Women in Politics

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WOMEN IN POLITICS (WIP)

One of the key objectives of WIN (Women in Networking) is to spearhead the transformation of politics in Mauritius to lead to doubling the number of women in Parliament by 2010.

Despite the huge economic progress that has been made in Mauritius since Independence in 1968, Mauritius still lags behind many African countries in terms of gender equality and female representation in decision making. While Mauritius is held up as an example of democracy in Africa, with one of the oldest democracies in the region, the female population of Mauritius, approximately 52% of the total population, is largely disenfranchised when it comes to participating in the decision making process at all levels in our society.

WIN has therefore set up WOMEN IN POLITICS (WIP).

VISION

The vision of WIP is for Mauritian women to participate fully in the political process in Mauritius and to be proportionately represented in parliament and local government.

MISSION

The Mission of WIP is to encourage more women to enter politics and to find new and effective ways of achieving this end.

VALUES

-WIN and WIP are strictly neutral both from a political and religious view. We are not and will not be affiliated to any political party or any religious body.

-We believe in equality, meritocracy and integrity at all levels in our society. 

GOALS

-To have gender parity in the number of women elected both in parliament and local government

-To at least double the number of women in Parliament at the next General Election

STRATEGY

1. To set up a Woman’s Platform with a view to the next General Election
2. To work on a Women’s Agenda
3. To lobby for quotas and promote electoral reform
4. To target all Mauritian women, of whatever social category, living here and abroad.
5. To form small local cells or groups which will meet regularly to discuss aims, strategy and action.
6. To develop an effective communications plan
7. To educate the female population about their voting rights and to encourage them to vote for women if they want to see positive change in our society.
8. To provide training in election skills and campaigning for women candidates
9. To provide other types of training courses eg making governance gender responsive

KEY MESSAGES FOR WOMEN:

Ø      Women must act to send more women to Parliament in 2010.

Ø      Voting is an act of power and responsibility- the vote of every woman will count.

Ø      A woman needs to learn to vote differently – it is HER vote and it is confidential.

Ø      If women want positive change, they should vote for women – we need critical mass to change the political agenda.

Ø      Every woman is needed to help empower women in Mauritius. Contribute your ideas for a national strategy\stand as candidate\offer to help in other ways\contact-geraldine@winmauritius.net

KEY MESSAGES FOR MEN

Ø      Women don’t want to take over - we simply want a more balanced society

Ø      It is about “eve”olution and not revolution

Ø      We want men to be 50% of the solution and not 100% of the problem

Ø      Join WIN and fight for equality and parity

FACTS AND FIGURES

      In September 2000 at the United Nations Millennium Summit, world leaders agreed to a set of time bound and measurable goals and targets for combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women. Of the 8 MDGs to be achieved by 2015, the 3^rd Goal is to:

Empower women and promote equality between women and men.

Mauritius adopted the MDGs, along with 188 other member states of the United Nations, on 8^th September 2000.

Mauritius is also a member of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) – a regional economic block. At the 2005 SADC summit, Heads of State agreed to consider raising the target for women in decision-making from 30% to 50% in line with the African Union (AU) positions. The 2008 Protocol, still to be ratified by Mauritius, includes the following key provisions:

-all member states to enshrine gender quality in their Constitutions

-50/50 representation of women in all areas of decision-making by 2015

In Mauritius few statistics are available on the situation of gender equality. However the following studies and reports give some indication:

2.1 PriceWaterHouse Coopers Study on “Women at Executive Level in Mauritius 2003” -key findings:

-Women fare quite well in the public sector where they represent 30% of senior staff and where they are firmly established at senior level. However the study does show that women are unequally distributed amongst the different Ministries.

-The private sector is quite different with only 5% of senior posts occupied by women among the top 100 companies.

2.2 Study on “Gender Equality at Board Decision Level in Mauritius” undertaken by the UNDP and commissioned by the  Commissioner for African Programmes of the Femmes Chefs d’Entreprises Mondiales in October 2004- key findings:

-23% of women represented on Mauritian Public Boards (excluding state-owned companies) versus 19% in the private sector

-Small private companies that are more dynamic, more entrepreneurial and generate the growth of the economy are less likely to have female representation than big ones.

-However the representation in small companies is 1 woman in 3, while in large companies…there is 1 woman in 10. In the Top 20 Mauritian companies, the percentage is 1 woman for 40 men.

2.3. Another study by the UNDP on behalf of the Association Femmes Chefs d’Entreprises Mondiales entitled “Sur les Licenciements de la Zone Franche a Maurice” undertaken in 2004 indicates that when economic times get tough, women are the first to suffer and the study shows that women represent 84% of those laid off in the textile sector in Mauritius.

2.4 The latest study, “At the Coalface- Gender and Local Government in Southern Africa” by Gender Links published in June 2007, shows that Mauritius has one of the lowest female representations in local government in the SADC region with only 6.4% of women. Only Angola came lower down the scale with 1.2% while countries such as Lesotho have achieved 58%, Namibia 41.8% and South Africa 39.7%.

The same study also compares female representation in parliament.

While Mauritius has improved its position at the last General Elections in 2006 with 17.1% of seats in parliament being held by women, we are still a long way behind the SADC recommendation of 30%, let alone the new target of 50% currently being discussed. Once again countries like Mozambique have achieved 43.8% female representation in parliament, South Africa 32.8% and Tanzania 30.4%. The study also shows that Mauritius has one of the lowest representations on women in cabinet (10%) - again only second from the bottom of the table after Angola.

AT THE COAL FACE- GENDER AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

Edited by Colleen Lowe Morna and Susan Tolmay

June 2007

Gender and Politics in Southern Africa