Gender Equality in Public Office—Why Are We So Far Behind?

It took the near-destruction of a country to achieve what the rest of the world couldn’t—the highest ratio of women to men in their governing body.

Today, Rwanda, a tiny land-locked country in East Africa, has the greatest proportion of women representatives of any country in the world, with women holding 49 out of 80 seats in the nation’s parliament. Yes, that’s 61.3%! It’s gender equality at its most impressive!

In part, this bold development was a direct consequence of the horrific genocide which occurred there in the mid-nineteen nineties: 94 percent of the people accused of participating in it were men, and an overall 70 percent of its survivors were women.

In a speech to a group of Rwandan woman, Paul Kegame, Rwanda’s controversial, visionary president, put this in perspective, saying:

“Gender equality in every sector is not a favor, it is your right,”

So how does Rwanda’s gender status compare with other parts of the world? Here are the next top three:

• Cuba 53.2%
• Boliva 53.1%
• Mexico 48.2%

and so on, down to the USA, with 23.6% and Canada, with 26.9%. (Data provided by National Parliaments, Feb, 2019, based on lower houses of parliament.)

Our statistics are dismal actually, when you consider that we in democratically elected countries, have been at this for a very long time. It is, after all, almost 40 years since another democratic state, Iceland, elected the first woman to ever become a head of state in an election.

The role of women in Icelandic politics

When Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, a divorced single mother, ran for president in 1980, women made up only 5% of parliamentarians in that nation, but that didn’t intimidate her—she won, she stayed, and she changed her country.

Alexandra Topping, in a December 7, 2017 article for the Guardian, writes more about this issue, quoting Brynhildur Heiðar, executive manager of the Icelandic Women’s Rights Association as saying :

“There is absolutely no doubt that there is an equivalency between more gender-balanced political representation and better policies for women, Parental leave, daycare, the gender pay gap – none of these were seen as major issues before women ran for parliament.”

Reported in this same article, Auður Styrkársdóttir, former director of Iceland’s Women’s History Archive, had this to say:

“If this tiny nation has anything to teach the States, it is this: don’t give up. Just keep going, Icelandic women aren’t here because it was handed to us – we had to fight all the way, and we are still fighting.”

It’s not enough to fight for the rights of women as we have done for decades, by joining political parties, forming committees, raising money for our favorite candidates, and so on. If women want their issues introduced and pushed in parliament, they need to be there! Electing women to positions of power benefits women and families, period.

Are we due to finally see some change?

It’s a simple enough idea, yet years and decades drag by with little improvement in gender equality in government.

Today may be different. We may at last see inequalities in political representation change. Women in America and Canada have been awakened by the dangers of having a despotic leader in charge in the US, and may now realize that the only way to ensure the well being of women and families is to be part of the government themselves.

That takes dedication and work—and commitment from woman voters as well as women politicians. Let’s hope that we are all up to it!