Gender and Politics: Women’s Political Participation and Their Voice in Politics: The case of Ethiopian Parliament.
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Date
2018-06-20
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The main purpose of this study was to assess women’s political participation and their voice in politics. To deal with the problem, fundamental research questions were formulated to assess the women’s political participation and their voice in Ethiopian politics to enhance women’s political participation. To conduct the study, qualitative research method study design was deployed. The study was carried out in the House of People’s Representatives, and purposive and multistage and random sampling methods were used to select 25 female parliamentarians, 15 male parliamentarians. In addition, in order to explore political experiences of women in the Ethiopian parliament, snow ball sampling techniques were used. The main instruments of data collection were unstructured, in- depth interview and focus group discussion. The data were analyzed using descriptive content analysis. The finding of the study reveals that the majority of participants have acknowledged that descriptive political representation of Ethiopian women is improving. Further, dramatic increase from 0.5 percent representation in 1954 to 38.8 percent in 2015 that illustrated the positive result of commitment to address gender equality in the parliament. Women are efficiently participated in politics and they make a significant difference in the issues they prioritize and the solution they provoke comparing to previous time. Men informants have also recognized that women are more active in supporting legislations that will benefit women and children. Both men and women share common issues and bring different point of views in their legislative work to impact wider range of the society. From the findings of the study, it is possible to conclude that a lot of procedural and structural changes in the parliament that may perhaps help to promote gender equality in politics. However, men are still dominating and the parliament still maintains the tradition of male superiority. In contrast, women hold senior position in Ethiopian national parliament. They are mostly presented in “Soft political portfolio”. In its place, they are generally under-presented in “Hard political portfolio”. There are several factors that determine active political participation of women and their voice in politics. However, there is a general consensus that women parliamentarians have become a voice for women’s right advocacy and make a significant difference in bringing gender friendly agenda.