Challenges Facing the Nomination of Women in Political Parties

Adopted from “Political Parties and Special Measures: Enhancing Women’s Participation in Electoral Processes” by Julie Ballington & Richard E. Matland

There are specific challenges that women face that affect their chances of election to parliament. In most countries we find that women face specific obstacles.

Electoral Systems
There is overwhelming evidence that the type of electoral system can greatly affect women’s chances of election. While electoral systems alone do not determine the level of representation of women, they are important because they can be, and regularly are, changed. Compared to the cultural status of women in society or level of development, electoral rules are more malleable and may offer opportunities for the inclusion of women in the short-term.  As is now common knowledge, proportional representation systems are viewed as the most ‘woman-friendly’. It is no coincidence that 13 of the 15 countries with the highest representation of women use some form of proportional representation and have an average representation of 34.7 percent women in their parliaments.  At the other end of the spectrum, the 15 countries with the lowest representation of women use plurality or majority systems, averaging one percent women in their legislatures.

Cultural Context
The cultural context influences the perception of how friendly the political environment will be to women standing for election and the likelihood of winning. In highly patriarchal and traditional societies, women seeking leadership positions are often discriminated against and view politics as hostile and aggressive. Socialisation patterns in many countries emphasise politics as a male domain, and many voters view men as better leaders than women. Customary law often asserts that males are often heads of households and are better equipped to deal with decision making, especially in rural areas. Voting also proceeds largely on the basis of tribal affiliation where electors are likely to vote on their tribal or religious affiliation rather than follow a political ideology or issue specific platform.  Traditional cultural values work against the advancement, progress and participation of women in any political process.

Political Parties
Party Organisation

Political parties vary substantially in different country and electoral settings with regard to the number of women candidates they nominate, where they rank on party lists and the proportion they send to parliament. They also vary in their breadth of participation and centralization or decentralization of the process. At one end of the spectrum are systems that provide a broad opportunity for people to participate, such as primary elections. At the other end of the spectrum are systems in which the party leader, national leaders, or the national executive choose the candidates. In between, in several countries all-member caucuses provide substantial opportunity for significant input from rank and file members. Depending on which of these procedures is used, party leaders, a broader set of party officials, or a significant portion of party rank and file will play the gatekeeper role.

Party rules and norms will affect the way in which a party carries out the actual process of nomination. For women, bureaucratically-based systems that have incorporated rules guaranteeing women's representation are a significant advantage, especially if they include a party quota guaranteeing women a certain percentage of the candidacies. Even when there are no explicit rules to guarantee representation, having clear bureaucratic procedures by which candidates are chosen can be a distinct advantage to women. When the rules are unwritten it becomes harder to devise a strategy to break into the inner circle of power.

Are parties sufficiently organised and resourced to ensure functionality in the electoral process?

The absence of an institutionalised party system allows for the dominance of elites, patronage and clientelism where candidate recruitment tends to be hierarchical and dominated by party or faction leaders, reinforced by patriarchy, ethnic ties and loyalty. Alternatively, some states are characterised by a number of smaller parties which can be based on regional, religious, tribal or linguistic representation. In these settings, the opportunity for the party to aggregate the interests of the larger population, or facilitate the participation of women, is low. “The party system is clearly a reflection of the society from which it has come; in it the politicians reproduce the styles and conduct of society.” In Kenya, tribal support for the nomination of candidates and the adherence to tribal priorities are prerequisites. These informal candidate prerequisites are arguably a major barrier for competent women seeking to enter into the political arena.

With weak internal organisation and rules of recruitment that are not clear, decisions are made by a limited number of elites, typically men. Women are usually on the outside and excluded from the ‘all boys’ network. While it is not uncommon for there to be some women who are on the inside, they are few in number, and promoting the greater representation of women is rarely seen as a party goal. Patronage systems are fairly closed and not likely to be favourable to women.

Pool of Women Candidates
High illiteracy rates among women only fuel arguments about their lack of qualifications. This argument is somewhat related to the level of development – with development comes increased resources and ambition, which established democracies have shown lead to a greater willingness to accept women as candidates by the parties and the general electorate.

As women build name recognition and competence in their professions they develop the networks, confidence and skills to compete in the political arena. Although it is because of gender stereotyping that women often have high levels of occupational presence in the health and education sectors, this has allowed women to demonstrate their competences and skills with a select few making the transition into the political system.

Women are sometimes deterred from politics by the ‘masculine model’ of politics and the competitive and confrontational environment. In transitional regimes in Eastern Europe, public opinion is patriarchal in its view of the proper role of women, and these views may affect are likely to lead to diminished political ambition on the part of women. A further deterrent is that many women find that the parliamentary work schedule is difficult to balance with demands of family life and sometimes full time careers, often referred to as the double or triple burden.

Campaigning

Political competition demands that at least two parties or candidates effectively contest an election, communicating party or personal platforms by means of an election campaign. Campaigning is a relevant factor to examine when considering the viability of women candidates. In traditional societies, women may face discrimination during the very act of campaigning, where male and female voters may be hostile to the mere fact that a women is contesting in this usually male dominated domain. Women may also feel that they do not possess the relevant experience and skills needed to compete and market themselves or their party.

Another aspect which typically affects women is the financing of election campaigns and the influence of money in electoral processes. Women typically have access to less power and fewer resources than men in general. A certain amount of funding is needed in order to secure a political party’s nomination. The challenge of funding also applies to men, but there are several reasons why obtaining financial resources is especially problematic for women.

Women still earn less than their male counterparts, and the situation most women candidates find themselves in is not conducive to putting large sums of personal money into a campaign.

Active campaigning demands time and flexibility which few people, particularly women with families, can afford. In many families women assume primary parenting responsibilities which are often extremely difficult to combine with long hours of campaigning.

In many developing democracies the lack of money to pay even modest candidate deposits can exclude women from the election process. In Tanzania, women candidates are affected by a relative lack of resources for campaigning compared with their male counterparts. One result of this inequality is that few women run in the country’s constituency seats, relying instead on the system of intra-party elections for access to reserved seats. The scarcity of resources is often felt hardest among new parties or those not represented in parliament, as only represented political parties receive public funds in Tanzania. Several women from opposition parties interviewed prior to the 2000 parliamentary elections noted that the biggest problem they faced was a lack of financial resources for effective campaigning. Women candidates often had to finance the costs of transport and campaigning materials themselves, expenses which they could barely afford. This was particularly problematic in rural areas where the cost of transport to reach rural voters is very high. Because of the expense involved, some candidates resorted to door-to-door campaigning, often with a limited impact.

These funding obstacles are most pronounced in candidate-centred electoral systems but also affect aspiring candidates in proportional representation systems. Women still need to build name recognition, canvass and be elected onto the party ticket. It may also be the case that candidates with money may be able to buy themselves a place high up on a party’s list, as has been noted in some transitional democracies. However, once elected onto a party list (especially closed lists), women in list-PR systems have an advantage over women contesting in constituency systems. Where political parties are responsible for campaigning, rather than the individual candidate in the constituency, women stand a greater chance of election provided they are placed in “electable” positions on the party list.

Options for Reform:
Certain proposals and recommendations to deal with these obstacles have been suggested by different international and local organisations, including: Limit Campaign Spending
In order to ensure equality of opportunity for all candidates, one option is to limit expenditure during electoral campaigns. Women are often unable to raise the same levels of funding as men.

Setting a ceiling on campaign expenditure and limiting the campaign period, it has been suggested, would promote the ability of all individuals to participate in political life on an equitable basis.
Public Funding: Levelling the Playing Field An adequate system of rules for the funding of political parties should improve the equality of opportunity for all parties competing in an election. Public funding aims to reduce the influence of special interest groups and help create a level playing field for all political actors in the electoral process. Public money is provided usually without any obligation for the recipients, but it can be regulated in such a way as to ensure that parties nominate a certain percentage of women candidates for election, as is the case in France.

Media
Another way of providing indirect public funding is access to the state and privately run media. This is an important element of party campaigning, establishing a connection between the candidates and the community. Media time free of charge is a subsidy in kind, and was used in East Timor as one way to help women candidates: Those parties that had women placed in high positions on party lists received additional media time.

NGOs and Fund-Raising Networks
Today there is a trend where local and international organisations appear to be doing more to support women candidates than political parties by providing funding and training on campaign management. In Bosnia, the OSCE has worked to increase the visibility of women in the media by developing standards of content in the media, and trains women politicians on media strategies.

Women’s fund-raising organizations have a huge effect on the flow of money to women candidates. These fund-raising networks are particularly important where there is no public funding and candidates have to raise private funds to contest an election.