1.

Womens
Leadership and
Participation
Overview
Introduction
Why support womens participation and leadership?
Throughout both the developing and the developed world,
women carry a disproportionately high burden of poverty.
This poverty is experienced not just as material deprivation,
but also as marginalisation, which means that those living in
poverty often have no, or little opportunity to influence the
political, economic, and social processes and institutions
which control and shape their lives and keep them trapped
in a cycle of poverty.
For poor women, this experience of marginalisation is
effectively doubled: not only do they belong to communities
that exist on the edges of society, but they are also often
denied a voice within the states, markets, communities, and
households in which they live, dominated as they are by
men and male interests. This lack of voice functions as a
critical factor in the maintenance of gender inequality and
poverty, effectively blocking womens access to decision-
making and agenda-setting processes, and beyond that,
opportunities for leading these processes. This situation
contributes to an invisibility of women as public actors and
constitutes a negation of their rights to equal participation. It
also perpetuates a decision-making process which is less
likely to represent womens interests than a more
representative system and which, therefore, possesses
neither the vision nor the motivation to challenge or change
unequal gender relations in society.
Womens equal participation and leadership in decision-making
processes at every level and in every sector is therefore fundamental
to attempts to eliminate gender-based poverty. In order to challenge
the unequal and ultimately unsustainable economic and social
systems in which we live, and to secure the essential resources they
need for dignified and rewarding lives, it has been argued that
women needto be visible politically as women and be empowered
to act in that capacity, becausetheyhave needs and attitudes on
vital issues which differ from those of men. 1 Womens presence in
significant numbers in elected bodies and in economic institutions
can result in more equitable policy outcomes because it is likely to
encourage policy makers to give more attention to issues affecting
women, such as equal pay, better conditions of employment, child-
care, violence against women, and unpaid labour. 2 And economic
policies are also more likely to acknowledge the value of unpaid
caring work (most of which is done by women) as an economic asset
to be maintained and developed.
For instance, in Norway, women members of Parliament brought
about the politics of care, which obligates the state to increase
publicly sponsored child-care services, extend parental leave and
flexible working, and improve pension rights for carers. 3 In South
Africa, women parliamentarians have led the world in the process of
introducing gender budgeting to analyse state spending from a
gender perspective and allocate resources to womens needs. 4 While
having more women in leadership positions does not guarantee
womens concerns will be on the agenda, there is evidence that once a
critical mass of women over one-third is in power, their shared
interests as women start to come to the fore, as these two examples
illustrate. 5
Not only is womens participation and leadership an essential
prerequisite for poverty alleviation and tackling gender inequality, it
is also a basic human right. International human-rights treaties and
conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), 6 the Beijing Platform
for Action, 7 and the third Millennium Development Goal on gender
equality, recognise that women have the right to participate equally
with men at all levels and in all aspects of public life and decision-
making, whether it is deciding how the household income is spent or
determining how the country is run, and such conventions commit
signatories to realising this goal.
Despite these commitments to promoting gender equality in formal
structures of representation and decision-making, women continue to
be under-represented in all areas of decision-making and face
significant barriers to their full and equal participation in the
structures and institutions that govern, and directly affect, their lives.

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Why womens participation and leadership is critical to Oxfam
GBs work
As a rights-based humanitarian, development, and campaigning
organisation which works with others to overcome poverty and
suffering, Oxfam GB has, for many years, sought to ensure that
womens right to equal participation in the design and delivery of
programmes is respected, so that they have greater influence over
decisions affecting their lives. Increasingly there is a drive to go
beyond this and support womens leadership of the institutions and
processes that perpetuate the gendered inequalities of wealth and
power that reinforce the denial of womens rights, giving particular
support and encouragement to transformative leadership that seeks
explicitly to challenge those inequalities.
This series of Programme Insights on Womens Leadership and
Participation documents learning from programmes that Oxfam GB
and its partners have been supporting around the world. Case studies
from the Philippines, Israel, and the UK detail projects which have
sought to nurture and draw attention to womens participation and
leadership in the economic sphere, through supporting their activities
in civil-society organisations. Four papers from Sierra Leone,
Honduras, Cambodia, and Haiti describe programme work to
encourage womens political participation in formal government
structures. Finally, the case study from Chile makes the important
link between increasing womens visibility in the economic and social
sectors, and engaging in advocacy to promote womens employment
rights at the political level.
Activities described here have taken place at all levels, from working
with marginalised women to identify, articulate, and lobby on
community-level issues of concern in the UK, to supporting elected
representatives and ministers to incorporate a gender and poverty
analysis into their work at senior government levels in Sierra Leone,
Honduras, and Haiti. In all these case studies, no matter the level at
which activities are taking place, what emerges strongly is the need
to challenge actively the stereotypes, attitudes, and beliefs that
continue to limit womens opportunities to realise their potential as
active citizens and leaders. While all women are affected by these
stereotypes, those living in poverty face further prejudice not just
because of their gender identity, but also because of their class (or
caste) identity, levels of education, and often racial or ethnic identity
as well, all of which intersect to render them unfit for positions of
leadership and influence, in the eyes of powerful elites. These
prejudices need to be challenged and addressed at every level,
including by those women who do succeed in attaining formal
positions of power and influence, and by male leaders. It is not
enough just to get women into power; once there, they need to be
supported and encouraged to act in the best interests of all women, to

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be held accountable to this responsibility, and to influence their male
peers to do the same.
This is not an arena of quick fixes and instant impact, but one where
change is happening gradually, as women leaders and would-be
leaders are nurtured and supported to engage with and participate in
decision-making processes in a way that challenges inequalities and
injustice. Reflecting this, many of the programmes featured here are
as yet unable to provide concrete examples of how womens
increased participation and leadership have brought about positive
changes for women living in poverty and marginalisation, beyond
the very local level (in the case studies from Israel and Cambodia, for
instance). That said, we feel that these case studies present some
useful examples of work in progress towards enabling the active
participation of women from all backgrounds in decision-making
structures, and towards strengthening transformative and
progressive leadership, that will, in the future, bring about real and
positive change for women living in poverty and marginalisation.

A snapshot of womens participation and

leadership in the world today
Economic institutions
In the field of economics and finance, women remain sorely under-
represented in decision-making in institutions at local, national, and
international levels. At government level, only 14 per cent of finance
ministers are female (28 across 193 countries). 8 International
institutions, which shape economic and social policy in developing
countries, have few women leaders. For example, at the World Bank
and International Monetary Fund, women comprise around 20 per
cent of leadership staff, and under ten per cent of governors. 9 And
women are woefully absent at the top levels of business just 25 out
of the top 1000 multinational corporations are run by women. 10 So
the increasing role of the private sector in development is not
showing promising signs of advancing womens empowerment.
At the household and community levels, despite women moving into
many economic fields which were once male-dominated, the gender
division of labour is still very real both within the home and outside
it. Within the household, women carry the overwhelming burden of
unpaid reproductive labour and caring work, which affects their
ability to be active outside the home, and to influence economic
decisions within it. In many poor rural households, womens role in
agricultural production and processing often goes unrecognised or
undervalued. And if women also work outside the home, they often
find themselves in low-status, informal-sector jobs with few benefits
and little protection. Even in the formal sector, women still earn
considerably less than men. While women make up nearly 40 per

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cent of the global paid workforce, they earn only 26 per cent of the
worlds income. 11 With little or no voice in the organisations and
institutions which regulate or control the economic sector, the status
of women will remain unchallenged.
On the positive side, womens income, and their career options in
comparison to mens, have increased significantly over the past few
decades, and they have shown spectacular success in running their
own businesses across the world. But despite this, women are seldom
found as managers, owners, and entrepreneurs in enterprises.
Even trade unions, co-operatives, and other producer associations,
which are meant to uphold and represent the rights of all workers,
often have few women in positions of power (unless they are
dedicated womens co-operatives). Trade unions in particular are
very male-dominated, with the result that the particular needs and
priorities of women workers are often ignored. The types of work
that women engage in, and the frequent precariousness of their
employment situations, may also make it very difficult for them to
obtain support from, and influence the policies of, traditional trade
unions.

Political institutions
In almost all countries, women have now won the right to vote. Yet
there are still scandalously few women in positions of political
leadership. Globally, just 17.4 per cent of national political
representatives are female, and only 15 out of 193 countries
worldwide have achieved 30 per cent women in national
governments. 12 In addition, globally, just 3.5 per cent of senior
ministerial positions are held by women, meaning that at the top
levels of government, women currently have little opportunity to
shape policy. 13 Lower down, in the regional and sub-regional
government institutions which often play an important role in
determining access to essential services and resources, women
remain conspicuous by their absence. Women coming from poor
backgrounds, or belonging to ethnic or other minority groups (based
for instance on their sexual identity, (dis)ability, or HIV status) are
particularly under-represented in formal political structures.
However, there are signs of improvement. Since 1995, the average
proportion of women in national assemblies has almost doubled.
There has been considerable progress in some parts of Africa. Six
African countries now have better profiles for womens
representation than the Europe/OSCE (Organization for Security and
Co-operation in Europe) countries (excluding the Scandinavian
countries). 14 The recent arrival to power of women heads of state
such as Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in Liberia and Michelle Bachelet in Chile
also indicates growing acceptance of the legitimacy of women
leaders. Bachelets election in particular provides hope, given that she
campaigned on an openly pro-gender equality and womens rights

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agenda. This agenda is now being transformed into policy decisions
strengthening the rights of women in Chile, such as increasing child-
care provision for low-income mothers, and legislation to allow
access to emergency contraception.

Civil-society institutions
Because of womens historic lack of presence in formal government
and the structural barriers they face in entering the political sphere,
many women have sought leadership positions within civil-society
organisations, as a means of finding alternative ways to forge the
changes and obtain the responses they seek. 15 In an example from
Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories included here, poor
Israeli-Arab women who are marginalised within their own
communities, as well as within Israeli society more generally, have
been able to secure influence through their activism within a civil-
society organisation campaigning on rights for the unemployed.
However, even in NGOs and community-based organisations which
claim to represent the community, women are much less likely to be
leaders than men, and womens shared interests are less likely to be
on the agenda. Community-based organisations may also end up
being dominated by the interests of more powerful, wealthy
members of the community, again marginalising poorer womens
priorities and experiences. Women have founded their own
organisations in response to this, yet these are often sidelined from
policy processes involving civil-society organisations, and again, may
reflect the interests of women who are already in relative positions of
influence and power, rather than those lower down the social scale.

Barriers to womens participation and

leadership, and strategies to overcome them
There are many factors which constrain womens ability to
participate on an equal footing with men and to take up positions of
leadership, regardless of whether they are poor or not, but these
factors always impact hardest on poor women. Institutional gender
bias represents a challenge to all women seeking equal participation
and competing for leadership positions, as does the way that political
and economic systems are organised. Scepticism and mistrust of
womens ability to lead, and the stereotypes and prejudices about
their role in society and their lack of suitability for leadership roles
and decision-making, are other major challenges for all women.
Women living in poverty face a range of additional barriers. Lack of
education and low levels of literacy make access to information
difficult and commonly undermine the confidence and skills needed
to enter public life whether at village, community, local, or national
level. Lack of financial resources restrict poor womens opportunities
and confidence to risk competing for, and maintaining, leadership

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positions, as well as not allowing them to purchase caring support for
dependants, which is often crucial to enable them to combine active
public and family lives. Women are also less likely than men to have
the networks, contacts, and social and professional experience
expected of public leaders. Women living in poverty carry the
overwhelming burden of reproductive labour within families; in
many contexts, this includes collecting fuel and water, and cultivating
subsistence crops to feed their families. This means that time is a
critical resource. For poor women, participating in public decision-
making beyond their immediate needs for survival may seem like an
impossible extra burden. Restrictions on womens mobility, be they
cultural, legal, or the result of womens own fears of encountering
violence and harassment if they leave the safety of their own
communities, may make travelling to take part in meetings or forums
very difficult. This also limits campaigning opportunities for women
seeking election to formal positions of power. In addition, women
living in poverty are subject to particular gender-related risks and
vulnerabilities caused by factors such as HIV, disability, and gender-
based violence, all of which compound their inability to participate
on an equal footing with men.
Carrying out gender audits of one kind or another for instance,
research into how a particular issue or policy is impacting on
womens well-being, as detailed in the Philippines case study
(relating to trade liberalisation), or a participatory needs assessment,
as undertaken by Oxfam GBs partner Sawt el-Amel in Israel (to
determine how women were being affected by the Wisconsin Plan, a
new welfare to work programme) are an important way of
assessing what factors are limiting womens opportunities for
participation in a particular context, in order to find ways of
challenging and overcoming those limitations.
In broad terms there are three areas which need to be tackled:
overcoming structural barriers;
encouraging and supporting women to take up leadership roles
or participate in decision-making on an equal footing with men;
supporting women and men to carry out leadership roles which
challenge inequalities of wealth and power and recognise and
promote womens rights.
These will now be examined in greater depth, drawing examples
from the case studies included in this series.

Overcoming the structural barriers to womens participation and

leadership
Legislative reform
In the political sphere, the way elections are organised and run,
especially in the selection of candidates, presents women with

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particular problems, whether this is getting selected for a
constituency-based election or appearing on a party list of candidates.
Lack of knowledge, lack of access to patronage networks, lack of
financial support, and active or perceived prejudice against women
candidates all act as structural barriers to women participating in
elections for public office at all levels of representation. For instance,
in Sierra Leone, women candidates reported that political parties
would often remove women from candidate lists at the last minute,
replacing them with male candidates who, they felt, were more likely
to win the seat.
In light of this, electoral reform can provide new opportunities for
women seeking to become leaders in the political arena. The
implementation of quotas and reservation of seats have been the key
instruments in increasing womens political representation, and over
40 countries have adopted quota 16 laws to regulate the selection or
election of women to political office. In several of the examples
included in this series Sierra Leone, Haiti, Honduras lobbying for
the implementation or extension of quotas for women candidates has
formed a central part of the programmes long-term work on
womens participation and leadership, as has educating women
voters about legislative changes, to encourage them to realise their
right to participate in elections. However, womens interests as a
collective group have not necessarily been advanced by quotas, as
women who do succeed in reaching leadership roles may be unaware
of the need (or be unwilling) to champion womens rights and
influence their male colleagues to do the same. Because of this, if
used in isolation or understood as being sufficient to bring about
womens wider equality, quotas are vulnerable to political
manipulation and have limited transformative power. 17 And if the
political will to implement quotas is lacking, and no mechanisms
exist to enforce compliance, political parties and state structures may
simply ignore them, as the example from Honduras illustrates.
Policies of decentralisation have been of particular significance in
increasing womens representation at the local level. These give local
and regional governments (rather than central government) the
power to make decisions about local services, such as health,
education, and sanitation. Because it is often easier for women to get
elected at local level than at national level, decentralisation can give
women real influence over decisions which will have a direct impact
on the lives of members of their communities. In recognition of this,
the introduction of decentralisation policies in Cambodia and Sierra
Leone prompted Oxfam GB and its partners to give support to
women standing for election to local government.

Increasing visibility in the economic sector

Womens under-representation in leadership roles in the economic
sphere contributes to: the undervaluing and lack of recognition of

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their contribution to the paid and unpaid economy; working
conditions and production processes that do not meet their needs;
lack of access to and control of economic resources; and their
concentration at the lower end of the economic value chain, meaning
they enjoy lower economic returns.
An important first step in strengthening womens opportunities to
participate in decision-making and to attain leadership positions in
the economic sector is making their contributions to that sector
visible. Recognising this, in both the Philippines and in Chile, Oxfam
GB and its partners worked to highlight womens vital contributions
to the fishing sector and to the agricultural export sector respectively.
In the Philippines, gender audits helped to identify what
contributions women are making to the fishing industry as a whole,
and illuminate how the way in which worker organisations operate
was making it difficult for women to participate actively. This
highlighted the need for the creation of more inclusive management
structures and for leadership training to enable women to participate
more effectively in them. In Chile, Oxfam GB has facilitated links
between womens rights organisations, trade unions, and mainstream
civil-society organisations, as well as supporting a network of women
agricultural workers to represent and lobby on behalf of women
workers. This has led to a greater awareness of womens presence in
the agricultural export industry, and of the vulnerability and
exploitation that women workers experience, which in turn has
meant that these alliances have lobbied effectively for changes in
national level legislation to protect women workers rights.
In Israel, the introduction of the Wisconsin Plan, an unpopular
welfare to work programme, prompted women from the Arab
minority to act, on the grounds that the programme had a negative
impact on women, was exploitative, and put the welfare of families in
jeopardy. For many women, this was the first time that they had
taken part in any kind of public activity. Doing so has unleashed their
enormous potential for leadership and activism, as well as making
them visible in public as a collective group. This was recognised by
Oxfam GBs partner organisation Sawt el-Amel, and for the first time,
women are now integrated into the organisations leadership
structure.

Changing attitudes to womens leadership and participation

Traditional attitudes and beliefs about womens role in society
continue to prejudice both mens and womens preconceptions
regarding womens ability to participate fully in public life. These
attitudes include stereotypes about women being dependent,
unskilled, and not suitable for institutional leadership and strategic
decision-making. People may even question the morality of women
seeking leadership positions. In Sierra Leone, many women
candidates reported experiencing hostility from female voters in

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particular, who told them to go back home where they belong.
Elsewhere, in many conservative contexts women are actively
prohibited from engagement in activities outside the home.
Working with women in the fishing industry in the Philippines,
Oxfam GB and its partners found that a major obstacle to womens
active participation and leadership was the womens own acceptance
of existing gender roles and relations. In response to this, part of
Oxfam GBs work has consisted not only of encouraging women in
the fishing industry to recognise that they have the right to be
leaders, but also encouraging women to reconsider their gendered
perceptions about what makes a good leader. In the UK, women
participating in training to encourage economic and political
participation and empowerment did not really have any sense of
shared solidarity as women. It was only through meeting women
from other parts of the country, and identifying and discussing
common problems that they faced, that the participants came to
realise that in fact, as women, they did face many of the same issues,
and that many of these were the result of gender inequality, and
stereotypes regarding acceptable masculine and feminine behaviour.
These examples underline how important it is to remember that any
work in this field must include activities that challenge womens own
perceptions about their suitability for leadership.
Working to encourage men to be more receptive to the idea of
women occupying positions of power is also critical in challenging
the inequality and discrimination that women face. In Sierra Leone,
as well as providing gender training to male politicians and leaders,
Oxfam GBs partner the 50/50 Group is seeking to identify male
champions in positions of authority, who will be prepared to speak
out in support of womens right to political leadership and
participation. Such champions are crucial, the 50/50 Group argue, in
changing other mens attitudes, as well as encouraging those men
who reject male dominance and support more equal participation
and leadership in development processes to speak out.
It is also true that actions speak louder than words. In the Arab
communities in Israel affected by the unpopular Wisconsin Plan,
women have come to lead resistance to the Plan. Initially, some men
objected to their wives and sisters participating in public protests. But
now that the men in these communities have seen the benefits that
the womens activism and leadership is bringing, most are
supportive, and are happy to follow womens leadership in this
campaign. In a society which is very traditional with regards to
gender roles, and where womens mobility and activity is tightly
controlled by male relatives, this represents a significant shift in
gender power relations.

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Dealing with constraints on womens time and mobility
Among the many practical barriers facing women who wish to take a
more active role in the political, economic, and civil-society sectors is
lack of time. There is a strong male bias in the work culture of many
institutions, many of which favour leaders who have a traditional
male role in family life over those who carry out unpaid caring
work. This places women at a distinct disadvantage, given the fact
that everywhere, women are expected to undertake the bulk of
domestic and child-care work, often in addition to paid work outside
the home; younger married women in particular are likely to
experience time poverty, given that they are often responsible not
just for looking after their own children and husbands, but also
members of their husbands extended family. In many contexts, these
caring responsibilities will extend to collecting fuel and water, and
growing food to feed their families.
Lack of control over if or when to have children also makes it difficult
for women to plan their participation in leadership contests or
elections, underlining how important reproductive rights are to
enabling women to participate and lead. Those women who have
become successful as leaders have often been able to do so because
they have not had dependants to care for, are wealthy enough to be
able to buy in care and other domestic help, or have been able to plan
when to have their children, and how many to have. In the long term,
attitudes need to change, and household labour needs to be more
equally divided among all household members, men included. But in
the short term, many of the programmes described in these case
studies made sure that leadership training did not add to womens
already considerable workload. In the Philippines and in Honduras,
women receiving leadership training were offered free child-care,
while in the UK, training was scheduled to fit around the school day,
and in a way that meant the participants did not lose access to state
benefits.
Limits on womens mobility are also a significant barrier to full
participation, and to attaining positions of leadership. In many
instances, these limitations are cultural. For instance, in the Arab
community in Israel, it is generally not considered acceptable for
women to be active outside the home, making womens involvement
in the public campaign against the Wisconsin Plan there particularly
significant. But in other contexts, these limitations may be practical
and economic, often relating to the need to care for young children
and the inability to pay for transport and/or child-care costs. They
may also be the result of womens own lack of self-confidence and
experience of travelling on their own, or speaking in public. In
Honduras, Oxfam GBs partners provided women from poor, rural
communities with free transport to attend meetings with candidates
standing for election so that they could actively participate in
democratic processes, as well as providing free, on-site child-care to

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rural indigenous women who were attending leadership training at
an advocacy school. In the UK, as well as paying for transport and
accommodation to enable women to attend lobbying meetings in
London, Oxfam GBs partners ensured that the women travelled and
attended meetings in pairs, so that they would not feel isolated.

Addressing inequalities of wealth and power

At every level, from the household to national government, unequal
power relations impact on womens ability to participate fully in
public life, and to attain positions of leadership. There are many ways
that this power inequality is maintained, for example through: the
use (or threat) of violence against women; restrictions on womens
activities, dress, or movement which are sanctioned by culture or
religion; gender stereotyping that presents womens unequal place in
society as natural and normal; and patronage systems and
networks that are dominated by men and male interests.
In the Philippines, Oxfam GBs partner organisation Developers
found that encouraging women participants to analyse and discuss
their own experiences of violence within the family led to their
realising the extent to which violence impacts more generally on
womens abilities to participate in decision-making processes outside
the home. Participants then went on to raise awareness of violence
against women within their community, and to lobby for local
development plans to address gender-based violence.
Lack of funding is identified as an important obstacle in many of the
case studies dealing with womens political leadership. This is not
surprising, given the extent to which poverty disproportionately
affects women everywhere, resulting from, as well as contributing to,
their unequal status in society; but it may also result from women
failing to gain full support from the political parties for which they
are standing. In Sierra Leone, women who had stood for election in
the 2004 local elections said that the small grants given to them by the
50/50 Group, Oxfam GBs partner, had made an enormous difference
in terms of enabling them to pay for travel and other expenses during
their campaigning. But allocating funding in this way is not ideal, not
least because it could be seen as compromising the neutrality of
projects designed to support women candidates, and because it is
only ever a short-term solution to the problem. Recognising this, the
50/50 Group is also campaigning to reduce the current financial
requirements for standing for election. In Honduras, Oxfam GBs
partner organisations are pressing for a reduction in the campaign
period, again because this would cut down on the amount of money
that women candidates would have to spend on campaigning.
Ultimately, of course, the only sustainable solution will be an
improvement in the economic status of all women.

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Encouraging and supporting women to take up, and be effective
in, leadership roles
Providing targeted training to women who want to assume positions
of leadership is one way of enabling more women to influence
decision-making processes. Several of the papers in this collection
give examples of women wishing to stand for election being provided
with training that included, according to context, leadership and
campaign skills, knowledge of political systems and structures, and
how to develop and propose agendas that uphold womens rights.
Activities also included legal-rights education or voter awareness-
raising around elections, mobilising women to vote in elections and
to hold elected representatives to account. Such campaigns are often
vital in contexts where poor women in particular may have little
awareness of their rights as voters and as citizens. Due to lack of
literacy skills and their exclusion from channels of information, they
may not have any way of finding out about these rights for
themselves. For instance, some of the women community leaders
who took part in training in Sierra Leone were not even aware that
they had the right to vote, let alone stand for election.
An important challenge for organisations such as Oxfam GB or its
partners is how this support can be delivered in as impartial a way as
is possible, in order to maintain a distinction between supporting an
increase in womens participation in political and economic
institutions and avoiding a perception that the programme supports
particular political interests. Another challenge is making sure that
women from a diverse range of backgrounds ethnicity, age, level of
education, (dis)ability, socio-economic status are included in
training activities. This is something which has been achieved with
varying levels of success in these programmes.
While training and support is important for women as they seek to
attain positions of power, all too often, once they have been elected,
or have attained a position of leadership, women find that they are
left to fend for themselves in what can be a very hostile
environment. In the Women In Leadership Project (WIL), the first
stage of Oxfam GB and the 50/50 Groups work on promoting
womens political participation and leadership in Sierra Leone,
emphasis was placed on preparing women (most of whom came
from poor backgrounds and had no experience of formal leadership
positions) for election. Once elected, many women councillors felt
overwhelmed by and ill-equipped for the duties that they were now
expected to undertake, often as a result of poor literacy skills,
particularly when it came to working in English. So in the second
stage of this work, the Promoting A Culture of Equal Representation
(PACER) project, ongoing mentoring support is being offered to
women councillors and members of Parliament, to help them to be
more effective in their roles.

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Leadership & Participation, Programme Insights, Oxfam GB. February 2008
In Haiti, as well as supporting women standing for election, Oxfam
GBs partner Fanm Yo La provides ongoing training to women
councillors, senators, and deputies. In addition, the Women in
Politics School aims to motivate local women to enter politics and
take up leadership roles. In Cambodia, Oxfam GBs partner Women
For Prosperity has established regular Female Councillor Forums
(FCFs), where women councillors can gain experience of speaking in
public in a supportive environment, and learn from other councillors
who have dealt with discrimination and other problems successfully.
The benefits of this are tangible, with participants reporting that they
now feel comfortable contributing to council debates, standing up to
discrimination, and assuming extra responsibilities, such as leading
committees.
Oxfam GBs work in the UK does not centre on preparing women for
formal positions of leadership, but rather on encouraging women
living in poverty to engage with the institutions that make decisions
which impact on their lives. Central to this is building these womens
confidence, and encouraging them to recognise that they have the
right to challenge situations and decisions which they think are
unfair, or which will have a negative impact. But another important
aspect of this work has been preparing those in positions of power so
that they are ready to really listen to what the women have to say, in
order to make such exchanges as worthwhile as possible for both
sides.
Beyond developing womens capacities to lead, there is a need to
transform models of leadership development so that they become
more gender responsive, and include issues such as participatory
governance and inclusive dialogue, as exemplified by the Philippines
case study. This is a relatively new area of thinking that has
enormous potential for strengthening leadership on womens rights.

Supporting women and men to carry out leadership roles which

recognise and promote womens rights
If increasing the profile of women in leadership roles is to be
successful as a means of benefiting women living in poverty, this
must be linked to a broader process of promoting womens rights and
initiatives to combat poverty. In several of the case studies, increasing
numbers of women in positions of power has had a direct, beneficial
impact on the welfare of women living in poverty at the local level. In
Cambodia, for instance, women councillors elected in local elections
following the introduction of decentralisation have worked to
provide targeted assistance to the poorest and most marginalised
members of their communities, such as those affected by HIV.
But it is important to recognise that not all formal mechanisms to
increase the profile of women automatically have this outcome. For
instance, in the Honduras case study, electoral reform led to more
women being elected, but many of these new congresswomen come

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Leadership & Participation, Programme Insights, Oxfam GB. February 2008
from religious, conservative backgrounds, and are members of the
countrys economic and cultural elite. They have been responsible for
sponsoring regressive legislation that will limit womens rights and
opportunities to advance gender equality, such as a ban on gender-
sensitive sex education in schools. Women in formal positions of
power will not necessarily act in the interests of other women, or of
poor people or other marginalised groups. In addition, it is wrong to
assume that all progressive women politicians will automatically be
gender aware, and will incorporate womens rights and gender-
equality issues into their agendas in a meaningful way.
In response to this, Oxfam GBs partners work in Honduras since the
elections has included building alliances between those
congresswomen who are keen to promote womens rights and
gender equality, and womens rights organisations. Both sides have
benefited, with the organisations able to lobby these politicians
directly, and the politicians receiving the information and ideas that
they need, in order to be able to push for legislation within congress
that advances gender equality and womens rights. Elsewhere, in
Haiti, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia, women politicians elected to
office have received training to help them identify key inequality
issues affecting their constituents.
Another approach aimed at encouraging progressive candidates to
integrate gender and poverty alleviation into their agendas has been
the adoption of local pacts, or protocols. In Haiti and Honduras,
Oxfam GBs partner organisations facilitated meetings between
voters and female and male candidates, where the former had a
chance to voice their concerns and demands. Representatives from
womens rights organisations were also invited to attend. At the end
of the meetings, candidates formally signed a pact (in Honduras), or
protocol (in Haiti), in which they pledged to be accountable to their
electorate, to address the priorities identified by their constituents in
the event of being elected, and to promote womens rights and
gender equality.

Conclusion
Programmes aimed at strengthening womens leadership and
participation will have limited impact unless the structures that
uphold gender inequality, and other forms of inequality, begin to
change. In addition to projects directly supporting women to
participate actively in the economic, political, and civil-society
sectors, many of the programmes described in these case studies have
sought to challenge: unrepresentative governance and electoral
systems that are not accountable to voters; organisational structures
that reinforce male control and influence; and the economic
discrimination that women face. For such challenges to be successful,
men must be brought on board at all levels to accept the idea of

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Leadership & Participation, Programme Insights, Oxfam GB. February 2008
women occupying positions of power, to support women in attaining
and carrying out effective leadership that challenges all forms of
inequality, and to work with women to develop collective agendas
for upholding womens rights.
Some of the principles that need to guide this work which have
emerged through the experience of running these programmes are:
There needs to be a particular focus on supporting the
participation and leadership of women living in poverty or who
suffer discrimination on the basis of aspects of their social identity
such as disability, ethnicity, class, caste, HIV status, religion, or
age.
Work to support womens leadership will only advance
poor womens interests if accompanied by long-term support for
claiming and exercising their rights in other areas such as access
to and control over resources, access to public services such as
education and health, or protection from violence.
Any support provided to prospective or elected women
politicians must be carried out in as non-partisan a way as is
possible.
A final important lesson concerns the need to base any programme
work on an in-depth understanding of the particular gender issues
facing a given community or organisation, and hence the particular
barriers to womens participation and leadership in that context.
Gender audits in the Philippines case study, the participatory needs
assessment carried out by Oxfam GBs partner organisation in Israel
and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and research undertaken by
the civil-society observatories in Chile all directly informed
subsequent programme interventions and advocacy strategies that
went on to have positive impacts for poor women.
Perhaps most significant to overcoming gender inequality, and the
other forms of inequality and discrimination that keep women in
poverty, is the work that feminist and womens rights organisations
are already doing to articulate the needs of poor women, and to push
for their strategic interests to be met. The work of just a few of these
organisations Movimiento de Mujeres por la Paz and Centro de
Estudios de la Mujer in Honduras, Fanm Yo La in Haiti, Women for
Prosperity in Cambodia, the 50/50 Group in Sierra Leone, and the
Womens Budget Group in the UK is profiled in these case studies.
These groups, whether working at the local or national level, are
made up of individuals who are already proving to be effective
leaders, and are enabling other women to gain greater control over
their lives, and to engage with their communities as active citizens.

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Leadership & Participation, Programme Insights, Oxfam GB. February 2008
Notes

1
A.G. Jnasdttir (1988) On the concept of interests, women's interests and
the limitation of interest theory, in K. B. Jones and A. G. Jnasdttir (eds.)
The Political Interests of Gender, London: Sage Publications.
2
Womens Environment & Development Organisation (WEDO),
www.wedo.org (last accessed January 2008).
3
Womens Environment & Development Organisation (WEDO) 50/50
Campaign Kit, www.wedo.org/campaigns.aspx?mode=5050campaignkit
(last accessed January 2008).
4
M. Fleschman (2002) Gender budgets seek more equity. Improved
spending priorities can benefit all Africans, Africa Recovery 16:1,
www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol16no1/161wm.htm (last accessed
January 2008).
5
For a review of the literature on the importance of a achieving a critical
mass of women in political institutions, see S. Grey (2001) Women and
parliamentary politics. Does size matter? Critical mass and women MPs in
the New Zealand House of Representatives, Paper for the 51st Political
Studies Association Conference, 1012 April 2001, Manchester, United
Kingdom, www.capwip.org/readingroom/nz_wip.pdf (last accessed January
2008).
6
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is often
described as an international bill of rights for women. Consisting of a
preamble and 30 articles, it defines what constitutes discrimination against
women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination
(www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw.htm last accessed
December 2007).
7
The Beijing Platform for Action, signed at the UN Fourth Conference on
Women in Beijing in 1995, commits 189 signatory governments to take
measures to ensure womens equal access to and full participation in
decision-making and leadership. These measures include [establishing]
the goal of gender balance in governmental bodies and committees, as well
as in public administrative entities, and in the judiciary, including setting
targets and implementing measures to substantially increase the number of
women with a view to achieving equal representation of women and men, if
necessary through positive action, in all governmental and public
administration positions. (www.wedo.org/campaigns.aspx?mode=5050
campaignkit last accessed December 2007). This pledge was reiterated in
2006 at the 50th Commission on the Status of Women.
8
African Women Are Ready to Lead, Africa Renewal, July 2006, 7.
9
Womens Environment & Development Organisation (WEDO) The
numbers speak for themselves, Fact Sheet no. 1,
www.wedo.org/files/numbersspeak_factsh1.pdf (last accessed January
2008).
10
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2007/womenceos/
(last accessed January 2008).

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Leadership & Participation, Programme Insights, Oxfam GB. February 2008
11
United Nations (1995) The Worlds Women 1995: Trends and Statistics,
New York: United Nations Statistics Division. Globally the gender gap in
wages is hard to determine because so much data is not available. Within
the industrial and services sector, the gap ranges between 53 per cent and
97 per cent with an average of 78 per cent (UNIFEM (2000) Biennial
Report. Progress of the Worlds Women, 2000, New York: UNIFEM).
12
Inter-Parliamentary Union (www.ipu.org last accessed December 2007).
13
WOMANKIND (www.womankind.org.uk/statistics.html last accessed
December 2007).
14
For instance, Rwandas lower house has 48 per cent women, South
Africas Parliament 32.8 per cent, and Mozambique 34.8 per cent. Inter-
Parliamentary Union (www.ipu.org/wmn-e/arc/classif300906.htm last
accessed December 2007).
15
S. Clisby (2005) Gender mainstreaming or just more male-streaming?
Experiences of popular participation in Bolivia, Gender and Development
13(2): 2335.
16
There are two types reserved seats and legislative quotas. Most quotas
prior to the 1990s were adopted voluntarily by political parties and, as such,
were directed only at reserving seats in a single party via changes to
selection practices. Over the last decade, however, a growing number of
national legislatures have adopted legislative quotas amending
constitutions and electoral laws to mandate that all parties increase the
percentage of women they nominate for local or national elections.
17
In Eritrea a state with no democracy or accountability the women
elected via quotas have no power to influence government decisions and
there is confusion among them about who they represent. In Tanzania, the
use of reserved seats for women has taken the pressure off political parities
to place women in the ballot and may have eroded the power of women to
take their places in Parliament via the normal routes (E. Ward (2006) Real
or illusory progress? Electoral quotas and womens political participation in
Tanzania, Eritrea and Uganda, Trocaire Development Review, 7395,
http://trocaire.org/pdfs/policy/developmentreview/2006/devrev2006.pdf last
accessed December 2007).

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Leadership & Participation, Programme Insights, Oxfam GB. February 2008
 Oxfam GB, February 2008
This paper was written by Joanna Hoare and Fiona Gell. Thanks to Caroline
Sweetman, Ines Smyth, and Anna Coates for extensive input into earlier drafts. It is
part of a series of papers written to inform public debate on development and
humanitarian policy issues. The text may be freely used for the purposes of
campaigning, education, and research, provided that the source is acknowledged in
full.
For further information please email: [email protected]

Online ISBN 978-1-84814-002-8. This paper is part of a set Learning for Action
on Women's Leadership and Participation available for purchase from Oxfam
Publishing or its agents, print ISBN 978-0-85598-626-1 for the set of 9 papers plus
the Useful Resources section. For more information visit
http://publications.oxfam.org.uk/oxfam/display.asp?ISBN=9780855986261

This paper is also available in French and Spanish

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Leadership & Participation, Programme Insights, Oxfam GB. February 2008