National Assembly Speaker, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, has reiterated that increased participation of women in parliamentary processes is critical in accelerating the transformation of our society to meaningfully change gender relations across the spectrum.
Addressing the opening session of the 145th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) held in Kigali, Rwanda, on Wednesday, Mapisa-Nqakula said there is unprecedentedly a wide convergence of understanding that gender equality, gender mainstreaming and women’s participation should be placed higher on the developmental agenda of the nations and parliaments.
“We believe that Parliament’s law-making, oversight and enhancement of public participation hold hope for the meaningful translation of these ideals and commitments to improve the lives of ordinary women. We all agree that a gender-sensitive Parliament must go beyond women’s representation, which only reflects numbers.
“It is more about improving the lives of women, especially the poorest and the needy. We owe it to the future generation to succeed in building societies that are more fit for women [and] it should start with empowering both the girl and the boy child,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.
She noted that the IPU Women in Parliament report of 2020 is not encouraging for a world whose leaders have expressed their commitment to women’s empowerment and to ensure “a just and equitable society.”
“The statistics also show that out of its members, more than 80 Parliaments have less than 20% representation of women. What is even more disturbing is that the report also shows that there are Parliaments with less than 5% representation of women amongst us here, including some reporting 0% representation of women. This has to change,” Mapisa-Nqakula said.
She also warned that unless many systemic barriers to women’s participation at the apex of political leadership and decision-making are addressed, the status of women will not improve.
“These barriers include disempowering legislation, patriarchal gender roles in society, conservative traditions, and religious fundamentalism that continue to reproduce undesirable stereotypes and inadequate support and recognition of women in individual households.
“I wish to reiterate what I recently said in one of our international parliamentary fora, whilst we recognise many achievements made in the representation of women in our parliaments, we are still far from the ideal scenario articulated in numerous commitments we made,” the Speaker said.
She further called on the Assembly to explore the possibility of imposing penalties on all parliaments who are members of the IPU who seem not to be moving to ensure there is proper gender representation in their Parliaments.
The five-day session, taking place from 11 to 15 October 2022, brings together delegates from 178 Member Parliaments, and will see global parliaments engaging on the overall theme “Gender equality and gender-sensitive parliaments as drivers of change for a more resilient and peaceful world”.
Source: South African Government News Agency