Scarcely room for women in male-dominated politics
Women in Zambia are finding it more
and more difficult to engage in the uneven male-dominated terrain of
politics. Those who have been involved are ruing the experience.
Zarina Geloo
Charity Mans, a former minister and Member of Parliament, knows just
exactly what being one of the very few female politicians in Zambia
means. When she left politics it had nothing to with not being able to
do the work and instead had everything to do with the mad world of
male-dominated politics. ‘It was too hectic, tiring and one needs a lot
of stamina to be in the rough and tumble of politics.
You do not deal with normality; there is a bit of madness.’Mwansa,
who cites the adage ‘if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the
kitchen’, is just another woman who has declined to participate in the
country’s next elections. She says that having to constantly watch her
back; putting out fires where other people created problems for her; and
just having to be alert of plotting against her 24/7 became a bit too
much. ‘It’s what politics is about, it’s not for the faint-hearted.
That’s why I want to rest for now.” A lawyer, Mwansa says that the
political terrain in Zambia is still uneven for women.
While the rest of the SADC (Southern African Development Community)
region increases the number of women in governance, Zambia, which goes
to the polls in 2011, is likely to see a further reduction in the number
of females in decision making. This, women in politics say, is because
the male-dominated political terrain has not changed.
Currently, there are 24 female Members of Parliament (MPs) out of a
total 150. In cabinet there are five female ministers out of a total of
21.
There are only six female deputy ministers out of a total of 20.
Ironically, women constitute half of the voting population, and yet,
they accounted for less than 15% as candidates and elected officials in
Parliament and Local Government institutions, according to the Zambia
National Women’s Lobby (ZNWL) analysis of the last elections in 2006.
The ZNWL is working to get more women to contest the next elections in
2011. But the party’s board secretary, Tamale Kambikambi, told IPS she
would be very surprised if there was an increase in women making it into
parliament and local government in the next elections.
‘There are fewer and fewer women getting elected and even contesting
positions at each election.’
Challenges
Kambikambi said patriarchal attitudes, negative traditions and
customs that did not recognise women as equal partners with men were
responsible for the low participation of women in governance. Political
party structures also did not promote women’s participation as
leadership positions were usually reserved for men.
None of the parties had changed their processes on how candidates got
chosen to run for a constituency to make it accessible for women. It was
still the male-dominated national executive committees that choose
candidates.
‘Despite their pronouncements about promoting women’s participation
at all levels of decision making, none of the political parties come
close to achieving the minimum SADC recommendation threshold of 30%
women in decision-making positions,’ Kambikambi said.
She recommends the adoption of a clear national policy that would be
backed by a legal framework to guide political parties on adoption of
candidates to ensure women are not disadvantaged and only used as foot
soldiers whenever political parties feel like doing so.
However, Given Lubinda, an MP and senior member of the United Party
for National Development (UPND), says complaints about how parties adopt
candidates are ‘nonsense’. ‘Everyone, men and women, votes for people to
serve committees including the adoption committees.
The women are there voting with us, so how can someone complain about
male domination?’Zambia has four main political parties – the ruling
Movement for Multi Party Democracy (MMD) and three opposition parties,
the Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD), the only party to have an
elected female president, the Patriotic Front (PF) and the UPND.
Elizabeth Chilika, an MP who has served as a cabinet minister in
government, argues that the problems for women begin at the very level
Lubinda describes. ‘Everything is run by men who hold meetings and
caucuses amongst themselves about who gets elected to which committees.
It’s not true to say women are not visible, they are just ignored.’
She warns that she will stand as an independent candidate if her
party does not adopt her in the 2011 elections. ‘Parties say they chose
the best candidate, but we see situations where a woman is the better
candidate but a man is chosen, sometimes at the last minute, after the
woman has done all the ground work for the party to be accepted in that
area,’ says Chitika.
Edith Nawakwi, president of the FDD, knows all about gender
discrimination. She won a hard fight against powerful men to become
president of the party.
She agrees that it is difficult for women to get adopted as
candidates especially since Zambia still practises the first-past-the
post system of voting. But rather than harp on the challenges, women
should knuckle down and get to work.
‘Women should go to their parties with something on the table. They
must give evidence of their popularity which means they must canvass
amongst their constituency and get their buy-in. If they create a name
for themselves; no party can afford to ignore them.’
Being a wife Nawakwi is now weathering criticism from some of her
party members who say she cannot win them the presidency and are calling
for her to step down.
Her critics say she spends more time ‘being a wife’ to her polygamous
husband than being a leader of a political party that wants to form the
next government.
Nawakwi shrugs this off saying it is the ‘usual nonsense’ of bringing
in gender whenever unenlightened men feel threatened by a woman. ‘I am
accustomed to breaking gender barriers. I was elected by the party at a
convention that was dominated by men so my gender cannot be an issue
now. It’s a new phenomenon to have a female presidential candidate, so
it’s not surprising that there is some nervousness. But I have told them
to keep calm and watch me.’
Barriers
Where the ZNWL has identified low education levels and poor economic
status as some of the barriers for women’s election campaigns, Nawakwi
told IPS she does not suffer those handicaps. Of all the presidential
candidates, she is the most educated (her Economics and Energy degrees
are from the Imperial college of London).
She is also the most experienced politician, having spent over 15
years in various government portfolios, being the first female finance
minister in Zambia and in the SADC region. She is also wealthy in her
own right.
‘If you want to do a check list, you will find I am the most
qualified candidate around.’But others do not have the same confidence.
Business woman Angelica Rumsey has been courted by the ZNWL to stand in
her home village in the northern part of Zambia. She has declined,
saying her experience in politics was disillusioning.
‘There were lies being peddled about me. While I was discussing
issues of development my opponents were attacking my personal character.
I saw so much corruption and dirty games during the campaigns that left
me disgusted. I would have had to stoop to the level of my opponents if
I wanted to win a seat and I could not do that,’ Rumsey says of her
campaign for a parliamentary seat in the 2006 elections.
Another reason she is reluctant to run for elections is that
campaigns are expensive. Men are able to take risks and borrow from
banks and other lending institutions; women are reluctant to undertake
such risky ventures and in any case, they are not given that
opportunity, Rumsey told IPS.
‘For women who have been in Parliament before it is a little easier
for them to retain their seats because they will have gotten their
gratuities and other monies, that they can use, but for us that are
trying to get in, we have to find money for campaigns and that is not
easy.’Zambia has signed and ratified a number of agreements that promote
women’s rights. However, there has been a lack of political will to
implement and adhere to these agreements and have them domesticated into
national laws, Mwansa says.
Mwansa hopes that the 2011 elections will provide a fresh break from
the discriminatory election system, and more women will participate, but
like Kambikambi she is not hopeful that this will happen. - Third World
Network Features/IPS (The writer contributes for the Inter Press Service
from Lusaka, Zambia). |