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Increasing Political Participation


This topic has been much discussed especially in connection with the election system for the Constituent Assembly. More information on election systems in general will appear in another part of the website. Here a few points will be made:

Some countries have women-only constituencies provided for in their constitutions. These include Rwanda and Uganda.

The Proportional Representation election system (especially the party list system) has a tendency to provide more women members of the legislature than the "first past the post" system that is used in Nepal now. This is because the system (where voters vote for a party and its list of candidates and not for individual members in single member constituencies) encourages parties to have a wide range of types of candidates to appeal to all voters. Since voters vote for a list rather than individuals they are less influenced by prejudice against women. It has also been suggested that a system of proportional representation itself produces a less confrontational style of politics, which might encourage more women to get involved.

On the whole topic of women's representation there is a lot of material on the internet. You might be interested to look at the International Parliamentary Union project on women in politics at http://www.ipu.org/iss-e/women.htm

There are also various studies produced by International IDEA – www.idea.int. Particularly relevant is a recent publication: Designing for Equality: Best-fit, medium-fit and non-favourable combinations of electoral systems and gender quotas.

There is also a website specifically on women in politics.
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