CWP AT 30 YEARS: ACHIEVEMENTS AND UNFINISHED BUSINESS: LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT 30 YEARS across the entire Commonwealth include, but are not limited to, intimate partner violence, sexual harassment, reduced educational opportunity for females and less economic equality for women. Initially, greater focus was placed on increasing the number of women in Parliament. There has been some success in that regard in some countries in the Commonwealth. Gender bias shown in positions of power, intimate partner violence, access to education, and certain types of employment opportunities continue to plague the development, empowerment and overall development of women across the Commonwealth. The wheels of Parliament tend to grind slowly. Recent periods in history indicate that the people are growing weary of how long it takes to pass legislation and to attend to matters associated with life’s basic challenges. It is a whole generation ago since the group that has come to be known as the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians was established. It rose out of an era when many men - especially men in areas where male dominance succeeded
almost unchallenged – were able to stall situations where women ‘dared’ to stand their ground. The next thirty years saw calls for additional methods for Parliaments to represent constituents. Some of that work includes greater efforts to educate candidates for election and appointment to Parliament. For instance, there are still Parliamentarians who see women merely as ‘homemakers’ and ‘child-bearers’ without recognising the depth and breadth of thoughtprocessing required to operate those domestic engineering skills. There is a need to bring the wisdom of the Commonwealth together so as to share the wisdom that emanates from the four corners of the Commonwealth, to dispel the myths that exist about each of those corners, and to show how women function across the Commonwealth. Women who are intimidated, harassed and insulted because they seek to serve in politics are actually experiencing a form of violence, a hindrance to the fulfillment of opportunities to further serve their countries, often to being seen as preventing insecure or hostile male candidates from the acquisition
of similar political positions and disrupting the status quo. Intellectual global exchanges, the wider use of the internet, continuous and growing connectivity among the peoples of the world (including the Commonwealth), student exchanges around the globe, and business development all add to how differently the world functions now than it did thirty years ago. It is as if Parliament operates BC - before computer use was so widespread, before cell phones, before crypto currency arrived. It is a new world order which calls for changes to update out-moded ways of carrying out business on behalf of all of the constituents. A study by the InterParliamentary Union designed to show how sexism, harassment and violence negatively affect women Parliamentarians shows that sexism, threats of death, rape, beatings, abduction, harassment including unwanted attention, unwelcome verbal contact, frightening interpersonal interaction, and humiliating sexual remarks commonly occur against women Parliamentarians. These are just some of the examples of
violence against women. In some parts of the world, the people are growing weary at the lack of a prompt response from their elected representatives and are taking matters into their own hands when their requests are ignored or unduly delayed. My expectation is that the next thirty years will see the people’s efforts to bring about change broaden. Women both inside and outside of Parliament are more likely to agitate for change in how women are perceived. Supportive organisations such as Amnesty International, UN Women and the International Alliance for Women can add to efforts to bring about change in how women are seen and treated. Can Parliaments accept the more modern momentum with required changes? Will the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians continue to have to fight to bring about changes that women and many men know are obviously needed? Is there the political will to bring about change in order to lay the foundations for functional democracy? Need exists for those changes to occur.
In recognition of 30th anniversary of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians, the former, outgoing and newly-elected CWP Chairpersons from Malaysia, Uganda, Dominica, Pakistan and South Africa addressed the CWP conference.
330 | The Parliamentarian | 2019: Issue Four | 100th year of publishing
