This was the finding
of the latest study on women membership in national parliaments by the
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), according to Senator Pia S. Cayetano
of the Philippines.
Cayetano, President of
the IPU committee of women parliamentarians, said that barely just one
out of every five lawmakers (18.8 percent) in the world today is a
woman.
“Even in these modern
times where women have become more politically aware and socially
empowered, the hard and sad fact is that men continue to write the
laws of our world,” Cayetano stressed.
The Filipino senator
chaired the 54th session of the United Nations Commission on the
Status of Women, an annual conference of parliamentarians jointly
organized by the IPU and United Nations Division for the Advancement
of Women.
More than 140
representatives from 150 countries attended the main conference and
side meetings held at the UN Headquarters in
New York
from March 2-4.
Cayetano noted that as
of January 31, the IPU found out that men made up 36,330 (81.2
percent) while women occupied only 8,767 (18.8 percent) of the 44,767
seats of parliaments (combined upper and lower houses) all over the
world.
This figure represents
a marginal improvement from 18.3 percent in 2009, and still a far cry
from the target set by the UN Economic and Social Council of having a
minimum of 30 percent women lawmakers in all parliaments. In 1995,
women occupied only 11.3 percent of the world’s combined parliamentary
seats.
She added that the IPU
has been at the forefront of promoting the election of female
legislators among its member-parliaments. Among the schemes the world
body has introduced is the setting of “gender quotas” to encourage
more women to enter politics.
Compared by regional
averages, Nordic countries and the
Americas
registered the highest ratio of women parliamentarians at 42.1 percent
and 22.2 percent, respectively. They are followed by Europe (19.9 to
21.8 percent), Asia (18.9 percent) and Sub-Saharan Africa (18.4
percent). The regions with the lowest ratio of women parliamentarians
are the Pacific (13.2 percent) and Arab countries (10.1 percent).
In the Philippines,
she noted that women comprise only four of the current 23 members of
the Senate (17.4 percent) and occupy 51 out of 240 seats in the House
of Representatives (21.3 percent).
Cayetano concluded:
“The active participation of women and the integration of their
perspective in all levels of governance are crucial in pursing social
equity, genuine development and peace in any country.”
“True democracy
presupposes that men and women are able to work as partners and as
equals, and able to learn from each other’s differences."
