The Attitude and Views of Parliamentarians towards Women’s Political Participation and Gender Based Quota: The Case of FDRE
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Date
2010-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The main purpose of this study was to assess the attitude and view of Parliamentarians
towards women’s political participation and gender based quota: To deal with the problem,
three fundamental research questions were formulated that asses the attitude and view of
parliamentarians towards women’s political participation, gender based quota and their
perspectives on the role of quota in Ethiopian politics to enhancing women’s political
participation. To conduct the study, mixed method study design was employed. The study
was carried out in the House of People’s Representatives, and purposive and stratified
sampling methods were used to select 80 female parliamentarians, two political parties and
129 male parliamentarians. The main instruments of data collection were questionnaire, indepth
interview and document analysis. The data were analyzed using frequency tables and
percentage. The finding of the study reveals that the majority of the participants have a
positive attitude towards women’s political participation irrespective of their sex and their
political party affiliation. However, with regard to their view on gender based quota it was
found that most men parliamentarians from opposition parties have negative attitude while
women parliamentarians and men parliamentarians from the ruling party support the practice
of affirmative action measures such as quota. From the findings of the study, it was possible
to conclude that descriptive political representation of Ethiopian women is improving, the
current quota system introduced by the ruling party lacks follow up in creating competent
women politicians rather it increases numerical presence of women in the HPR. Therefore, the provision of quotas by political parties’ with capacity building activities, support of male parliamentarians and quota non receiving female politicians towards quota receiving women, and the recognition and implementation of laws on the rights of women are some of the recommendations forwarded to enhance women’s political participation
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Gender Studies