Research Paper on Women Empowerment: Bridging the Gender Gap in Politics and Management

Introduction

Women empowerment is an essential aspect of promoting equality between men and women in politics and the management of public issues. For a long time, men have dominated powerful organs in society, and women were left behind due to the biased gender roles that existed in society for a long time. Women were treated as second class citizens who had no right and intelligence to make any important decisions without a man's input. In other sectors, the growth of women in positions of power and decision making capacity has been experienced, and women can occupy any job, for example, in the business world without much struggle. In education, gender equality has achieved. Gender roles in all other sectors have been equal in the 21st century. Political equality is the only aspect of gender equality that has been challenging to achieve. The push for women's empowerment in politics continues in many countries around the world. Only a few of the liberal states have been able to have gender equality when it comes to politics. It remains too close yet too far to be achieved. While gender quotas, on paper, seem to be an effective method to push for gender equality in the political sphere, they are not as effective as given credit. They can actually do more harm to female legislative powers as not all women politicians have similar stances on issues and may not figure independent from the workings of male-dominated political parties trying to work around gender quotas.

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Patriarchal Practices

Poststructuralist scholars view the failure of gender quotas as a result of other factors within the institution. They see the state as one big institution where several factors make it impossible to implement the quota system, as stated in the law. The state, in the beginning, was established as a patriarchal society that favored men more than it did to women. Different segments of the country need to change their view of women empowerment and create more space for women who want to pursue leadership within it. The largely patriarchal society cannot be easily changed bypassing of the gender quota law. Institutions led by those in charge should push for policy change within the institution to ensure that the gender quota law is more useful to women. If women are given opportunities by the men who are more powerful and moneyed than them, they can quickly rise, and the voice of a woman can be felt. The importance of women's involvement in policy debates can easily be heard, and the sound of reason from a woman gets a chance to prevail. Institutions with patriarchal orientation make it difficult for women to rise and be heard and can be considered as a more prominent institution ( Piscopo 31).

The patriarchal attitudes of society are not easily erased from the community members, especially the ruling class. Men will always feel that women should not be powerful than them and deny them the chance of getting into leadership positions. Some cultural practices treat it as a taboo for any woman to speak in front of men, and thus, women are discouraged from joining politics for fear of societal rejection even with the gender quota system. In that case, gender quotas will not be as effective as expected since women will be reluctant to take the initiative, and the men will be happy to deny women the opportunity. Other policies that address patriarchal issues that limit women over men, for example, ownership of properties and household chores, should be implemented by the state in support of women. Women lack resources to take up the opportunities in the quota system since the patriarchal society was such that men controlled the resources, and so women were limited (Piscopo 31).

Division of Women

Urban women feel that the indigenous rural woman is not interested in political empowerment and engaging in leadership roles. The woman is only concerned with poverty eradication in rural areas but loess interested in political representation. It is only the urban woman who pushes for gender quotas in the political sphere. It is this gap that makes gender equality laws in politics less useful as it ought to be. A larger group of women is less interested in it. If all women, both rural and urban, remain united, they can quickly push for reforms that are favorable to them and those that would make sense of the gender quotas in the political sphere (Htun et al. 10). The group that supports and is actively involved in pushing for women opportunities at the Centre of leadership is less. Those who do not support form the majority of the women. It makes it challenging and difficult for gender quotas in the political sphere to be active and efficient as it ought to be. Rural women need to be encouraged and sensitized on the importance of the women's voice in leadership.

If indigenous women are put at a forum with urban women, they will raise totally different issues.The indigenous woman seems not to understand what gender parity is. The indigenous woman is less interested in in political leadership that gender quotas try to address. Being in a male-dominated society, less support from fellow women means that there will be less pressure to implement gender quotas fully.

Every Person Thinks Independently

Human beings, whether men or women, are independent thinkers. There is no time that all women will have similar thinking on a particular issue just because they are women. The quota system anticipates that women will give a united voice to a specific problem so that the women's view helps push a particular agenda for women. The independence of thought makes it hard for the gender quotas in the political sphere not as effective as it was intended to be. Women are full of wisdom. However, there is no time in memorial that women have ever had a similar opinion just because they are women (Piscopo 38). They will always have the independence of thought to policy debates, sometimes identical to most men. Some skeptics have argued that even women who are currently in influential positions of power come from a patriarchal society, and they cannot be considered feminists enough to fight for women. The patriarchal society they come from influences their thinking that supports men. Women who do not support the women's agenda when they get into positions of power make the agenda quotas useless. Those who get into privileged positions of leadership should be feminists enough to promote other women and make society appreciate the role of women.They instead are not interested in gender equality, which is the issue that gender quotas try to address (Piscopo 38).

A higher number of women in the house s of leadership do not mean that there will be more policy gains for women. Sometimes more women might be there for the show, but when it comes to voting, they vote together with men in favor of men's interest (Piscopo 39). It would be naive to expect all women to possess similar thinking patterns in the policy debates. People will always be different, regardless of whether they are men or women.

Subversion of Quotas

Change is necessary, but sometimes it is not an easy process. Political Gender quotas are meant to empower women who are interested in political leadership, but most times, it does not serve the purpose. The allowances get the subversion by political party leaders who are the ruling class. The ruling class has mostly favored the cultural orientation of the patriarchal society. Patriarchal society does not treat a woman with equality. The ruling class may not see the need for women's leadership and thus tend to treat gender quotas casually. They end up subverting the allowances to serve their own personal and private interests by using women they can easily influence as figureheads. The ruling class from a patriarchal society has always been reluctant to redistribute power to the women with leadership potential and thus, in the end, subvert the original intended goal of gender quotas. Quotas are meant to increase the women's voice in various matters of national importance like policy debates and women issues such as gender-based violence. Subversion of these intentions by men who are the majority of the ruling elites waters down the effectiveness of gender quotas. Gender quotas for women in politics can work and be effective at that by having male elites change their personal opinion about women's leadership. It will make them avoid the subversion of gender quotas ( Piscopo 27).

Corruption is the main factor that leads to the subversion of gender quotas. It is a deep-rooted vice in the system that makes it impossible for qualified and competent women to ascend to positions of leadership. You will find that the jobs that are a requirement for parties to nominate women are not readily available to them. Some Women engage in corruption to get nominated by the party at the expense of poor women with proper leadership skills. It makes those who do not want to participate in bribery shun politics. Corrupt women who get nominated corruptly may end up engaging in corruption when important debates involving women come to the floor of the house to give an unfavorable vote to women issues.

Inter-Sectionality

A gender quota in the political sphere is meant to ensure that women get into political positions of leadership. The effectiveness of gender quotas can only be if the issues of intersectionality such as race, class, and ethnicity do not work against women in their pursuit of political leadership. For example, African American women might be disadvantaged when it comes to filling the quotas that are largely dominated by political leaders with race biases. Rich women might still benefit more than poor women who have the leadership potential since they can bribe and influence their way into political party nominations. It leaves out the more effective and focused woman out, and thus, the voice of a more intelligent and better female leader is missing. Women who can make great leaders and bring the difference intended by the quota system may not have the resources or be of the preferred class or race to get the party nomination. No matter how the gender quota system is good for women, other intersectional factors, including race, class, and ethnicity, determine the kind of women who get the positions. They might not be the best leaders anticipated by the gender quotas law. Things end up remaining the same for women despite having the quota system. Its effectiveness is affected by inter-sectionality factors in a particular country (Htun et al. 6).

Solution

Political quotas are an essential aspect of women empowerment. It makes women feel part of society by providing solutions and being able to determine the decisions taken by the country just like men. Despite the shortcomings of gender quotas in politics, we still have room for improvement to ensure that gender quotas achieve the intended goals. Unequal distribution of resources courtesy of the patriarchal society should get the necessary attention. It is a society and a cultural thing that can only be changed through specialization and advocating for behavior and culture change to accommodate women. We need to make men conformable by women owning and controlling family resources. We have had a society that encourages the man to dominate the woman economically through control of family resources to the disadvantage of the woman (Piscopo 29). Culture should be favorable to both men and women so that a man can feel that empowering his wife financially and resource-wise, in general, does not make him weak or disinherit his generation. It only makes the wife better and brings even more success to the family. The leadership in most countries must deal with corruption to make gender quotas effective. Wealthy party officials bribe to see their spouses or children benefit from the set gender quotas. It waters down...