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Women’s empowerment

Bijan Lal Dev
*** Bengali women had started to come out again in the 1960s to protest repression on Bengalis and women. During the liberation movement in the late 1960s and in the war of independence in 1971 the role of the Bengali women was great, and many of them participated actively in the freedom movement and the Liberation War. It created a new vista of women engaging in politics. ***
Before discussing women's empowerment, let us glance over some facts on the economic and political decision-making status of women worldwide. Only 1% of the world's assets are in the name of women. Men in Arab states have 3.5 times the purchasing power of their female counterparts. 70% people in abject poverty across the world — living on less than Slper day - are women. Women's participation in managerial and administrative work is around 33% in the developed world. 15% in Africa, and 13% in Asia/Pacific.
In Africa and Asia/Pacific, these percentages, small as they are. reflect a doubling in the last twenty years. Among the developed countries, only 9% of the workforce in France and 20% in the Netherlands are female administrators and managers.
The global picture of the participation of women in politics has also been bleak. In 1945, there were only 26 parliaments worldwide where 3% of the members of the lower house were women. The table shows the gradual increase in women's participation in politics.
The percentage of women senators in the upper house has also increased over the years. Coming down to 2008, according to the data of 188 countries compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), there are 44,087 MPs in both houses — out of which 7,793, or 17.7%, are women. Counting only the lower houses, the situation is slightly better. Out of 37,019 MPs 6,615, or 17.9%, are women.
On a regional basis, the parliaments of the Nordic countries have the highest representation of women, 41.4%. It is 20.9% in the whole of Europe, 20.7% in the
Americas, 17.3% in Sub-Saharan Africa, 16.9% in Asia, 12.9% in Pacific and 9.6 % in Arab states. Country-wise figures show that Rwanda (48.8%), Sweden (47%) and Finland (41.5) are at the top, while there is not a single woman MP in Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Solomon Islands.
In the eighth parliament of Bangladesh, only six MPs of 300, or 2%, were women. In India 49, or 9.1%, MPs out of 541 are women. In the US Congress in 2007, women held 87, or 16.3%, of the 535 seats (16 of the 100 seats in the Senate and 71 of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives).
In the 20th century, a good number of women leaders were heads of state or government across the world. They were Sri Lankan Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandarnaike (1960-65, 1970-77, 1994-2000), Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (1966-77, 1980-84), Israeli President Golda Me^r (1969-74), British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1979-90), Dominican Prime Minister Eugenia Charles (1980-95), President of the Philippines Corazon Aquino (1986-92), Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (1988-90, 1993-96), Irish President Mary Robinson (1990-97), Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga (1994-2005), President of the Philippines Gloria Arroyo (2001- ) and Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri (2001-04).
Two prime ministers of Bangladesh, Khaleda Zia (1991-96, 2001-06) and Sheikh Hasina (1996-2001), also drew global attention for many reasons. At present, women are heads of state or government in Germany, India, Argentina, Chile, the Philippines, Finland, and Mozambique.
Women were elected speakers of parliament for the first time in Pakistan, Gambia, Swaziland, Turkmenistan and the United States, holding a record 36 out of 262 speakers worldwide, accord-ingtothelPU.
The lives of women in the Indian subcontinent began to change in the late 19th century when the colonial government, critical of the treatment of both Hindu and Muslim women, found allies among reformers in the country. Keen to reform their own society, these men agreed that women should be educated and play some role in public life.
By the end of the 19th century, women of the subcontinent were attending schools and colleges, becoming teachers and doctors, writing work of fiction and essays about their condition, joining
organisations to promote social reforms, and participating in political meetings. They were referred to as "new women," and like the next generation who joined the freedom movement, like Kalpana Datta, Pretilata Sen, Ila Mitra, Sarajoni Naidu, they entered public spaces reserved for men.
The womenfolk of the subcontinent benefited from colonial role as they were granted the right to vote on the same terms as men in 1928, before the women in Europe and the Americas, by the Representation of the People Act 1928. It was felt that men and women should be equal in every way and that all adults were entitled to a vote, whether rich or poor, male or female, regardless of race.
But this system was not continued after the end of the colonial rule. Women were pushed back in the then Pakistan, and Indian women were engaged in economic reality. But Bengali women had started to come out again in the 1960s to protest repression on Bengalis and women. During the liberation movement in the late 1960s and in the war of independence in 1971 the role of the Bengali women was great, and many of them participated actively in the
freedom movement and the Liberation War. It created a new vista of women engaging in politics.
To continue the spirit of women's empowerment, a good number of revolutionary measures, including constitutional provisions, have been introduced since independence. Article 28(4) of the Constitution of Bangladesh enacted in 1972 states: "Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making special provision in favour of women or children ..." Based on this constitutional provision, Article 65(3) allows the parliament to select 45 women as MPs. It states: "... there shall be forty-five seats exclusively for women members, and they will be elected by the aforesaid members in accordance with law on the basis of procedure of proportional representation in the Parliament through single transferable vote..."
The revised clause was inserted by the fourteenth amendment of the constitution in 2004, and will be valid for ten years. So, in the 9th Parliament, there will be 45 reserved women MPs. But this provision will not prevent a woman from being elected to any of the 300 parliamentary seats open for general election.
It will help women to get into politics faster and in larger num--bers. The reconstituted Election Commission floated a draft pro-posal for amending Representation of People Order (RPO), 1972 to give more space to women in the political parties' rank and file. It proposed Article 90A(9) of RPO as: "Every registered political party shall make specific provisions in its constitution regarding inclusion of at least 33% women as office-bearers of its central committee and other committees at different levels."
They also discussed this issue with the political parties. Discussions are going on in different fora about the ways of ensuring of women's empowerment in public life. It has created awareness in the society and. hopefully, one day it will come out as a movement as the concerned agencies including the government, Election Commission and civil society are pursuing the case. Women will then earn decisionmaking power in real terms, and could build bridges of development and economic empowerment effectively.
B^an Lal Dev is a freelance contributor to The Daly Star.