Women still campaiging for quota in Parliment

Fikre Debela
October 17, 2008

Women represented in Parliament are very low in numbers for some countries. Having a role in parliament is looked to some as just being a man’s job. Many are struggling to claim their place. They are being underrepresented and forced not to take the places they should in parliament. This is a dominant issue in the country of Lebanon.
The seats in the parliament are very limited to women. Only six women have a place. Other countries such as Rwanda have women holding more than 56% seats, which is the highest in any countries parliament. Lebanon ranks at 121st place out the 136 countries of women’s participation.
A higher women’s quota is where people are trying to get at. “Technical reasons” is the excuse why the quota of having 30 percent represented was rejected. “ Men are not going to give up their seats,” says Dabbous-Sensenig. However, people are still fighting. They are trying to argue that all citizens need to be considered equal under the law. There is no excuse. Women are also facing issues such as lacking financial means for campaigning and advertising their stand. It is also hard for women to balance their profession and household. The women whose main priority is politics often don’t have any support from their families. Sometimes it is thought of politics being an inappropriate activity for women.
I feel women need to have representation in countries parliament. There many problems that get in the way with this but the advent of a better supporting government and more organizations can make things can get better. Hopefully, in time Lebanon will come to represents greater number of women in their parliament.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=96860