By Uzma Siraj
Women equal participation and leadership in political public life are essential to achieving
the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. However, data shows that women are underrepresented at all levels of decision-making worldwide, and achieving gender parity in political life is far off.
According to a report by UN women as of September 2021 there are 26 women serving as Heads of State or Government in 24 countries. This also depicts that gender equality in the highest positions of power will not be reached for another 130 years.
A well-known anchorperson Talat Alvi in an interview while giving reasons behind this said that women in politics are disproportionately targeted by gendered disinformation campaigns that feature fake stories and threats, as well as humiliating and sexually charged images.
The goal of these attacks is to frame female politicians and government officials as inherently untrustworthy, not intelligent or competent and weak emotionally to participate in democratic politics.
She said that with an annual increase of just 0.52 percentage points, gender uniformity in ministerial positions will not be achieved before 2077.
On the other hand, a researcher working on gender disparity Mirza Baig said balanced political participation and power-sharing between women and men in decision-making is the internationally agreed target set in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. There is established and growing evidence that women’s leadership in political decision-making processes improves them. Research on local councils in India discovered that the number of drinking water projects in areas with women-led councils was 62 per cent higher than in those with men- led councils. In Norway, a direct causal a relationship between the presence of women in municipal councils and childcare coverage was found.
If we look at Pakistan, women constitute more than 50% of the population. However, their
disengagement from socio-political affairs leads to an unfair and unbalanced governance
system impeding the country’s development as a truly democratic nation.
Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri said Pakistan’s Constitution guarantees fundamental rights of women,including financial security, job, business, education and freedom of choice in their profession,participation in political and social activities. He said women politicians have notable representation in federal as well as provincial assemblies since 2002. There are eighteen (18) women senators while the reserved seats for women in the National Assembly is sixty (60).
Despite, this increase of women participation in politics, women parliamentarians continue to face numerous obstacles including the prevalent socio-cultural taboos in the society and high cost of running successful elections campaigns for awarding party tickets to them MPA from Balochistan, Rukkaya Hashmi said it was because of her struggle and hard work that she became a Member of Provincial Assembly. Sharing her experience in the field of politics, She said that women legislators elected through indirect mode of elections undermine their credibility and effectiveness as politicians. However, they are largely ignored in decision making process within their political parties and during the proceedings of legislative assemblies for lack of their own A Member of National Assembly from Pakistan Peoples’ Party Fouzia Wahab, who died during a surgery in 2012, had once admitted that majority people do not accept women as politicians which is obviously another obstacle to flourish women as politicians. The masses still need to be educated to accept women’s role in politics and their struggle for the development of the county. It is also government and
legislators responsibly to provide more security and protection to women politicians so that more women get involved in the political system.
A practicing psychologist, Nirma Hassan said gender inequality refers to the differences between genders in terms of status, power, wealth, health, and employment. When these differences are avoidable and unfair, it is known as gender inequity. If women are neglected and propagated as weak, unintelligent then these women suffer at the hands of economic dependence, health related problems, self-esteem and self -worth issues, technological handicap, mental illnesses, shifting roles, dislocation, domestic violence, worthlessness and empty nest syndrome. She urged that strategies to be devised to enhance the status of women as useful members of the society and media can play an important role in forming society’s perceptions, opinions and behaviors. She emphasizes that women should be projected as strong, confident and intelligent rather than weak