Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens participate equally in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. Under this system legal equality, freedom, and rule of law are all important characteristics, and since the 20th century, waves of democracy have brought important gains towards true liberal democracy for many nations. There are two important components that are necessary for the legitimacy of democracy. The first, participation, advocates for the inclusion and equal participation in competitive and free elections. The second is the accountability of the government, civil servants and politicians to the public and to legislative bodies, and it calls for transparency of governance, and the free flow of information. With this definition in mind, is it really possible to describe all democratic states of the 21st century as true democracies? One of the basic, fundamental principles of democracy is the participation of all eligible citizens, but in many ‘democracies’ women are underrepresented in elected positions, their interests are overlooked in the development of public policies, and there their rights or needs have not been consistently protected (United Nations). The importance of the role of women in democratic processes has been acknowledged in the 2011 General Assembly resolution on Women’s Political Participation (A/RES/66/130), which reaffirms “that the active participation of women, on equal terms with men, at all levels of decision-making is essential to the achievement of equality, sustainable development, peace and democracy” (United Nations). But, despite this recognition, adequate progress in this area has not been made. Women still remain underrepresented, marginalized, and absent i...
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... the Quality of Democracy Matter for Women’s Rights? Just Debate and Democratic Transition in Chile and South Africa." Sage Journals 45.11 (2012): 1323-1350. Comparative Political Studies. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
Youngs, Gillian. "Feminist International Relations: a contradiction in terms? Or: why women and gender are essential to understanding the world 'we' live in." International Affairs 80.1 (2004): 75-87. JSTOR. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
United Nations. "Global Issues at the United Nations.." UN News Center. UN, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. .
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Throughout the 1800s, women across the world began establishing organizations to demand women’s suffrage in their countries. Today, there are still women in countries fighting for their right to vote. Some countries who’ve succeeded in the mid to late 1800s were Sweden and New Zealand. Once they expanded women’s suffrage, many other countries followed. Like Sweden, countries first granted limited suffrage to women and other countries approved to the full national level. Additionally, there were quite a few countries who had taken over a century to give women the right to vote, Qatar being a prime example. Although the fight for women’s suffrage varied in the United States, France, and Cuba in terms of length and process, each effort ultimately
In the 1940’s, the United Nation Conference came together to resolve issues, in reference to women to establish a commitment at treating men; and women the same in an ecumenical way. From the 1940’s to the 1970’s many different conferences were held to overcome these issues regarding the gender roles of these women compared to those of men. “Under the banner of “equality, development and peace”, each conference assessed the programs of commitments made by various nations on behalf of women; along the side of the (NGO) that funded non-profit organization and spoke on behalf of the poor from all walks of life” (Lindsey, 2011, pg. 137). These people are designed to affiliate on the process of diversity issues, to which they presented to these organizations on the importance of women in a changing world; which are “politics, religion, ethnicity, and economics” (Lindsey, pg.
YOUNGS, Gillian, ‘Feminist International Relations: A Contradiction in Terms? Or: Why Women and Gender are Essential to
The current plight of poor democracy in various developing countries has however raised concerns in regards to just how effective the form of governance may be. Many developing worlds are in this day faced with numerous challenges as far as their democratic governance is concerned. True to this statement, other nations such as Chile has even been taken aback to forms of democracy that are greatly oppressive, begging the question as to whether there really is any democracy in such a state. Municipal and global entities alike, have taken initiative in an attempt to grasp a better understanding of what exactly are the key impediments to democratization in developing worlds, as discussed in this paper.
...ies that the government, which majority consists of men, does not consider it as a significant matter. In order for this to move in the right direction, I feel that policy-makers and specialists would have to address the concerns that are disregarded of gender equality in nationality such as assuring women a safe future, as well as come up with public and official resolutions. Secondly, I find that the social movement needs a great support system from the policy-makers and those who set-up projects and lastly, in turn to promote discussions, acquire information, and extend useful approaches through networks must be established. As for the women’s civil society movement, initiating responsibilities as suppliers of useful information to policy-makers on their necessities, future approach and gender discrimination might support them to get their voices being heard.
World Bank Policy Report. (2001). Engendering development: Through gender equality in rights, resources, and voice. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Firstly, K. Isbester mentions that democracy has a different meaning for everyone, as some can define democracy as a good aspect for development, on the contrary other believe that it is nothing more than voting after several years. Although, Latin America see democratic g...
Several forms of government have been formed since the development of centralized power. The form of government that has showed the most international growth in the last century is democracy. There are currently over 160 democracies in the world today. These democracies, however, are not complete democracies. They are representative democracies that have been created by the leaders of our predominantly patriarchal international system. Due to this, many citizens of these democracies are considered second class citizens and their views are not heard by their supposedly democratic society. A solution to this problem is participatory democracy. Participatory democracy is better than the existing patriarchal society because it allows the progression of society as a whole, eliminates political oppression, and creates a predominantly equal political culture for the citizens it governs. There is much evidence that proves that the advantages of participatory democracy heavily outweigh the drawbacks and that it is a better way of government than patriarchy. This evidence can be found in historical analysis, scrutiny of the patriarchal international system, the development of participatory democracy, and the values of a participatory democracy versus the values of a patriarchal democracy.
Women form half of the human beings inhabiting planet Earth. Since human rights are the rights of all human beings, male and female alike, human rights are women's rights. By the same token, a society in which men are not willing to extend human rights to their mothers, the women who bore and nurtured them; their daughters, products of their own loins; and their wives, the women who bear and raise their treasured sons, is a society in which men are unwilling to extend human rights to men of another family, tribe, language, religion, race, ethnic tradition, or nation. If a society does not hold justice and equality for all women in the highest regard, neither will it hold justice and equality for the many varieties of men in high regard. In a very real sense, women's rights are the basis of all human rights. Women's rights belong to women as members of the human family, and, as such, are not dependent either on a woman's marital status or on the number or sex of the children she has borne.
... for granted. Therefore, it is without a doubt that the incorporation of gender would enrich international relations theory. Tickner, in her critique of Morgenthau has attempted to depict the gender-bias prevalent within the field. By building on Morgenthau’s founding principles in political realism and of international politics, Tickner makes an insightful contribution to the field of international relations by challenging pre-existing paradigms. She is open to Morgenthau’s masculine-embedded principles, and does not refute them but ultimately contends that for complete comprehension of international politics, masculine and feminine contributions must be equally represented. Without a feminist perspective, an incomplete picture of international politics is painted. Feminist perspectives improve our analysis, knowledge and understanding of international politics.
To understand a Feminist scholar’s perspective of security, there needs to be clarification of their understanding of International Relations. For an individual without knowledge of IR, they are accustomed
Patriarchy in politics, One of the major problems that persist in the world is that the physical presence of women's voices in positions of power and decision-making within political parties remain weak and almost non-existent. Although women participate actively and visibly support political parties and mobilized by the parties to join as members and for their vote in favor of parties through elections, their participation does not always guarantee inclusion in the decision-making in political parties and / or the public in general decision. Arguably skepticism about women's leadership and decision-making capacity is a common perception among the political parties because social norms dictate that politics is the domain of men.
This essay would argue that the use of the gender and development approach into the development processes, would be used to overcome the power gap between men and women in the global south and north, thus, achieving a degree of equality hereof, in the political, social and economic spheres.
...n’s) social opportunities for good health and for participating in public life, it limits their ability to contribute to a country’s social and economic advancement. Moreover, given that women’s preferences and priorities can be different from men’s, gender issues that undermines women’s ability to participate in, say, government decision-making could mean that some significant public goods that would enhance society’s well-being may not get priority. Finally, the relative silence on gender inequality in society and in the media underlines the failure of transparency guarantees on this front. It can also be argued that, even if the state is trying to enhance such instrumental
Mao-Tse-Tung once said, “women hold up the sky” (Boulding et.al, 2012). Gender equality has become a global phenomenon that is recognized by international institutions, developing and developed countries that are key players in international development. Waves of feminist movements have resulted in the adoption of approaches that are geared towards; “Gender equality...the extent to which women are present in positions of political authority and decision making” (Boulding et al, 2012), which translates to women 's socio-economic and political participation in development. In the pursuit for equality, a more in depth focus is placed on undermined issues such as gender-based violence, gender division of labour, women empowerment