Bolivian Women and the Mud Ceiling

Readers:

Here is another guest posting, from my right hand at The Democracy Center, our assistant director, Melissa Draper. Melissa just returned last week from attending a global seminar on Women in Leadership hosted by the Salzburg Seminar (www.salzburgseminar.org). She spent her week there in a swirl of impressive women leaders from all the continents. Below is her posting on what she learned and what it means for the rise of women’s power in Bolivia.

Jim Shultz

BOLIVIAN WOMEN AND THE MUD CEILING

*A Room Full of Troublemakers*

They say it is a quiet revolution. It begins around the kitchen table (or on its packed dirt floor, as is most common in developing countries) and is gaining strength in unlikely places such as Kuwait, the Middle East, rural India, and-- albeit slowly-- in Bolivia too. Traditionally relegated to the private sphere, women are now becoming more integrated into the political system, making their way into public office.

This quiet revolution made an impressive show of its global impact at the Salzburg Seminar two weeks ago where a generous foundation helped bring together 60 women from diverse parts of the world to share the experience of women’s political participation in their respective corners of the world. They included academics, elected officials, political advisors and activists. The experiences spanned from that of a Filipino woman, who ran for the mayor’s office in a small town and defeated a corrupt male candidate, to an Indian woman who spent 38 years in parliament and is now a close advisor to Sonia Gandhi, who heads up India’s largest political party.

The picture painted at the beginning of the seminar was an alarming one. Around the world, only 16% of representatives in parliament are women. Female heads of state around the world represent only single digit percentages. The statistics spell failure for some, but the stories of the women participants in Salzburg brought inspiration worthy of goose bumps.

Perhaps the most impressive troublemaker was Rola Dashti, the young Kuwaiti activist who was responsible for the May 2005 decision in the Kuwaiti parliament to give women the right to vote and run for public office. Her story involves savvy media strategy and a persistence to stand up to deep-seated cultural and religious norms that veil many women from the public eye. The contrast of perspectives could not have been greater when a US participant told a perplexed audience that her work was to fight widespread indifference among female voters in the US for the upcoming national elections.

A Ghanaian participant noted that the phrase “glass ceiling” is better described as a mud ceiling due to the ultra private workings of men’s networks in the governments of most countries. Bolivia has proved to be no different.

The room of troublemakers in Salzburg was an inspiration to trace out how Bolivia fares, from a global perspective, on women’s access to and role in politics.

*Controversial Quotas*

Bolivia got off to a relatively early start in granting its women the right to vote, in 1938. Its biggest leap, however, was in 2001 when the national Election Law was changed to include a quota for women candidate nominations to parliament. The lower house was to ensure one woman for every three seats is nominated. In the upper house, one out of every four seats should include a nomination of a female candidate. As of 2005, however, these measures led to a scant 17% (22 of 130) women elected to the lower house and a mere 4% (1 of 27) to the upper house. The quotas, despite their controversial nature, do need to stay in place to facilitate women’s participation. The key to successful reservation policies is to remove the quotas after they have done their job to facilitate greater women’s participation and before they begin to erode the legitimacy of women candidates.

The Constituent Assembly offers a huge opportunity for Bolivia to secure their commitment to bringing women into the political system. The elections on July 2 for Constituent Assembly representatives boasted 2,112 candidates running for 255 spots. Women constituted 43% of those candidates. MAS played an important role in adhering to the 30% quota law: of the 86 women representatives elected, 74% of those are MAS members. The President of the Assembly is also a woman, Silvia Lazarte. Despite the skepticism that she is merely a puppet of the administration’s wishes, her presence as a female dirigenta from the Chapare indicates that the male-dominated government is aware of its need to involve women in higher levels of authority.

*Suggestions for Moving Forward*

Women are far from reaching a level playing field in Bolivia when it comes to politics. In order to stay true to its claims to support women’s participation, here are a few suggestions the men and women of the administration and civil society should consider:

-- Stick to the quota law that was passed in 2001. The Electoral Court and civil society failed to demand adherence to the 30% reservation of seats for women in parliament.

-- Develop gender-specific strategies to help build capacities of women candidates and current officials so that the quota system does not delegitimize women candidates.

-- Ensure women’s involvement in the Constituent Assembly translates to recognition of their rights in the new Constitution. Do not let political or class affiliation trump the representation of women.

-- Build common ground among women of different political affiliations and classes through common projects and policies. This is probably the most challenging due to the political polarization of the country where class, culture and ethnicity create chasms that are hard to bridge.

-- Recognize the women who have been successful leaders in the social movements, civil society, and government. These women are valuable resources who should be used in collective problem solving and as constructive examples of female leadership to which the next generation can look for guidance.

By Melissa Draper