Women In Politics: A Long and Winding Road
What is the current status of gender equality in terms of political representation? The road to political participation for women has been long and windy. In spite of much progress, old stereotypes about women's role in society still operate, and women continue to be disadvantaged with respect to the organization of family and working life.
On paper, there are several laws and international agreements aiming at ensuring equal treatment and opportunities for women: One of the most important is the platform approved by UN Conference in Beijing in 1995. This agreement declared that the empowerment of women was a milestone to aim for worldwide through an increase of women in leading roles and their full involvement in decision-making processes.
But what happens in practice? To better understand gender issues in Italy and Europe, we can refer to statistics provided by the EIGE, the European Institute for Gender Equality, an autonomous body of the European Union established to contribute to and to strengthen the promotion of gender equality. The index of power as measured by the EIGE looks at gender equality in decision-making fields across the political, economic and social spheres and the sub-index of political power focuses on the representation of women and men in national parliaments, governments and regional/local assemblies.
The index shows that, during three years (2014-2015-2016), 72.8% of Italian ministers were men and only 27.2% were women; 30.2% of the Italian parliament was composed of women while they were only 17.3% in regional assemblies. Compared to the other 27 EU Member States, Italy ranked 11.
Nilde Iotti, three times Head of the Chamber of Deputies between 1979 and 1992. She has been the first Italian woman to held one of the main political positions in the history of the Italian Republic (Source)
In the overall EU, the situation of women with reference to political, economic and social power has significantly improved, although men in a leading role in political, economic or social domains are still overrepresented in all Member States.
The recent elections in Italy on March 4th, 2018, have not changed the situation significantly. The statistics remain stable even though the Rosatellum (the new Italian electoral system) introduced a mandatory minimum quote for female candidates for gender balance purposes. During the last legislature in Italy counted for 198 women in the House of Representatives and 86 in the Senate, while today there are 185 female deputies out of 630 and 86 female senators out of 315: This means that only 28.68% of the members of the Italian parliament are women.
And what about the U.S.? Nowadays, 106 women hold seats in the United States Congress, corresponding to 19.8% of the 535 members: 78 of them are Democrats and 28 Republicans. 23 women serve in the United States Senate (17 Democrats, 6 Republicans), and 83 women serve in the United States House of Representatives (61 Democrats, 22 Republicans). Five women delegates (3 Democrats, 2 Republicans) also represent American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands in the United States House of Representatives. Interestingly, 38 of the 106 women serving in Congress in 2018 are women of color: 18 are Black, 10 Latina, 9 Asian American/Pacific Islander and 1 multiracial.
These are important achievements but it still requires much more is required to reach a full equality. In this regard, an article by Forbes calls for more women in leadership, stating that “Women see and pursue entrepreneurial opportunities, women build strategic connections that strengthen organizations, women are holistic problem solvers and women are relationship and network builders”
As Michelle Obama stated “No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens.”
