive measure for gender equality that can track a country’s progress over time (WEF, 2015). In the Index, WEF converts individual country data into ratios between women and men in four domains: (1) economic participation and opportunity; (2) educational attainment; (3) health and survival; and (4) political empowerment. Each of these domains is operationalized by a sub-index, e.g., the economic participation and opportunity sub-index. Each country’s Gender Gap Index is based on ratios in these four domains. Index values range from 0.0, indicating complete gender inequality, to 1.0, indicating

Gender Equity Worldwide

233

complete equality between women and men. Population-weighted averages of individual country indices are used to calculate a Gender Gap Index for six regions: Asia and the Pacific, Europe/Central Asia, Latin America/Caribbean, Middle East/North Africa, North America, and Sub Sahara Africa. In the next sections, I review the regions and countries that are the focus of the preceding chapters. I then use WEF data to analyze which policy levers can have the greatest effect on gender inequalities worldwide. I also use WEF data to tease out which policy tools show the most promise to reduce gender gaps in political representation and economic opportunity. A component of the economic participation sub-index is the ratio of women to men in the broad occupational category “Legislators, Senior Officials, and Managers.” According to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO), legislators, senior officials, and managers are those people who are not members of parliaments who: [d]etermine, formulate, direct or advise on government policies, as well as those of special-interest organizations, formulate laws, public rules and regulations, represent governments and act on their behalf, oversee the interpretation and implementation of government policies and legislation, or plan, direct, and coordinate the policies and activities of enterprises or organizations, or their internal departments or sections. (ISCO, 2004, para 1) In all tables used in this chapter, I refer to this occupational category as Women in Public Administration to avoid confusion with the category Women in Parliament. Iturbe underscores the importance of women in these positions to long-term political representation of women. She writes specifically about trends in Latin American countries, but her observation can be applied globally. Despite the small but growing number of female ministers, many women are stepping into second and third levels of responsibility in public administration. This movement creates a reservoir of talented women ready to progress in greater numbers into positions of power at the highest levels of decision making. (DeBlanco, 2008, p. 682)

Sub Sahara Africa In Chapter 7, Bishu analyzes trends of women in leadership positions in Sub Sahara Africa. Most Sub Sahara Africa countries are included in the WEF Gender Gap index.1 According to the 2015 WEF report, the ranking of the Sub Sahara Africa region has improved over time: “Since 2006, the region has experienced an increase of its overall score from 0.64 to 0.67, which is the fourth-largest absolute

234

Sharon Mastracci

increase” among the six regions in the Index (WEF, 2015, p. 28). Bishu also notes, however, that there is significant variation among Sub Sahara Africa countries with respect to women across several domains including their public service and their health, education, and economic participation. Looking across countries in Sub Sahara Africa in public service, Rwanda ranked sixth among nations, worldwide, in the 2015 WEF index (see Table 15.1). It was: [t]he strongest performer from the region and the only country from the region ranked in the top 10. Its high position in the rankings can be explained by Rwanda’s strong performance on Political Empowerment [and] Economic Participation and Opportunity . . . Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, and Namibia are among the 10 top-ranked countries on the Women in Parliament indicator. In fact, Rwanda is ranked first globally and one of only two countries (including Bolivia) worldwide that have more women in parliament than men. (WEF, 2015, p. 28) TABLE 15.1 Indicators of Women in Public Service, Sub Sahara Africa Countries, 2015

Angola Botswana Burundi Cameroon Chad Ethiopia Gambia Ghana Kenya Liberia Madagascar Mali Mozambique Namibia Nigeria Rwanda Senegal South Africa Swaziland Tanzania Uganda Worldwide Average

Gender Gap Index

Rank (of 145)

Percent of Women in Public Administration

Percent of Women in Parliament

Percent of Female Ministers

0.637 0.710 0.748 0.682 0.580 0.640 0.674 0.704 0.719 0.652 0.698 0.599 0.741 0.760 0.638 0.794 0.698 0.759 0.670 0.718 0.708

126 55 23 90 142 124 98 63 48 112 74 137 27 16 125 6 72 17 102 49 58

— 39 — — — 27 38 50 — 21 25 — — 43 — 34 — 30 — 16 25 27

37 10 36 31 15 39 9 11 20 11 21 9 40 41 6 64 43 42 6 36 35 27

22 13 35 14 14 13 21 23 30 20 20 16 29 22 24 35 20 42 26 32 30 24

Source: WEF (2015) Global Gender Gap Report. WEF data are not available for all countries in this region; “—” indicates missing.

Gender Equity Worldwide

235

In the 2015 WEF Index, the percentage of women in public administration positions was as low as 6 and 9 percent in Swaziland and Mali, respectively, and as high as 50 percent in Ghana and 43 percent in Namibia (see Table 15.1). On this measure, Ghana is ranked 4th in the world and Namibia 14th.We will keep a close eye on this indicator in the regression analysis presented later in this chapter to see whether the proportion of women in public administration positions is related to overall inequality in a country. Some of the highest and lowest percentages of women in national parliaments worldwide are found in Sub Sahara Africa. Rwanda leads the world at 64 percent— compared to a global average of 19 percent2 —followed by several other countries in the region that rank in the top 20 worldwide: Senegal (43 percent), South Africa (42 percent), Namibia (41 percent), Mozambique (40 percent), Ethiopia (39 percent), and Angola (37 percent). Some of the lowest-ranked countries worldwide on this measure are also found in Sub Sahara Africa. These include: Zambia (13 percent), Mauritius (12 percent), Liberia and Ghana (11 percent), TABLE 15.2 Health, Education, and Economic Indicators for Women in Sub Sahara Africa

Countries, 2015

Angola Botswana Burundi Cameroon Chad Ethiopia Gambia Ghana Kenya Liberia Madagascar Mali Mozambique Namibia Nigeria Rwanda Senegal South Africa Swaziland Tanzania Uganda Worldwide Average

Gender Gap Index

Rank (of 145)

Women’s Labor Force Participation Rate

Women’s Literacy Rate

Women’s Life Expectancy (years)

0.637 0.710 0.748 0.682 0.580 0.640 0.674 0.704 0.719 0.652 0.698 0.599 0.741 0.760 0.638 0.794 0.698 0.759 0.670 0.718 0.708

126 55 23 90 142 124 98 63 48 112 74 137 27 16 125 6 72 17 102 49 58

65 75 84 65 65 81 73 69 63 60 88 52 86 56 49 88 67 49 45 90 77 67

61 89 83 69 32 41 48 71 75 33 63 29 45 84 50 68 47 93 87 65 71

46 55 49 49 45 57 54 55 54 53 56 48 47 60 47 57 56 54 45 55 52

Source: WEF (2015) Global Gender Gap Report. “—” indicates missing.

236

Sharon Mastracci

Botswana (10 percent), Gambia and Mali (9 percent), and Swaziland and Nigeria (6 percent). The proportions of ministers who are female is as high as 42 percent in South Africa and as low as 11 percent in Malawi. There is also wide variation among women in Sub Sahara countries with respect to social, political, and economic indicators (see Table 15.2). For example, women’s literacy rates range from 29 percent in Mali to 93 percent in South Africa. Men’s literacy rates vary as well, ranging from 48 percent in Mali to 96 percent in South Africa. Life expectancy for women ranges from 45 years in Swaziland to 60 years in Namibia—for men, 45 and 56 years, respectively—all of which are below the worldwide average of 63 years. Countries in Sub Sahara Africa also exhibit a wide range in women’s economic participation, health, and education indicators in the WEF Index. For example, Tanzania has the highest female labor force participation rate in the world (90 percent), followed by Rwanda and Madagascar (88 percent), Mozambique (86 percent), Malawi (85 percent), Zimbabwe (85 percent), and Burundi (84 percent). Some of the world’s lowest female labor force participation rates are also found in Sub Sahara Africa with Mauritania at 29 percent, Swaziland (45 percent), and Mauritius, Nigeria, and South Africa all at 49 percent. In the WEF Index, the global average stood at 57 percent.

Latin America In Chapter 8, Gomez examines trends in women’s public service work and leadership in Latin America. Argentina was the first country in Latin America to pass a quota law mandating that a specific proportion of seats in the national legislature be filled by women. In the decade after Argentina’s 1991 Ley de Cupos and supported by the 1995 Beijing Declaration, 11 Latin America countries passed similar gender quota laws, including Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, and Peru (Table 15.3). WEF observes that the Latin America region “is the third-best performing region on its overall Index after North America and Europe” (WEF, 2015, p. 22). When compared to 2006, the region has shown the most improvement on the overall Index and second-most improvement on both the Economic Participation and Political Empowerment sub indexes. The region is also home to the best climber of the world on the overall Index, Nicaragua, and the best climber of the world on the Political Empowerment subindex, Bolivia. The effect of gender quotas extends to women’s representation in ministerial positions and in public administration, overall. Every Latin American country boasts higher-than-worldwide-average proportions of women in public administration. Like countries in Sub Sahara Africa, however, Latin American countries hold both the highest ranks among all countries in the proportions of women in

Gender Equity Worldwide

237

TABLE 15.3 Indicators of Women in Public Service, Latin America Countries, 2015

Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Rep. Ecuador Guatemala Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Uruguay Venezuela Worldwide Average

Gender Gap Index

Rank (of 145)

Percent of Women in Public Administration

Percent of Women in Parliament

Percent of Female Ministers

0.734 0.749 0.686 0.698 0.725 0.732 0.740 0.686 0.738 0.667 0.699 0.776 0.722 0.666 0.683 0.679 0.691

35 22 85 73 42 38 29 86 33 106 71 12 44 107 89 93 78

31 35 37 29 53 36 38 37 36 34 36 41 47 34 30 31 31 27

36 53 10 16 20 33 49 21 42 13 42 41 18 15 22 16 17 27

22 29 15 35 29 41 31 19 24 20 18 47 28 8 22 14 23 24

Source: WEF (2015) Global Gender Gap Report.

parliament and in ministerial positions, and the lowest. Bolivia ranks at the top with 53 percent of its parliament comprised of women, followed closely by Cuba (49 percent), Mexico and Ecuador (42 percent). Belize, Brazil and Guatemala rank among the lowest in the world with the proportions of women in parliament at 3, 10, and 13 percent, respectively. Likewise, with women in ministerial positions. Nicaragua (47 percent), Costa Rica (41 percent), and Chile (35 percent) rank among the top 20 countries worldwide on this indicator. Paraguay (8 percent), Belize (13 percent), Uruguay (14 percent), and Brazil (15 percent) rank near the bottom. Countries in Latin America score higher than worldwide averages on health and education indicators (Table 15.4). Women’s literacy rates range from 76 percent in Guatemala to 100 percent in Cuba.All Latin American countries except Guatemala and Nicaragua have higher than the worldwide average women’s literacy rates of 84 percent. Likewise, with women’s life expectancy.All Latin American countries except Bolivia have average life expectancies greater than the worldwide average of 63 years, and at 61 years Bolivia’s average lies just below the global average.

Middle East and North Africa (MENA) In Chapter 9, Barsoum writes about the paradoxes found between the advances in health and education in the MENA region on the one hand and the absence

238

Sharon Mastracci

TABLE 15.4 Health, Education, and Economic Indicators for Women in Latin America

Countries, 2015

Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Rep. Ecuador Guatemala Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Uruguay Venezuela Worldwide Average

Gender Gap Index

Rank (of 145)

Women’s Labor Force Participation Rate

Women’s Literacy Rate

Women’s Life Expectancy (years)

0.734 0.749 0.686 0.698 0.725 0.732 0.740 0.686 0.738 0.667 0.699 0.776 0.722 0.666 0.683 0.679 0.691

35 22 85 73 42 38 29 86 33 106 71 12 44 107 89 93 78

55 66 65 55 60 51 52 56 58 51 48 50 53 59 69 67 55 67

98 94 93 97 95 98 100 92 94 76 94 83 94 95 92 99 96

69 61 68 72 69 71 68 64 68 65 69 66 70 67 68 70 69

Source: WEF (2015) Global Gender Gap Report.

of progress in political empowerment and economic opportunity on the other. In Chapter 10, El Baradei examines the challenges facing women in public service in Egypt as well as women’s political participation in general with particular focus on their role in the 2011 Egyptian revolution and the subsequent Arab Spring. Israel is by far the highest ranking country in the region with regard to women in public administration (33 percent),3 yet that garners only a 58th rank worldwide, with just about all other MENA countries at the bottom of the rankings (see Table 15.5). Similarly, while the proportion of women in parliament in the region ranges from 32 percent (Algeria) to 0 percent (Yemen), more than half of the region’s countries fall below the worldwide average of 19 percent. For women in ministerial positions, three countries, Mauritania (27 percent),Algeria (20 percent), and Israel (18 percent) are at or above the global average of 18 percent. The proportions in seven countries are in the single digits. Unlike other regions such as Latin America where quota laws have increased women’s participating in the public sphere, the MENA region has few legal mandates and the proportion of women in leadership positions and public service is among the lowest in the world. In contrast to their low rankings in political empowerment, most MENA countries are at or above the worldwide average with regard to literacy rates and life expectancy (see Table 15.6).

Gender Equity Worldwide

239

TABLE 15.5 Indicators of Women in Public Service, MENA Countries, 2015

Gender Gap Rank Percent of Women Percent of Women Percent of in Parliament Female Index (of 145) in Public Ministers Administration Algeria Bahrain Egypt Iran Israel Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Mauritania Morocco Oman Qatar Saudi Arabia Syria Tunisia UAE Yemen Worldwide Average

0.632 0.644 0.599 0.580 0.712 0.593 0.646 0.598 0.613 0.593 0.604 0.645 0.605 0.568 0.634 0.646 0.484

128 123 136 141 53 140 117 138 132 139 135 122 134 143 127 119 145

11 13 7 15 33 8 14 8 — 13 9 12 7 9 15 10 2 27

32 8 — 3 24 12 2 3 25 17 1 0 20 12 31 18 0 27

20 5 12 10 18 11 7 4 27 16 7 5 0 6 11 17 10 24

Source: WEF (2015) Global Gender Gap Report. “—” indicates missing.

When compared to 2006, the region has shown the most improvement on the Educational Attainment sub-index, but the least improvement on the overall Index . . . The region is also home to the best climber of the world on the Economic Participation and Opportunity sub-index, Bahrain. (WEF, 2015, p. 24)

China and Egypt In Chapters 11 and 12, the authors look at specific countries. In Chapter 11, Rubin and Yu trace the effect of China’s laws, policies and culture on women in the public sphere from its earliest days until the current time. In an interesting twist, China exhibits trends in the WEF measures exactly opposite from what is described by El Baradei in Chapter 10 with respect to Egypt. While Egypt has closed much of its health and education gaps but not its economic opportunity and political empowerment gaps, China has improved in the areas of politics and economics, but regressed in the WEF health and survival sub-index. China’s 2015 health and survival ranking (91st) shows a steep decline from its 2009 peak (60th).

240

Sharon Mastracci

TABLE 15.6 Health, Education, and Economic Indicators for Women in MENA Countries,

2015

Algeria Bahrain Egypt Iran Israel Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Mauritania Morocco Oman Qatar Saudi Arabia Syria Tunisia UAE Yemen Worldwide Average

Gender Rank Women’s Labor Gap Index (of 145) Force Participation Rate

Women’s Women’s Literacy Rate Life Expectancy

0.632 0.644 0.599 0.580 0.712 0.593 0.646 0.598 0.613 0.593 0.604 0.645 0.605 0.568 0.634 0.646 0.484

73 93 65 83 97 93 96 92 42 59 86 97 91 81 74 96 55

128 123 136 141 53 140 117 138 132 139 135 122 134 143 127 119 145

16 41 26 18 67 16 45 26 29 27 31 52 21 14 27 47 26 67

63 66 63 65 74 65 67 71 55 62 67 67 66 67 68 67 55

Source: WEF (2015) Global Gender Gap Report. “—” indicates missing.

Policy Levers to Increase Gender Equity The 2015 WEF report covers 145 countries of which 109 have been included in all Gender Gap reports since 2006 (WEF, 2015, p. 44). Which components of the WEF Gender Gap Index are most influential to a country’s rank? Understanding policy levers that most influence the Gender Gap Index is crucial not only to foster political participation and access but also to “reducing gender inequality enhances productivity and economic growth” (WEF, 2015, p. 36). Should resources be devoted to assisting institutions of higher education in their efforts to prepare women for positions of leadership at all levels and types of governance as Rubaii writes about in Chapter 14? Or would the promotion of family-friendly workplace policies, as described by Brennan and Williamson in Chapter 13, be a more effective policy to reduce gender inequality? Or, as Ahmed, who writes about women in international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) in Chapter 12, could ask, should scarce resources be directed at advancing women in nonprofit leadership? Any country could focus on any one of these or other components of their gender gap to improve women’s lives. Given scarce resources, however, the question

Gender Equity Worldwide

241

arises as to which component of a country’s gender gap has the greatest effect on inequality? To address this question, I used a multiple regression model to calculate the impact of women’s economic and political opportunity, educational attainment, and health on a country’s Gender Gap Index value (see Appendix, Chapter 15 for discussion of regression model). Results from my statistical analysis show that the five most influential variables for explaining the variation among countries in their Gender Gap Index values are, in order of importance: (1) the proportion of women holding seats in parliament; (2) the number of years out of the past 50 in which a country has had a woman as head of state; (3) purchasing power parity between women and men; (4) the proportion of ministerial-level positions held by women; and (5) the percent of women in public administration. Accordingly, policies to increase women’s representation in political positions would affect a country’s inequality more than other policy interventions. While pay-equity measures are important as well, the conclusion about political participation is supported by the fact that four of the top five most important variables are related to women in public service; the fourth and fifth most influential variables being the proportion of ministerial-level positions held by women and the proportion of public administration positions held by women. This last variable is of great interest to those of us studying trends of women in public administration; increasing women in these positions “creates a reservoir of talented women ready to progress in greater numbers into positions of power at the highest levels of decision making” (DeBlanco, 2008, p. 682).

Conclusion Among the four dimensions of inequality captured in the WEF Global Gender Gap Report, policies targeting political empowerment and economic participation provide the most promise because “On average, in 2015, over 96 percent of the gap in health outcomes [and] 95 percent of the gap in educational attainment, [but only] 59 percent of the gap in economic participation and 23 percent of the gap in political empowerment has been closed” (WEF, 2015, p. 44). In most countries around the world, the gender gap is narrowing in health and educational outcomes, but much more needs to be done to close the gap in economic opportunity and political participation. Even in countries where health and education outcomes for women and men are equal but low, as in Zimbabwe and Nigeria, my statistical analysis found that political empowerment has the greatest impact on gender equity. Several chapters in this book have discussed gender quotas as a way to improve women’s political empowerment. However, the effectiveness of gender quota legislation can be limited by the cultural and institutional factors examined by Melissa Gomez in Chapter 8. For this reason, quotas must be accompanied by broader reforms including enforcement and accountability language with

242

Sharon Mastracci

sanctions for noncompliance, cultural and institutional changes accepting women in leadership positions, and work-life balance programs to foster gender equality in both political empowerment and workplaces overall. DeBlanco (2008) suggests several reforms, including a strengthened democratic process, wider political participation, increased social conscience regarding the role of women and their contributions, strengthened laws supporting women’s participation in politics and the economy, including nondiscrimination language and international pressure to promote gender equity. Increasing the presence of women in parliaments worldwide, and as heads of state, cabinet ministers, and in leadership positions in public administration can foster gender equality and mitigate the gender gaps portrayed in the WEF Global Gender Gap Index. Quota laws, in this light, would be one tool among many to engender equity, particularly when accompanied by broader cultural and institutional changes (Staudt, 1998). Passage of quota laws is a step in the right direction (Dahlerup, 2008, p. 327): Unless one sees quotas as counterproductive to gender equality, there is no reason not to demand a reform that seems, at present, possible to carry out even in male-dominated parliaments . . . A strong autonomous movement is needed in order to make it possible for the elected women to influence parties and national agendas. In summary, the chapters in this book underscore the importance of women in public administration and my chapter’s empirical analysis confirms the importance of women in public administration to mitigating inequality worldwide. Women’s representation in all aspects of public life—as ministers, in parliaments, and as heads of state—is critical to eliminating gender gaps and fostering equality across diverse cultures and contexts.

Notes 1 2 3

Data are, unavailable for some countries in the Sub Sahara region: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Djibouti, Eritrea, and Sudan. These percentages taken from the 2015 WEFA Gender Index may differ from those reported in other chapters in this book that use data for other years. Israel and Iran are not included in the analysis in Chapter 9, which focuses on the Arab countries in MENA.

References Dahlerup, D. (2008). Gender quotas: Controversial but trendy. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 10(3), 322–328. DeBlanco, E. I. (2008). Women, power and development in Latin America. University of St. Thomas Law Journal, 5(3), 675–697.

Gender Equity Worldwide

243

International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO). (2004). Major group: Legislators, senior officials, and managers. Retrieved November 30, 2015, from www. ilo.org/public/english/bureau/stat/isco. Jowit, J. (2015). Women will get equal pay . . . in 118 years. The Guardian. Retrieved September 25, 2017 from www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/nov/18/womenwill-get-equal-pay-in-118-years-wef-gender-parity. Staudt, K. (1998). Free Trade? Informal economies at the US-Mexico border. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. World Economic Forum (WEF). (2015). The global gender gap report, Table 4.1: Characteristics of path setters. Geneva: World Economic Forum.

APPENDICES

Chapter 1 Appendix APPENDIX 1.1 Chronological List of Elected Women Presidents (1940–2016)

Name

Country

Start

End

Khertek Anchimaa Toka Sükhbaataryn Yanjmaa Song Qingling Isabel Martínez de Perón Lidia Gueiler Tejada Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Maria Lea Pedini Song Qingling Agatha Barbara Gloriana Ranocchini Carmen Pereira Elisabeth Kopp Corazon Aquino Gloriana Ranocchini Ertha Pascal Sabine Bergmann Violeta Chamorro Mary Robinson Edda Ceccoli Ruth Dreifuss Patrizia Busignani Sylvie Kinigi Chandrika Kumaratunga Ruth Perry Rosalía Arteaga Serrano Mary McAleese

Tannu Tuva Mongolia China Argentina Bolivia Iceland San Marino China Malta San Marino Guinea Bissau Switzerland Philippines San Marino Haiti East Germany Nicaragua Ireland San Marino Switzerland San Marino Burundi Sri Lanka Liberia Ecuador Ireland

6-Apr-1940 7-Sep-1953 31-Oct-1968 1-Jul-1974 16-Nov-1979 1-Aug-1980 1-Apr-1981 16-May-1981 15-Feb-1982 1-Apr-1984 14-May-1984 21-Oct-1984 25-Feb-1986 1-Oct-1989 13-Mar-1990 5-Apr-1990 25-Apr-1990 3-Dec-1990 1-Oct-1991 1-Apr-1993 1-Apr-1993 27-Oct-1993 12-Nov-1994 3-Sep-1996 9-Feb-1997 11-Nov-1997

11-Oct-1944 7-Jul-1954 24-Apr-1972 24-Mar-1976 17-Jul-1980 1-Aug-1996 1-Oct-1981 28-May-1981 15-Feb-1987 1-Oct-1984 16-May-1984 12-Jan-1989 30-Jun-1992 1-Apr-1990 7-Feb-1991 2-Oct-1990 10-Jan-1997 12-Sep-1997 1-Apr-1992 31-Dec-2002 1-Oct-1993 5-Feb-1994 19-Nov-2005 2-Aug-1997 11-Feb-1997 10-Nov-2011 (Continued)

APPENDIX 1.1 (continued)

Name

Country

Start

End

Janet Jagan Ruth Metzler Rosa Zafferani Vaira Vı¯k¸e Mireya Moscoso Tarja Halonen Maria Domenica Michelotti Gloria Macapagal Megawati Sukarnoputri Micheline Calmy Valeria Ciavatta Nino Burjanadze Barbara Prammer Fausta Morganti Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Michelle Bachelet Doris Leuthard Dalia Itzik Pratibha Patil Nino Burjanadze Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Eveline Widmer Rosa Zafferani Assunta Meloni Rose Francine Rogombé Dalia Grybauskaite˙ Roza Otunbayeva Laura Chinchilla Simonetta Sommaruga Dilma Rousseff Maria Luisa Berti Atifete Jahjaga Monique Ohsan Bellepeau Slavica Ðukic´ Dejanovic´ Joyce Banda Denise Bronzetti Park Geun Antonella Mularoni Anna Maria Muccioli Catherine Samba

Guyana Switzerland San Marino Latvia Panama Finland San Marino Philippines Indonesia Switzerland San Marino Georgia Austria San Marino Liberia Chile Switzerland Israel India Georgia Argentina Switzerland San Marino San Marino Gabon Lithuania Kyrgyzstan Costa Rica Switzerland Brazil San Marino Kosovo Mauritius Serbia Malawi San Marino South Korea San Marino San Marino Central African Republic Chile San Marino Malta Croatia Mauritius Mauritius San Marino Taiwan

19-Dec-1997 1-Jan-1999 1-Apr-1999 8-Jul-1999 1-Sep-1999 1-Mar-2000 1-Apr-2000 20-Jan-2001 23-Jul-2001 1-Jan-2003 1-Oct-2003 23-Nov-2003 6-Jul-2004 1-Apr-2005 16-Jan-2006 11-Mar-2006 1-Aug-2006 25-Jan-2007 25-Jul-2007 25-Nov-2007 10-Dec-2007 1-Jan-2008 1-Apr-2008 1-Oct-2008 10-Jun-2009 12-Jul-2009 7-Apr-2010 8-May-2010 1-Nov-2010 1-Jan-2011 1-Apr-2011 7-Apr-2011 31-Mar-2012 5-Apr-2012 7-Apr-2012 1-Oct-2012 25-Feb-2013 1-Apr-2013 1-Oct-2013 23-Jan-2014

11-Aug-1999 31-Dec-2003 1-Oct-1999 8-Jul-2007 1-Sep-2004 1-Mar-2012 1-Oct-2000 30-Jun-2010 20-Oct-2004 31-Dec-2011 1-Apr-2004 25-Jan-2004 8-Jul-2004 1-Oct-2005 Incumbent 11-Mar-2010 Incumbent 15-Jul-2007 25-Jul-2012 20-Jan-2008 Incumbent Incumbent 1-Oct-2008 1-Apr-2009 16-Oct-2009 Incumbent 1-Dec-2011 8-May-2014 Incumbent Incumbent 1-Oct-2011 Incumbent 21-Jul-2012 31-May-2012 31-May-2014 1-Apr-2013 Incumbent 1-Oct-2013 1-Apr-2014 Incumbent

11-Mar-2014 1-Apr-2014 4-Apr-2014 19-Feb-2015 29-May-2015 5-Jun-2015 1-Oct-2015 16-Jan-2016

Incumbent 1-Oct-2014 Incumbent Incumbent 5-Jun-2015 Incumbent Incumbent Incumbent

Michelle Bachelet Valeria Ciavatta Marie Louise Coleiro Preca Kolinda Grabar Monique Ohsan Bellepeau Ameenah Gurib Lorella Stefanelli Tsai Ing-wen

APPENDIX 1.2 Chronological List of Women Prime Ministers (1960–2016)

Name

Country

Start

End

Sirimavo Bandaranaike Indira Gandhi Golda Meir Sirimavo Bandaranaike Sirimavo Bandaranaike Elisabeth Domitien Margaret Thatcher Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo Indira Gandhi Dame Eugenia Charles Gro Harlem Brundtland Milka Planinc Gro Harlem Brundtland Benazir Bhutto Kazimira Prunskiene˙ Gro Harlem Brundtland Khaleda Zia Édith Cresson Hanna Suchocka Tansu Çiller Kim Campbell Sylvie Kinigi Agathe Uwilingiyimana Benazir Bhutto Chandrika Kumaratunga Reneta Indzhova Sirimavo Bandaranaike Claudette Werleigh Sheikh Hasina Janet Jagan Jenny Shipley Anne Enger Lahnstein Irena Degutiene˙ Nyam Irena Degutiene˙ Helen Clark Mame Madior Boye Khaleda Zia Chang Sang Maria das Neves Anneli Jäätteenmäki Beatriz Merino Luisa Diogo Radmila Šekerinska Radmila Šekerinska Yulia Tymoshenko

Ceylon India Israel Ceylon Sri Lanka Central African Republic United Kingdom Portugal

21-Jul-1960 24-Jan-1966 17-Mar-1969 29-May-1970 22-May-1972 2-Jan-1975 4-May-1979 1-Jul-1979

27-Mar-1965 24-Apr-1977 3-Jun-1974 22-May-1972 23-Jul-1977 7-Apr-1976 28-Nov-1990 3-Jan-1980

India Dominica Norway Yugoslavia Norway Pakistan Lithuania Norway Bangladesh France Poland Turkey Canada Burundi Rwanda Pakistan Sri Lanka Bulgaria Sri Lanka Haiti Bangladesh Guyana New Zealand Norway Lithuania Mongolia Lithuania New Zealand Senegal Bangladesh South Korea São Tomé & Príncipe Finland Peru Mozambique Macedonia Macedonia Ukraine

15-Jan-1980 21-Jul-1980 4-Feb-1981 16-May-1982 9-May-1986 2-Dec-1988 17-Mar-1990 3-Nov-1990 27-Feb-1991 15-May-1991 11-Jul-1992 13-Jun-1993 25-Jun-1993 10-Jul-1993 18-Jul-1993 19-Oct-1993 19-Aug-1994 17-Oct-1994 14-Nov-1994 7-Nov-1995 12-Jun-1996 6-Mar-1997 5-Dec-1997 30-Aug-1998 4-May-1999 22-Jul-1999 27-Oct-1999 5-Dec-1999 3-Mar-2001 1-Oct-2001 11-Jul-2002 3-Oct-2002 17-Apr-2003 28-Jun-2003 17-Feb-2004 12-May-2004 3-Nov-2004 24-Jan-2005

31-Oct-1984 14-Jun-1995 14-Oct-1981 15-May-1986 16-Oct-1989 6-Jul-1990 10-Jan-1991 25-Oct-1996 30-Mar-1996 2-Apr-1992 25-Oct-1993 6-Mar-1996 4-Nov-1993 27-Oct-1993 7-Apr-1994 5-Nov-1996 14-Nov-1994 25-Jan-1995 10-Jul-2000 27-Feb-1996 15-Jul-2001 19-Dec-1997 5-Dec-1999 23-Sep-1998 18-May-1999 30-Jul-1999 3-Nov-1999 19-Nov-2008 4-Nov-2002 29-Oct-2006 31-Jul-2002 18-Sep-2004 24-Jun-2003 15-Dec-2003 16-Jan-2010 12-Jun-2004 15-Dec-2004 6-Sep-2005 (Continued)

APPENDIX 1.2 (continued)

Name

Country

Start

End

Cynthia Pratt Maria do Carmo Silveira Angela Merkel Portia Simpson Han Myeong Yulia Tymoshenko Zinaida Greceanîi Michèle Pierre Sheikh Hasina Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir Jadranka Kosor Cécile Manorohanta Kamla Persad Mari Kiviniemi Julia Gillard Iveta Radicˇová Rosario Fernández Cissé Mariam Kaïdama Sidibé Yingluck Shinawatra Helle Thorning Portia Simpson Adiato Djaló Nandigna Alenka Bratušek Sibel Siber Tatiana Turanskaya Aminata Touré Erna Solberg Laimdota Straujuma Ana Jara Ewa Kopacz Florence Duperval Guillaume Saara Kuugongelwa Natalia Gherman Vassiliki Thanou Theresa May

Bahamas São Tomé & Príncipe Germany Jamaica South Korea Ukraine Moldova Haiti Bangladesh Iceland Croatia Madagascar Trinidad and Tobago Finland Australia Slovakia Peru Mali

4-May-2005 8-Jun-2005 22-Nov-2005 30-Mar-2006 19-Apr-2006 18-Dec-2007 31-Mar-2008 5-Sep-2008 29-Dec-2008 1-Feb-2009 6-Jul-2009 18-Dec-2009 26-May-2010 22-Jun-2010 24-Jun-2010 8-Jul-2010 19-Mar-2011 3-Apr-2011

6-Jun-2005 21-Apr-2006 Incumbent 11-Sep-2007 7-Mar-2007 3-Mar-2010 14-Sep-2009 11-Nov-2009 Incumbent 23-May-2013 23-Dec-2011 20-Dec-2009 9-Sep-2015 22-Jun-2011 27-Jun-2013 4-Apr-2012 28-Jul-2011 22-Mar-2012

Thailand Denmark Jamaica Bissau Slovenia Northern Cyprus Transnistria Senegal Norway Latvia Peru Poland Haiti

3-Jul-2011 3-Oct-2011 5-Jan-2012 10-Feb-2012 20-Mar-2013 13-Jun-2013 10-Jul-2013 1-Sep-2013 16-Oct-2013 22-Jan-2014 22-Jul-2014 22-Sep-2014 20-Dec-2014

7-May-2014 28-Jun-2015 Incumbent 12-Apr-2012 18-Sep-2014 2-Sep-2013 Incumbent 8-Jul-2014 Incumbent Incumbent 2-Apr-2015 Incumbent 16-Jan-2015

Namibia Moldova Greece United Kingdom

21-Mar-2015 22-Jun-2015 27-Aug-2015 13-July-2016

Incumbent 30-Jul-2015 21-Sep-2015 Incumbent

Sources: Female presidents. In Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership. Retrieved from www. guide2womenleaders.com/Premier_Ministers.htm; List of elected and appointed female heads of government. (2015). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_elected_or_appointed_ female_heads_of_government; List of elected and appointed female heads of state. (2015). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_elected_and_appointed_female_heads_of_state; Women heads of state. (2009).In Center for Asia-Pacific Women in Politics. Retrieved from www.capwip.org/ participation/womenheadofstate.html;Woman prime ministers. (2015).In Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership. Retrieved from www.guide2womenleaders.com/Premier_Ministers.htm.

Armenia

Azerbaijan Albania

Austria

Germany Poland

Russia Slovakia Netherlands Kazakhstan

Czech Republic

Canada

Mexico Pakistan

Japan

Argentina

Italy

France

1940–1949

Myanmar China Philippines Venezuela

South Africa (Whites) Chile Portugal

Brazil

Turkey

Sweden

Denmark

1930– 1939

Finland

1920–1929

United States Spain

1910–1919

Australia Norway

1900– 1909

Haiti Dominica

Greece Antigua & Barbuda

Zimbabwe

Malaysia

Columbia

India

1950–1959

Gambia Tonga

Nauru Sierra Leone

Libya

Monaco

Iran

Algeria

Central African Republic South Africa (Indians)

Iraq

Namibia

1980–1989

Andorra Liechtenstein Yemen (Arab Central Rep.) African Republic San Marino Angola

Nigeria

Jordan

Bangladesh

Switzerland

1960–1969 1970–1979

APPENDIX 5.1 World Chronology of Recognition of Women’s Right to Vote, by Country

Chapter 5 Appendices

South Africa (Blacks)

Qatar

Oman

Samoa

1990– 1999

United Arab Emirates

Kuwait

(Continued)

Saudi Arabia

2000–2009 2010– 2016

1900– 1909

Iceland Ireland

Belgium Luxemburg

Lithuania Poland Russian Federation

Kyrgyzstan Latvia

Hungary Ukraine

Bolivia

1930– 1939 Costa Rica

1940–1949

Romania

Sri Lanka

Maldives Uruguay

Cameroon Korea D.P.R. Djibouti Guatemala Liberia Togo Viet Nam

Senegal Slovenia Trinidad & Tobago

Croatia Indonesia

Uzbekistan Panama El Salvador Dominican Republic Turkmenistan Thailand Bulgaria Ecuador Cuba Jamaica

Mongolia

United Kingdom Estonia Georgia

Saint Lucia Tajikistan

1920–1929

1910–1919

APPENDIX 5.1 (continued)

Peru Benin Comoros Egypt Gabon

Sudan Botswana Lesotho Malawi Kenya

Burundi D.R. Congo Mauritania Paraguay

Bahamas

Cape Verde

1960–1969 1970–1979

Mozambique Solomon Islands Vanuatu Guinea Bissau Ghana Rwanda Moldova Cambodia Cyprus Marshall Islands Eritrea Uganda Micronesia Ethiopia Zambia Palau Saint Vincent Papua New Sao Tome & & Guinea Principe Grenadines Honduras Congo Bahrain Nicaragua Afghanistan

Nepal Saint Kitts & Nevis Barbados Belize

Grenada

1950–1959

1980–1989

1990– 1999

2000–2009 2010– 2016

1910–1919

1920–1929

1930– 1939 Mali Mauritius Somalia Bhutan Guyana Chad

Yugoslavia Malta Singapore Israel Niger Republic of Korea Seychelles Suriname Bosnia Herzegovina Syrian Arab Republic Niger

Morocco Libya Yemen D.P. Swaziland Kiribati Tuvalu

1960–1969 1970–1979

Guinea Fiji Lao P.D.R. Madagascar San Marino Tanzania U.R. Cote d’ Ivoire Tunisia Lebanon Burkina Faso

1950–1959

1940–1949

Sources: www.ipu.org/wmn-e/suffrage.htm; http://womenshistory.about.com/od/suffrage/a/intl_timeline.htm.

1900– 1909

APPENDIX 5.1 (continued)

1980–1989

1990– 1999

2000–2009 2010– 2016

APPENDIX 5.2 Women in National Parliaments as of June 2016 (Percentage of All

Members) Rank

Country

% Lower/Single House

% Upper House/ Senate

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 = 9 10 11 = = 14 15 = 17 = 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 = = 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 = 44 45 46 47 48

Rwanda Bolivia Cuba Seychelles Sweden Senegal Mexico South Africa Ecuador Finland Iceland Namibia Nicaragua Spain Mozambique Norway Andorra Belgium Ethiopia Timor-Leste Denmark Netherlands Angola Slovenia United Republic of Tanzania Germany Burundi Argentina Portugal Serbia Uganda Costa Rica Grenada The F.Y.R of Macedonia El Salvador Switzerland Algeria Zimbabwe New Zealand Tunisia Cameroon Italy Trinidad and Tobago Austria Sudan Guyana Nepal United Kingdom

63.8 53.1 48.9 43.8 43.6 42.7 42.4 42.4 41.6 41.5 41.3 41.3 41.3 40.0 39.6 39.6 39.3 39.3 38.8 38.5 37.4 37.3 36.8 36.7 36.6 36.5 36.4 35.8 34.8 34.0 33.5 33.3 33.3 33.3 32.1 32.0 31.6 31.5 31.4 31.3 31.1 31.0 31.0 30.6 30.5 30.4 29.6 29.4

38.5 47.2 — — — — 33.6 35.2 — — — 23.8 — 39.2 — — — 50.0 32.0 — — 34.7 — 7.5 — 40.6 41.9 41.7 — — — — 15.4 — — 15.2 7.0 47.5 — — 20.0 28.3 32.3 29.5 35.2 — — 24.6

APPENDIX 5.2 (continued)

Rank

Country

% Lower/Single House

% Upper House/ Senate

49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 = 58 = 60 = 62 63 = 65 66 67 68 69 = 71 = 73 74 75 76 77 = 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 = = = 91 = 93 = 95

Luxembourg Afghanistan Lao People’s Democratic Republic Poland Belarus Kazakhstan Viet Nam Australia Israel Iraq South Sudan France Peru Canada Honduras Turkmenistan Suriname Mauritania Lesotho Equatorial Guinea Estonia Singapore Cabo Verde China Lithuania United Arab Emirates Ireland Eritrea Dominica Guinea Republic of Moldova Bosnia and Herzegovina Monaco Albania Pakistan Madagascar Bulgaria Cambodia Bangladesh Czech Republic Liechtenstein Slovakia Columbia Saudi Arabia Greece Kenya Cyprus

28.3 27.7 27.5 27.4 27.3 27.1 26.8 26.7 26.7 26.5 26.5 26.2 26.2 26.0 25.8 25.8 25.5 25.2 25.0 24.0 23.8 23.8 23.6 23.6 23.4 22.5 22.2 22.0 21.9 21.9 21.8 21.4 20.8 20.7 20.6 20.5 20.4 20.3 20.0 20.0 20.0 20.0 19.9 19.9 19.7 19.7 19.6

— 26.5 — 13.0 32.8 6.4 — 38.2 — — 10.0 25.0 — 38.6 — — — 14.3 24.2 13.7 — — — — — — 30.0 — — — — 13.3 — — 18.3 19.0 — 16.4 — 18.5 — — 22.5 — — 26.5 — (Continued)

APPENDIX 5.2 (continued)

Rank

Country

% Lower/Single House

% Upper House/ Senate

96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 = 108 109 = = = 113 114 115 = = 118 119 120 121 = = 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 = 132 133 134 = 136 137 138 = 140 141 = = 144

United States of America Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Panama Sao Tome and Principe Latvia Togo Jamaica Montenegro Indonesia Morocco Republic of Korea Azerbaijan Barbados Malawi Saint Lucia San Marino Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Uruguay Fiji Libya Uzbekistan Chile Croatia Paraguay Chad Egypt Turkey Niger Mongolia Venezuela Gabon Guatemala Somalia Guinea-Bissau Romania Russian Federation Saints Kitts and Nevis Bahamas Syrian Arab Republic Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Malta Djibouti Zambia Sierra Leone India Jordan Ukraine Mauritius

19.4 19.2 19.0 18.3 18.2 18.0 17.6 17.5 17.3 17.1 17.0 17.0 16.9 16.7 16.7 16.7 16.7 16.3 16.2 16.0 16.0 16.0 15.8 15.2 15.0 14.9 14.9 14.9 14.6 14.5 14.4 14.2 13.9 13.8 13.7 13.7 13.6 13.3 13.2 13.2 13.0 12.9 12.7 12.7 12.4 12.0 12.0 12.0 11.6

20.0 — 6.3 — — — — 23.8 — — 11.7 — — 23.8 — 27.3 — — 29.0 — — 17.0 15.8 — 20.0 — — — — — — 18.2 — — — 7.7 17.1 — 25.0 — — — — — — 12.0 10.7 — —

APPENDIX 5.2 (continued)

Rank

Country

% Lower/Single House

% Upper House/ Senate

145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 = 155 = 157 = 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 = 171 172 173 = 175 176 177 178 = 180 181 182 183 184 185 = = = = = = ? ?

Georgia Antigua and Barbuda Liberia Ghana Armenia Malaysia Hungary Samoa Brazil Myanmar Botswana Japan Burkina Faso Gambia Cote d’Ivoire Marshall Island Democratic Republic of Congo Mali Bhutan Central African Republic Bahrain Congo Benin Tuvalu Brunei Darussalam Kiribati Swaziland Thailand Iran Maldives Sri Lanka Nigeria Nauru Belize Lebanon Comoros Papua New Guinea Solomon Islands Kuwait Oman Haiti Micronesia Palau Qatar Tonga Vanuatu Yemen Dominican Republic Philippines

11.3 11.1 11.0 10.9 10.7 10.4 10.1 10.0 9.9 9.9 9.5 9.5 9.4 9.4 9.2 9.1 8.9 8.8 8.5 8.4 7.5 7.4 7.2 6.7 6.5 6.5 6.2 6.1 5.9 5.9 5.8 5.6 5.3 3.1 3.1 3.0 2.7 2.0 1.5 1.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 ? ?

— 41.2 10.0 — — 21.9 — — 16.0 10.3 — 15.7 — — — — 4.6 — 8.0 — 22.5 19.4 — — — — 33.3 — — — — 6.5 — 38.5 — — — — — 16.5 0.0 — 23.1 — — — 1.8 9.4 25.0

Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union. Retrieved July 2016 from www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm.

APPENDIX 5.3 Gender Quotas Around the World

Country

Afghanistan Albania Algeria Angola Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Bangladesh Belgium Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Canada Cabo Verde Chile China Columbia Congo Democratic Republic Costa Rica Cote d’Ivoire Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Djbouti Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia France Germany Greece Guatemala Guinea Guyana Haiti Honduras Hungary Iceland Indonesia

Legislative Quotas For Lower/ Single House All % Women

Reserved Political Party Seats Quotas X

X X X X X X X X X X X

X X X

X X X

X X X X X X X X

X X X X X

X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X X

X X X X X X

X X X

APPENDIX 5.3 (continued)

Country Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jordan Kenya Korea, Republic of Kyrgyzstan Lesotho Libya Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malawi Mali Malta Mauritania Mexico Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique Namibia Nepal Netherlands Nicaragua Niger Norway Pakistan Palestinian Territory Panama Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) Romania Rwanda Samoa Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands South Africa

Legislative Quotas For Lower/ Single House All % Women

Reserved Political Party Seats Quotas X

X X X X X X X X X X X X

X X

X X X X X

X X X X

X X X X

X X X

X X X X

X X X X X

X X

X X X X

X X X

X X X X

X X X (Continued)

Appendices 257 APPENDIX 5.3 (continued)

Country South Sudan Spain Sudan Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Tanzania Timor-Leste Thailand Togo Tunisia Turkey Uganda United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan Zimbabwe

Legislative Quotas For Lower/ Single House All % Women

Reserved Political Party Seats Quotas X

X

X X X X

X X X

X X X X X X X X X

X X X

Source: Compiled from information from www.quotaproject.org/.

Chapter 10 Appendix APPENDIX 10.1 Women in Egypt: Statistics and Figures

Item Description

Percentage

Women’s Contribution to Economic Activity (labor force) (2014) Women’s Unemployment Rate (2014) Women in the Informal Economy (2010) Female Headed Households (2014) Women Registered as Voters (2010) Women in Upper Management Jobs in the public sector (2010/2011) Women in Ministerial Positions or Higher in the public sector (2010/2011) Women in position of Vice Minister in the Government Sector (2010/2011) Women in the position of General Manager in the Government Sector (2010/2011) Women in the Diplomatic and Consulate Sector (2010) Women as Members of Syndicates (2009) Women Employed in Scientific Research Centers (2010) Youth literacy rate, population 15–24 years, female (%) (2013) Adult literacy rate, population +15, female (%) (2013) Gross enrollment ratio, pre-primary, female (%) (2013) Gross enrollment ratio, secondary, female (%) (2013)

23.9% 24% 46.7% 17.8% 41% 31.2% 3.6% 0.6% 32.7% 19.1% 31% 64% 90.3% 67% 28.98% 87.75%

258

Appendices

APPENDIX 10.1 (continued)

Item Description

Percentage

Gross enrollment ratio, tertiary, female (%) (2013) Women University Graduates – Theoretical Studies/Arts (2008/2009) Women University Graduates – Scientific Studies (2008/2009)

30.89% 52.3% 47.4%

Sources: CAPMAS (2016) Egypt in figures: Work. Accessed on April 6, 2016 at www.capmas.gov.eg/Pages/ StaticPages.aspx?page_id=5035;UNICEF (2016) Statistics. Accessed on April 6, 2016 at www.unicef.org/ infobycountry/egypt_statistics.html;Ahram Online (2014) Almost a fifth of Egyptian households are headed by women. Accessed on April 6, 2016 at http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/3/12/101284/ Business/Economy/Almost-a-fifth-of-Egyptian-households-are-headed-b.aspx;UNFPA (2016) Gender overview. Accessed on April 6, 2016 at http://egypt.unfpa.org/english/Staticpage/3/419d6d02-ac4e-4c1faf98-e48aa894b7cd/GENDER.aspx;NCW (2013) Figures and statistics about the position of women in Egypt. Accessed on April 6, 2016 at http://www.ncwegypt.com/index.php/ar/docswomen/2013-03-1114-50-50/270-statara;World Bank (2016) World Development Indicators: Egypt. Accessed on April 7, 2016 at http://data.worldbank.org/country/egypt-arab-republic.

Chapter 12 Appendix APPENDIX 12.1 Summary Findings from Phase 1

INGO Leadership Gender Distribution – All Agencies Gender

Number

Percentage

Males Females Missing Total-Valid

254 117 10 371

68.47% 31.53%

INGO Leadership Distribution: Excluding All Male and All Female Agencies Gender

Number

Percentage

Males Females Total

251 102 353

70.90% 29.09%

Gender Composition of Board Leadership Gender

Number

Percentage

Male Female Co-Gender Chair* Total

171 80 2 253

67.58% 31.62% .79%

Gender

Number

Percentage

Male Majority Female Majority Equal Gender Distribution Total

168 35 15 218

77.06% 16.05% 6.88%

Gender Distribution in Boards

*These boards have two chairs (one male and one female)

Appendices 259

Chapter 15 Appendices In the regression model referred to in this chapter, I use the Global Gender Gap Index values for individual countries as the dependent variable and the individual gender gap categories as independent variables to determine which is most influential. The categories are: (1) economic participation and opportunity; (2) educational attainment; (3) health and survival; and (4) political empowerment. I add three variables to the model relating to maternity leave benefits. Although not used in the calculation of gender gap scores, they are reported for each country in the WEF report and could provide useful policy guidance resulting from this analysis. Appendix 15.1 lists the dependent and independent variables used in my model and their data sources. APPENDIX 15.1 Variables in Regression Analysis

Variable

Definition

Data Source

Global Gender Gap Index (Dependent Variable)

Weighted average of ratios between women and men in Economic Participation, Educational Attainment, Health, and Political Empowerment (range: 0 to 1)

WEF Global Gender Gap Report

Independent Variables Women’s Labor Force Percent of working age women in the Participation Rate labor force

Estimated Earned Income Women in Public Administration

Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) index of women’s income compared to men’s in US$ (range: 0 to 1) Percent of these positions held by women

Professional and Technical Workers

Percent of these positions held by women

Literacy Rate

Percent of women who can read and write Primary Enrollment Percent of school-age girls enrolled in primary school Secondary Enrollment Percent of school-age young women enrolled in secondary school Healthy Life Women’s life expectancy in years Expectancy Seats in Parliament Percent of Parliamentary seats held by women

International Labor Organization (ILO) Key Indicators of the Labor Market UNDP Human Development Report ILOStat Database; UNDP Human Development Report ILOStat Database; UNDP Human Development Report UNESCO Education Indicators Database UNESCO Education Indicators Database UNESCO Education Indicators Database WHO Global Health Observatory Database Inter-Parliamentary Union (I-PU) Women in Politics Report

260

Appendices

APPENDIX 15.1 (continued)

Variable Ministerial-Level Positions Female Head of State

Definition

Percent of ministerial-level positions held by women Number of years over the past 50 during which the country had a female head of state Paid Maternity Leave Number of days allotted for maternity Days leave Percent of Wages Paid Percent of wages paid during maternity leave Fully GovernmentDichotomous variable indicating Provided? whether maternity leave is fully government provided or not

Data Source I-PU Women in Politics Report WEF Global Gender Report WEF Global Gender Gap Report WEF Global Gender Gap Report WEF Global Gender Gap Report

WEF converts the raw data for each of the four categories into ratios for women and men. The WEF focus is on the difference between women and men along these four dimensions in a given country. My focus is on the value of indicators for women to guide employment, educational, or health policy to improve women’s lives.The difference between ratios and raw data does not matter for just statistical reasons. For example, the 2015 life expectancy ratio between women and men is the same for Japan and Zimbabwe (1.06), indicating that women’s life expectancy slightly exceeds that of men. However, life expectancy for women in Japan is 78 years and in Zimbabwe 52 years, information not revealed in the gender ratio. WEF emphasizes the gap, while I use the raw data underlying the WEF ratio in the regression to capture whether, for instance, low levels of women’s life expectancy explains the variation in Global Gender Gap Index values. If so, a suggestion could be that countries focus on women’s health. Another example of where the ratio would not give me a valid measure relates to literacy rates. The 0.94 literacy rate ratio of women to men in Madagascar in 2015 suggests that women are approaching equality. But the ratio masks the fact that the literacy rate for both men and women is below the global average. Again, a positive and statistically significant coefficient for the literacy rate would point to the need for policy initiatives to raise literacy for both women and men. Appendix 15.2 provides averages, minima, and maxima for all variables. Results from the regression model are shown in Appendix 15.3. Column 1 lists each independent (explanatory) variable. The bottom four rows of Column 1 provide goodness-of-fit statistics for the model. The number of observations falls to 266 because the statistical program I used ignores observations with missing data and government-provided maternity leave information is missing for several countries.The F-ratio and R-square value both indicate that this model does a good job of explaining the variation in country gender gap values. More than 95 percent of the variance in the WEF Global Gender Gap Index is explained by the model.

Appendices 261 APPENDIX 15.2 Descriptive Statistics in Regression Model

Variable

Mean (std. dev.)

Minimum

Maximum

Global Gender Gap Index

0.681 (0.06)

Women’s Labor Force Participation Rate Estimated Earned Income (PPP) Public Administration

56.93% (15.41) 0.569 (0.170) 27.39% (12.14) 47.45% (12.44) 84.03% (21.06) 89.84% (10.93) 69.59% (26.05) 62.92 years (10.18) 19.33% (11.07) 18.28% (12.34) 1.91 years (4.28)

0.459 Yemen 2006 14% Syria 2015 0.170 Algeria 2012* 2% Pakistan 2006* 6% Saudi Arabia 2006 12% Mali 2006 35% Burkina Faso 2006 2% Mozambique 2009 33 years Lesotho 2009* 0% Kuwait* 0% Qatar* 0 years United States*

0.881 Iceland 2015 92% Burundi 2012 1.0** Luxembourg 2015* 60% Jamaica 2006 70% Lithuania 2009 100% Canada 2015* 100% Japan 2015* 100% Israel 2015* 78 years Singapore 2012* 53% Bolivia 2015 63% Finland 2015 23 years Sri Lanka 2009

110 days (59.47) 88.31% (21.18) 57.45% (49.51)

0 days United States* 0% United States* 0 United States*

480 days Sweden 2009 100% Norway* 1 Poland*

Professional and Technical Workers Literacy Rate Primary Enrollment Secondary Enrollment Healthy Life Expectancy Seats in Parliament Ministerial-Level Positions Female Head of State (# yrs. over the past 50 years) Paid Maternity Leave Days Percent of Wages Paid Fully GovernmentProvided? (Yes=1; No=0)

Source: Author’s calculations of WEF global gender gap data 2006, 2009, 2012, and 2015;Total number of observations = 517; Number of countries by year: 2006 (n=115); 2009 (n=134); 2012 (n=134); 2015 (n=134); 109 countries are found in all years. * The country listed is among more than one in this category. ** Average income is top coded at $40,000, which truncates average income data in four observations: Luxembourg (2012, 2015), and Singapore and the US (2015).

This finding is not unexpected since the independent variables provide the raw data for the components of the Gender Gap Index. The purpose of this study, however, is to identify those components that are most influential on the Index for the eventual goal of guiding policy.

262

Appendices

APPENDIX 15.3 Regression Results (Dependent Variable: Global Gender Gap Index)

(1)

(2)

(3)

Independent Variable (X)

Regression Coefficient

Beta Coefficient

(t-statistic) Labor Force Participation Rate Estimated Earned Income (PPP) Public Administration Professional and Technical Workers Literacy Rate Primary Enrollment Secondary Enrollment Healthy Life Expectancy Seats in Parliament Ministerial-Level Positions Female Head of State Paid Maternity Leave Days Percent of Wages Paid Fully Government-Provided Maternity Leave Constant Number of Observations Model F-statistic (p-value) R-squared

0.000 (4.56) 0.077 (9.55) 0.001 (10.10) 0.001 (6.47) 0.001 (5.47) 0.001 (5.12) 0.000 (0.34) −0.000 (−2.70) 0.002 (16.55) 0.001 (11.21) 0.004 (18.50) 0.000 (1.35) −0.000 (−2.71) −0.001 (−0.61) 0.413 (35.09) 266 413.89 (0.00) 0.9585

0.0996 0.2062 0.1866 0.1451 0.1629 0.0904 0.0083 −0.0554 0.2798 0.1896 0.2551 0.0201 −0.0363 −0.0093

Source: WEF global gender gap data 2006, 2009, 2012, and 2015; the statistical program I used drops observations with missing data, which accounts for the decrease in Number of Observations in Appendix 15.2 compared with Appendix 15.3.

Column 2 lists each regression coefficient, or the effect of each independent variable on the dependent variable Y: Global Gender Gap Index. It shows the effect on the dependent variable for a unit change in each independent variable. Column 2 also provides the t-statistic for each variable.Variables with a t-statistic greater than plus or minus 1.96 are statistically significant at the 0.05 level, indicating that the probability that the effect of this variable (on the dependent variable) is due to chance is less than 5 out of 100.The t-statistics greater than plus or minus 2.68 indicate that the effect due to chance is less than 1 out of 100. Note that while many of the regression coefficients are statistically significant, most are close to 0. I address the problem of interpreting coefficients with very small magnitudes by providing standardized beta coefficients in Column 3. Standardized beta coefficients are measured in terms of standard deviations, not in terms of the measures used for independent variables. They indicate how strongly each independent variable influences the dependent variable, with high coefficient values meaning more of an influence on the dependent variable.This means that the effect of independent variables on the dependent variable can be compared to one another. Larger beta coefficient values indicate that the variable has

Appendices 263

a stronger influence on the dependent variable than variables with small beta coefficient values. Based on the beta coefficients values in this regression model, the five most influential independent variables for explaining the variation in the dependent variable—Global Gender Gap Index—are: (1) the proportion of women holding seats in parliament; (2) the number of years out of the past 50 that a country has had a woman as head of state; (3) purchasing power parity between women and men; (4) the proportion of ministerial-level positions held by women; and (5) the percentage of women in Public Administration. Looking at the indicators with the greatest impact, we can see that a onestandard-deviation increase in the proportion of seats in parliament held by women results in a 0.2798 standard-deviation increase in predicted Global Gender Gap Index. The average Global Gender Gap Index is 0.681. Indonesia’s 2015 Global Gender Gap Index is right at the mean of 0.681. Increasing the proportion of women in Indonesia’s parliament by one standard deviation—11.07 percentage points—would increase women’s share of parliamentary seats from 17 percent to 28.07 percent, or roughly equal to the 2015 proportion of women in parliament in Luxembourg or the UK. A one-standard-deviation increase in the proportion of women holding seats in parliament would increase Indonesia’s Global Gender Gap Index from 0.681 to 0.698, or from 92nd place to 74th in 2015.

INDEX

A page number in bold indicates a table, italics a figure. accreditation 213–14, 215–18, 228–9; and female leadership 223; and gender diversity 223–8, 227; and gender equity 218–22; and public administration programs 222–3 Adams, Abigail & John 1–2, 34–5 Africa 55, 64, 156; African Union Commission 119, 121; North (see Middle East); Pan African Parliament 119 Africa, sub-Sahara 81, 109–112, 110, 121–3, 145; conflict/post-conflict 120–1; gender inequality 112–15, 113, 114, 233–6, 234, 235; women in office 116–20, 117, 118 Albright, Madeleine 69; background 63–4, 69–70; as Secretary of State 48, 49, 50, 52, 55, 63–4; as US Ambassador to the UN 55, 64 Algeria 144, 145, 148, 149, 238 Allende, Isabel 66 ‘angel of the home’ 36 Angola 115, 235 ‘Arab Spring’ 148, 238 Arab states 54, 143, 156–7 Argentina 95, 126, 137; ‘Housewives Organizations’ 127; Mar de Plata 128; quotas 97, 99–100, 134, 136, 236; women presidents 130–1, 131; Women’s National Council 129

Aristotle 33 Asia 41, 67, 81, 233; Central 233; East 99; South 8, 112, 145; Southeast 8 Australia 11, 66, 93; Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) 203–4; New South Wales (NSW) 206–7, 208; parental leave 199, 200, 202–10; Productivity Commission 204–5; women’s suffrage 75–6 Austria 24, 201 Bachelet, Michelle 68; background 65–6, 69, 70; as President of Chile 48, 50, 52, 55, 56, 66 Bahrain 144, 147, 149 Banda, Joyce 116 Bandaranaike, Sirimavo 69; background 59–60, 70; as Prime Minister of Ceylon 48, 50, 52, 54, 59–60; and Solomon West Ridgeway Dias 59–60, 70 Ban Zhao 169, 170 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 12–13, 20, 55, 128, 172–3, 236; see also United Nations (UN): Planet 50-50 Belgium 77, 83–4 Belize 237 Benin 112, 115 Berlin Wall 68, 69, 70 Bhutto, Benazir 69; background 49, 66–7,

Index

69, 70; as Prime Minister of Pakistan 48, 50, 52, 55, 66–8 Bhutto, Zulfikar Ali 66–7, 70 Bolivia 126, 129, 134, 236, 237; gender parity 8, 77–8, 125, 133, 234, 237; ‘National Confederation of Mothers’ Clubs’ 127; women’s suffrage 76 Botswana 111, 116, 235–6 Brazil 11, 93, 95, 126, 127; gender quotas 136, 236; Rio de Janeiro 217; women parliamentarians/ministers 101, 125, 131, 133, 134, 237; see also Rouseff, Dilma Brooks(-Randolph), Angie Elisabeth 55–6 Burkina Faso 111 Burundi 236 Cabo Verde 111, 116, 122 Canada 8, 11, 92–3, 93–4, 190, 202; gender parity 101, 180 Caribbean 8, 225, 233 Carter, Jimmy 12, 63 Central Africa Republic 112, 116 Ceylon: see Sri Lanka Chile 27, 29, 130, 136, 137, 237; Feminine Department of the National Union Coordinator 127; Santiago 66; Women’s National Service 129; see also Bachelet, Michelle; Pinochet, Augusto China, People’s Republic of 14, 19, 64, 97, 173–83, 239; ancient 7, 155, 168–70, 182–3; Beijing 171 (see also Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action); Chinese aphorism 70, 168; Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) 172, 177–8, 178; Communist Party (CPC) 169, 171–2, 173–8, 174, 181, 183; equal rights legislation 172, 183; Kuomintang (KMT) 171; National People’s Congress (NPC) 175–8, 176; population growth 102; in the 20th century 170–3; women in the workforce 99; World Conference on Women 20, 55, 119, 122 Clinton, Hillary 8, 55, 64, 82, 95; and Bill 55, 64 Clinton Foundation 20 Colombia 24, 126, 130, 136, 138, 219; gender quotas 134, 137; High Presidential Council for the Equality of Women 129 Comoros 115, 116

265

Confucius 168–9, 180, 182–3 Costa Rica 131, 134, 136, 219, 236, 237 Côte d’Ivoire 115 Cuba 133, 237 Czechoslovakia 63 Democratic Republic of Congo 115 Denmark 8, 24, 201; Copenhagen 12 Dhlamini-Zuma, Nkosazana 119, 121 Djibouti 115, 116, 122, 144 Dominican Republic 126, 134, 236 Dubai 67 Ecuador 126, 130, 137, 219, 236; women parliamentarians 133, 134, 237; Women’s National Council 129; women’s suffrage 76 Egypt 144, 145, 146, 148, 149, 155–64; ancient 7, 155; women parliamentarians 148–9 electoral systems 78–9 El Salvador 127 Emily’s List 11, 82 Equatorial Guinea 111, 112 Eritrea 111 Estonia 81 Ethiopia 112, 115, 235 Europe 19, 24, 81, 102, 233, 236; and China 170; Eastern 64; European Association for Public Administration Accreditation (EAPAA) 217–18, 219, 221–2, 222, 228; European Union (EU) 24, 27, 68, 178; parental leave 200–2, 209–10; in the 19th century 200; Western 102; women’s suffrage 76; World War II 41 EY (Ernst & Young Global Ltd) Worldwide Index of Women as Public Sector Leaders 88, 92–3, 95, 96–101, 105 feminism/feminists 22, 34, 40, 41–5, 127 Finland 76, 77 France 95, 96, 101 Gabon 111 Gambia 235–6 Gandhi, Indira 69; background 60–1, 69, 70; Indira Gandhi Prize 65; as Prime Minister of India 48, 50, 52, 54, 60–2 Gandhi, Mahatma 60 G8 countries 68

266

Index

G20 countries: clustered 68, 93–9, 94, 96, 98; women in leadership 10–11, 24, 88, 92, 93 gender quotas 78, 79–80, 80, 84, 99–101, 103; in Africa 119–20; in Bolivia 77–8; in China 181, 183; in Egypt 159, 162; in France 96; in Latin America 97, 130, 133–8, 236; in Rwanda 10, 77, 120; in the UK 94; and the World Bank 151 Germany 56, 66, 95, 96–7, 200; equal rights legislation 96–7 Ghana 111, 115, 235 government/cabinet ministers 8, 9, 83, 93–4, 96–101, 241–2; in Africa 236; in China 179; in Egypt 160, 162; in Latin America 126, 127–8, 131–2, 132, 233, 236–7; in MENA countries 238; in sub-Saharan Africa 116, 117, 122; see also Albright, Madeleine; Bachelet, Michelle; Merkel, Angela; Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson Greece 102; ancient 33, 155 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) 19, 91, 101 Guatemala 237 Gufrib-Fakium, Ameenah 116 Guinea 112 Guyana 236

Ireland 202, 223 ‘Iron Lady’ 69 Islamic nations 55, 76, 99 Israel 54, 58–9, 64, 238; Labor Party/Mapai 58 Italy 95, 102, 223; ancient Rome 155 Japan 7, 19, 97, 100–1, 102; and China 170, 180, 183; equal rights legislation 100 Jawaharlal Nehru Award 68 Jordan 144, 145, 149 Kennedy, John F. 26; President’s Commission on the Status of Women 26 Kenya 190; Nairobi 12, 54, 65 Kohl, Helmut 68 Korea 180; North 64; South 97, 98–9, 100, 101, 183, 190 Kuwait 76, 144, 145, 148, 149 Kyrgyzstan 190

Haiti 78 Handoussa, Heba 161, 163 heads of state/government 7–8, 20, 24, 48–49, 50–2, 69–70, 241–2; in China 169–70; in Latin America 130–1; in South Korea 99; in sub-Saharan Africa 116 Honduras 134, 236 Hoover, J. Edgar 69

labor force participation rate (LFPR) 21, 21–4, 23, 115 Latin America 27, 125–38, 225; gender quotas 97, 236–7, 238; women heads of state 8, 66; women’s literacy 144–5; see also labor force participation rate; World Economic Forum Latvia 10, 83 League of Nations 57 Lebanon 145, 147, 149 Lesotho 111, 119 Liberia 27, 55, 64–5, 116, 120, 235; Monrovia 64 Libya 145, 163 Lichtenstein 76

Iceland 24, 200, 202 India 19, 54, 60–2, 68, 97, 98; population growth 102 Indonesia 76, 97, 99 International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA) 217–18, 219, 221, 222, 223, 228 International Knowledge Network of Women in Politics (iknowpolitics) 13; quoted 14 international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs): see nonprofit Iran 12, 76 Iraq 64, 69, 144

Madagascar 115, 236 Malawi 112, 115, 116, 236 Mali 112, 115, 235–6 Mao Tse Tung/Mao Zedong 168, 175, 180 Mauritania 115, 119, 236, 238 Mauritius 10, 111, 112, 113–15, 235, 236; woman President 116 May, Theresa 94 ‘megatrends’ 88–92, 91 Meir, Golda 69; background 58–9, 69, 70; as Prime Minister of Israel 48, 51, 52, 54, 58–9 mentoring 14, 83–4, 103, 104

Index

267

Merkel, Angela 69; background 49, 68, 69, 70; as Chancellor of Germany 48, 51, 52, 55, 56, 68–9 Mexico 8, 95, 128, 130, 137; accreditation 219; gender quotas 97, 99–100, 134, 236; government ministers 132, 237; Mexico City 12, 54; National Institute for Women 129; World Conference on Women 54, 128 Micronesia 78 Middle East 59, 156; and North Africa (MENA) 143–52, 156, 233, 237–9, 239, 240 Mina, Mona 162–3 Morayef, Heba 163 Morocco 144, 147, 149 Mozambique 115, 119, 120, 235, 236 Mubarak, Suzanne 160

Paraguay 126, 127, 134, 219, 236, 237; women’s suffrage 76 parental/pregnancy leave 27–8, 99, 157, 199–210, 209 parliamentarians 8–10, 20, 24, 75, 78–85, 234; in Bolivia 77–8; in China 99; in Egypt 158–60; gender quotas 79–80, 99, 133–5, 242; in Germany 97; in Japan 97; in Latin America 97, 125, 132–6, 133, 135; in Rwanda 77, 234; in Saudi Arabia 98; in South Korea 98; in sub-Saharan Africa 116–19, 118, 235–6; in Turkey 98; in the UK 94; see also Meir, Golda Péron, Isabel Martinez de 130–1 Peru 126, 129, 134, 137, 236 Pinochet, Augusto 65–6, 70, 126 Portugal 24, 76, 102

Namibia 111, 112–15, 119, 234, 235, 236; gender quotas 120; woman prime minister 116 Nehru, Jawaharlal (Indira Gandhi’s father) 60–1, 70 Netherlands 201 New Zealand 10, 75–6, 77, 200, 202 Nicaragua 125, 126, 131, 219, 236, 237 Niger 112, 115 Nigeria 235–6, 236, 241 Nobel Peace Prize 65 nonprofit/nongovernmental organizations (NPOs/NGOs) 54, 55, 189–97, 214, 215, 240 North America 8, 102, 233, 236 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) 64 Norway 28, 76, 200

Qallini, Georgette 161–2, 163–4 Qatar 78, 144, 145, 149

Oman 144, 145, 149 Omran, Ragia 163 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries 7, 24, 151, 199, 201, 209–10; Social Institutions and Gender Index 156 Pacific 81, 233 Pakistan 55, 60, 66–8, 76 Palau 78 Palestine 58; see also West Bank Panama 126, 131, 134, 236 Pandit, Vijaya Lakshmi 54 Papua New Guinea 27

refugees 58 Republic of Congo 111, 112 Rice, Condoleeza 64 Roosevelt, Eleanor 59, 69; background 56–7, 69; and Franklin 11, 41, 49, 53, 57, 70; UN role 48, 49, 51, 52, 53, 56–8 Rouseff, Dilma 95, 101, 131 Russia 59, 95, 97 Rwanda 111, 112–15, 116, 234, 236; civil war 10, 64, 77, 120; gender quotas 120; Women’s Movement 120; world leader in representation 8, 10, 77, 116–19, 121, 235 Sadat, Jehane El 160 Sadda, Hoda El 162 salary levels 2 Samba-Panza, Catherine 116 Sao Tome and Principe 111, 116 Saudi Arabia 97, 98, 99, 144, 145; women’s suffrage 76, 148 Scandinavia (Nordic countries) 7–8 Senegal 119, 120, 234, 235 Seychelles 111, 112, 119 Sierra Leone 116 Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson: background 64–5, 69, 70; as President of Liberia 48, 51, 52, 55–6, 64–5, 116 Sisi, Abdel Fattah El 159 Slovenia 24, 201

268

Index

Somalia 116 South Africa 11, 93, 111, 112–15, 190, 234; equal rights legislation 95, 101; gender quotas 120; post-conflict 120; women ministers/parliamentarians 80–1, 116, 119, 235, 236; world leader in representation (or not) 95, 100, 101; see also International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA) South America 8, 76 Spain 27, 102 Sri Lanka (Ceylon) 21, 54, 59–60 statecraft 33–4 Sudan 12, 111, 115 suffrage for women 1, 11–12, 53, 75–6; in China 172; in Egypt 158, 160, 164; in the US 1, 4, 34–5, 39, 40 Swaziland 27, 111, 235–6 Sweden 7–8, 24, 28, 200, 201, 202 Switzerland 24, 61, 63, 69 Syria 144 Taft, Lydia 75 Taiwan 171 Tanzania, United Republic of 115, 116, 119, 236 Thatcher, Margaret 49, 59, 69, 70; background 62, 69, 70; as Prime Minister of the UK 48, 51, 52, 54, 62–3, 68; at the UN 54, 56 ‘third sector’ organizations; see nonprofit Togo 115 Tonga 78 Trudeau, Justin 101 Truman, Harry S. 53, 57 Tunisia 144, 145, 147, 148, 149, 163 Turkey 97, 98 Uganda 81, 119 Ukraine 58, 69 United Arab Emirates 144, 145, 148 United Kingdom/Great Britain 11, 93, 102; equal rights legislation 62; ‘gender innovation’ 28–9; gender quotas 79, 94; London 63, 69–70, 163; Oxford 59, 61, 62, 67, 70; parental leave 81, 202; women’s suffrage 76 United Nations (UN) 11, 24, 48, 119, 181; birth of 49, 53, 54, 57; Commission on the Status of Women 11, 52, 53, 54–5, 56; Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of

Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) 11–12, 57, 128, 143, 151, 203; Convention on the Political Rights of Women 11, 52, 53; Decade for Women 128; Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 189, 191–2; Gender Equality in Public Administration Initiative (GEPA) 29; Gender (In)equality Index 112, 144; General Assembly 54, 55, 56, 57; Human Development Index (HDI) 111–12, 144, 182; Human Rights Prize 55; Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 13, 56; Planet 50-50 by 2030 12–13, 52, 56; Security Council 64; Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 11, 52, 53, 57; UNWomen 12–13, 27, 52, 56, 66; World Conferences on Women 12 (see also China; Mexico) United States 11, 14, 19–20, 93, 95, 102, 180; accreditation 216; cabinet ministers 8; and CEDAW 12; charitable work 35–8; and China 170; Civil War 2, 35–7; Congress 5, 10, 14–15, 26, 76–7, 200; Council on Higher Education (CHEA) 216; Department of Education 215; Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan 101; equal rights legislation 26; feminism 22, 40, 41–5; gender discrimination 13, 27; Gender Parity Index 4–5, 5; Harvard 64, 67, 69; higher education 214, 215; labor force participation rate (LFPR) 21, 21–4, 23; legislature 10; mayors 5–6; mentoring 83; National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) 14–15; National Association/Network of Schools of Public (Policy,) Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) 216–18, 219–21, 222, 222–3, 228; New York City 28; nonprofit organizations 189–91; parental leave 199, 200, 202; presidency 8; ‘republican motherhood’/‘true womanhood’ 35, 36, 37, 38, 39; state governors 4, 6; Supreme Court 26–7, 85; teachers 6–7, 36, 37, 58; Vassar 2; Washington, DC 63, 65, 69, 70, 189–90; Women’s Bureau 2–3; women’s participation in history 1–4, 5–7, 33–42; women’s suffrage 1, 4, 39, 40, 77 Uruguay 126, 127, 132, 136, 237

Index

Vanuatu 78 Vatican 76 Vietnam 64 voting rights: see suffrage for women war impact/post-war conditions 53, 76, 112, 119, 120; in Czechoslovakia 63; in Liberia 65; in Rwanda 77, 120; in the US 2–3, 22, 37, 41, 57, 69 wartime employment 2, 3, 21–2, 36, 41 West Bank/Gaza (Palestinian Territories) 144, 145

269

World Bank 79–80, 102, 122, 151 World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Gender Gap Index 232–42, 234, 235, 237, 238 World Health Organization 66, 201, 205 Yemen 78, 144, 145, 147, 238 Yousafzai, Malala 55 Zambia 111, 235 Zimbabwe 111, 115, 236, 241