Wanted: More Women Political Leaders

“When one woman is a leader, it changes her. When more women are leaders, it changes politics and policies.” – Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Liberal International (LI) continues to unite liberals in sharing their diverse experiences with regard to gender inclusivity and women involvement in politics. After the successful meeting in Marrakech, Morocco last March 2019, Liberal International Human Rights Committee (LI HRC) held another LI HRC Expert Forum, hosted by Centerpartiet, in Stockholm, Sweden on 14 April 2019. The objective of the second expert forum is to facilitate another exchange of best practices among the participants on the topic of gender-based inclusivity in liberal political parties.

The experts gathered were from different places all over the globe. The speakers came from Africa, the Middle East Region, Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia. They shared their experiences, views, concerns and suggestions on how to effectively include women in political party structures, the structural obstacles to this, how to promote inclusivity, whether women wings and gender quota are working and the state’s role in the process.

CALD Women’s Caucus Chair Datuk Jayanthi Balaguru attended the forum to represent both the CALD Women’s Caucus and the International Network of Liberal Women. As part of the Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (PGRM), Balaguru talked about the best practices on political inclusivity and diversity in Asia. “It was interesting to gather that though all the experts in their respective regions concurred that women have advanced and made inroads, there remains much to be done to increase the numbers substantially and on merits”, she said. “Women all over the world still experience discrimination and worse, violence.”

Based on the forums conducted, LI HRC is currently drafting a political party inclusivity handbook on the experiences and best practices from the liberal political world. This handbook will be useful and can address the glaring gender gap in politics. It can create more open political environments in which men and women can actively participate in democratic processes.