Engendering Governance: Strategies for Promoting Gender Equality

• Author: Barbara Bailey and Elsa Leo-Rhynie
• Pages: 195-210

Engendering Governance 195

IntroductionIntroduction

IntroductionIntroduction

Introduction

Governance has been defined as the exercise of economic, political and

administrative authority to manage a country’s affairs at all levels. (UNDP 2000,

p. iii)1

this definition was extended by the Minister of Finance and Planning of

Jamaica, Hon Dr Omar Davies (2002), who characterised governance as:

The traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised.

This includes:

•The process by which governments are selected, monitored and replaced;

•The capacity of the government to continually formulate and implement

sound policies; and

•The respect of citizens and the State for the institutions that govern economic

and social interactions among them. 2

These definitions highlight the various dimensions of governance and the

vital role of this process in all aspects of the direction, development, leadership,

cohesiveness and culture of a country.

The lack of involvement of women in this process of governance has been

reported by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

(ECLAC) in a document on participation and leadership in Latin American and

the Caribbean. The document states:

…the presence of women in decision-making is not commensurate with

their contribution to society. . . [this] can be demonstrated by objective data.

It is a fact that women in the region have been steadily leaving the domestic

engenDerIng governance:

strategIes for promotIng

genDer equalIty

BARBARA BAILEY AND ELSA LEO-RHYNIE

CHAPTER ELEVEN

196 GOVERNANCE: THEORETICAL ASPECTS

sphere and entering the labour market and different areas of public life.

Nonetheless, their new participatory role is a subordinate one and does not

extend to the social and political spheres where power is exercised. (p.19)3

The non-participation of women in the process of governance – their lack

of representation in the political process and other areas of public decision-

making, excludes a valuable source of human capital.

The objectives of this paper are to examine the current state of women’s

participation at decision-making levels in political and social life, to identify

factors which relate to and explain their low levels of participation and to

propose mechanisms for bringing about parity in this regard.

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Women continue to be under-represented in positions of decision-making

in both the private and public sectors and are still markedly absent from the

sites of executive power where decisions affecting every aspect of the lives of

both men and women are taken. The under-representation of women in decision-

making and power sharing was identified as one of five of the most pressing

issues facing Caribbean women in a report prepared by the Caribbean

Community (CARICOM) Secretariat in preparation for the 4th World Conference

on Women held in Beijing, China in 1995.4

The absence of women in these positions is further confirmed by a UNESCO

Report on Education in the Caribbean coming out of the 1996 meeting of

Ministers of Education of Latin America and the Caribbean where it is stated

that:

. . .despite the advances made by women in education. . . ,

when compared to men, they still have less access to

opportunities and rewards and to the corridors and board

rooms of political and economic power. (p.12)5

The lack of involvement of women in decision-making results in a lack of

parity between men and women in matters of sociopolitical participation and

governance at all levels. The levels for participation are identified as the micro-

level of the home, the meso-level of community organisations and local

government and the macro-level of national party, parliamentary and

governmental politics.6

This paper looks specifically at governance at the meso and macro-levels.

The Women and Development Unit of ECLAC has supplied a framework which

can be used to analyse the extent to which women have achieved political

autonomy particularly at these two levels of governance.7 Two types of indicators

are identified: indicators of “results” and indicators of “political will”. The latter