Thursday, May 21, 2009
Women's week in politics
Male and female political rights vary across societies; sometimes women acquire legal privileges to vote or to hold a public office later than men. As more countries liberalize their political laws, women are finally emerging into national and international roles, balancing the male-dominated power structure.
On May 17, 2009, Lithuania elected its first female president, Dalia Grybauskaite, the European Union budget commissioner. Her experience in financial policies is expected to help the nation’s economic crisis.
“Lithuania’s economy shrank a preliminary 12.6 percent in the first quarter (of 2009), the most since at least 1995, when the former communist state was emerging from the collapse of the Soviet Union,” said the APA on April 28, 2009.
Perhaps more important than her attention to the economy is foreign policy, which is considered the president's main role in Lithuania. Her experience as the EU’s budget commissioner is a primary asset for her new diplomatic position and it enables her to use her economic expertise at home.
"My conscience as a citizen wouldn't let me stay in Brussels,” she told the AFP before the election. “I did what I could from Brussels, criticizing and commenting, but it wasn't effective enough."
Grybauskaite entered the race in February, after the public rioted Lithuania’s deepening economic crisis and distrust in politicians.
Kuwait elected its first four females to the 50-member parliament on May 16, 2009, only four years after women achieved voting rights. Kuwaiti women comprise 54.3 percent of the 385,000 eligible voters.
Sixteen women ran for office this year, but the genesis of Kuwait’s women’s rights movement extends nineteen years ago, according to The Guardian. During Iraq's occupation of Kuwait in 1990, for example, Kuwait’s government summoned women out of their domestic lifestyles to help resist enemy forces, partly liberalizing women's political and social rights.
“At the time, many women assumed important responsibilities, volunteering in hospitals to compensate for the lack of medical staff, smuggling food, money, and weapons across military checkpoints,” The Guardian reports.
Massouma al-Mubarak, Salwa al-Jassar, Aseel al-Awadhi, and Rola Dashti all won seats in the Kuwaiti parliament. Although they were all educated in doctorate programs in the United States, the new members represent different social strata.
"Yes all of us are educated, but we also have a woman who won who is married to a non-Kuwaiti, one who is divorced, one who is not yet married, one whose mother is Lebanese," Rola Dashti told Aljazeera News.
Dashti used marital status and ethnicity to differentiate between herself and her new colleagues. But The Guardian distinguished each woman by her profession: al-Mubarak is the first female cabinet minister (appointed in 2005), al-Jassar and al-Awadhi are professors, and Dashti is an economist.
The battle for women’s rights continues: Islamic Sharia law permeates regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, endorsing domestic and sexual oppression of women, and Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times continues his columns about seven-year-old rape victims from Gambia, and other women throughout Africa.
The elections in Lithuania and Kuwait demonstrate that women can overcome patriarchal societies that are plagued with sexism. Political equality is one stepping block for achieving global representation for women. We can protect political rights individually and collectively through awareness, advocacy, and volunteering. All citizens are responsible for lobbying both the government and non-governmental organizations to pressure governments that fail to protect women’s rights.
On May 17, 2009, Lithuania elected its first female president, Dalia Grybauskaite, the European Union budget commissioner. Her experience in financial policies is expected to help the nation’s economic crisis.
“Lithuania’s economy shrank a preliminary 12.6 percent in the first quarter (of 2009), the most since at least 1995, when the former communist state was emerging from the collapse of the Soviet Union,” said the APA on April 28, 2009.
Perhaps more important than her attention to the economy is foreign policy, which is considered the president's main role in Lithuania. Her experience as the EU’s budget commissioner is a primary asset for her new diplomatic position and it enables her to use her economic expertise at home.
"My conscience as a citizen wouldn't let me stay in Brussels,” she told the AFP before the election. “I did what I could from Brussels, criticizing and commenting, but it wasn't effective enough."
Grybauskaite entered the race in February, after the public rioted Lithuania’s deepening economic crisis and distrust in politicians.
Kuwait elected its first four females to the 50-member parliament on May 16, 2009, only four years after women achieved voting rights. Kuwaiti women comprise 54.3 percent of the 385,000 eligible voters.
Sixteen women ran for office this year, but the genesis of Kuwait’s women’s rights movement extends nineteen years ago, according to The Guardian. During Iraq's occupation of Kuwait in 1990, for example, Kuwait’s government summoned women out of their domestic lifestyles to help resist enemy forces, partly liberalizing women's political and social rights.
“At the time, many women assumed important responsibilities, volunteering in hospitals to compensate for the lack of medical staff, smuggling food, money, and weapons across military checkpoints,” The Guardian reports.
Massouma al-Mubarak, Salwa al-Jassar, Aseel al-Awadhi, and Rola Dashti all won seats in the Kuwaiti parliament. Although they were all educated in doctorate programs in the United States, the new members represent different social strata.
"Yes all of us are educated, but we also have a woman who won who is married to a non-Kuwaiti, one who is divorced, one who is not yet married, one whose mother is Lebanese," Rola Dashti told Aljazeera News.
Dashti used marital status and ethnicity to differentiate between herself and her new colleagues. But The Guardian distinguished each woman by her profession: al-Mubarak is the first female cabinet minister (appointed in 2005), al-Jassar and al-Awadhi are professors, and Dashti is an economist.
The battle for women’s rights continues: Islamic Sharia law permeates regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, endorsing domestic and sexual oppression of women, and Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times continues his columns about seven-year-old rape victims from Gambia, and other women throughout Africa.
The elections in Lithuania and Kuwait demonstrate that women can overcome patriarchal societies that are plagued with sexism. Political equality is one stepping block for achieving global representation for women. We can protect political rights individually and collectively through awareness, advocacy, and volunteering. All citizens are responsible for lobbying both the government and non-governmental organizations to pressure governments that fail to protect women’s rights.
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