Inonge Wina bemoans low women representation

Inonge Wina bemoans low women representation
Written by Agness Changala
Monday, November 24, 2008 10:00:26 AM

FORMER Nalolo member of parliament Inonge Wina (left) has advised women to continue with the struggle for their rights. And Wina has said the non-participation of women in elections and at policy and decision-making levels has created a gap in democracy.

Presenting a paper on Women Participation in National Elections at Garden House Hotel on Saturday, Wina said women should not expect political parties headed by men to give political power to them on a silver platter.

She said there was need to realise that it was a struggle to transform deep-rooted beliefs and prejudices and gender inequality in society that was legitimized by culture, religion and perpetuated by upbringing.

Wina said there were also social-economic issues that impacted on women negatively.

“The shortage of funds to run election campaigns is a major deterrent to women’s participation in politics,” Wina said. “Therefore resource mobilisation efforts need to be undertaken by both Non-Governmental Organisations [NGOs] and political parties to assist women who have the desire to participate in elections.”

She said capacity building was also important because such training would equip the women with necessary skills to deal with different issues effectively.

Wina said Zambia’s political landscape would be different if more women were in politics.

“Women will humanise politics because they are more sensitive to social problems, poverty, education, health, jobs and improvements in farming,” she said.

And Wina said although there was a critical need for the women to participate in elections and decision-making, there was need to realise that for a variety of reasons, women generally were hesitant to seek political power because they felt that politics belonged to men.

She said women feared politics because gender violence and intimidation were rampant in the political arena.

“Women candidates are called all sorts of names and they are sent to campaign against other women,” she said. “It is sad that you need to have a tough skin to survive in politics and ensure politics develop a human face.”

Wina said although the participation of women as voters was very high, women had not been able to succeed as candidates to Parliament.

She said consequently, women’s influence had not been felt both in Parliament and Cabinet.

She said political parties must take deliberate steps to open up their candidate selection procedures to make them more democratic.

Wina said the national constitution should be amended to include affirmative action that would allow more representation of women, the youths and people with disabilities in decision-making positions.