Women Seek Greater Political Representation

Around the world many countries are trying to have an equal political representation and participation of women in parliament and other political jobs. As we know in most countries majority of political figures are men. In Kenya there are only 18 female representatives out of a 222 seat parliament. In 2003 at a Council Committee of Ministers meeting in Europe agreed that it was a necessity to have a "balanced participation in decision making bodies". To facilitate action and to help make this a success they decided that "the representation of either women or men should not fall below 40 percent" Over the next two years Sweden became the only country that met the standard. A few countries came close to meeting the standard; they were Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Half of Europe’s representation of women was below 20 percent and seven countries were way behind the 40 percent needed having less than 10 percent. Italy, Malta, Turkey, and Ukraine were those that had below 10 percent. The Committee of Ministers tried to figure out ideas to help countries meet these standards and encourage women’s pursuit of political careers. A program in the United States known as the Affirmative Action which is geared to help promote education and employment to minorities or women. The Committee considered this program but thought it might raise questions regarding the competence of employees and it would be too controversial. Since 2005 the representation of women in European parliaments has improved and hopefully will keep going up in years to come. I think it is important to have an equal representation in parliaments. I know majority of countries have always had male political figures and in the past few years women are now starting to step up and take roles in politics. Now there are more and more women who are politicians around the world and I hope that the number continues to go up.

http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/152468/1/8550