Women engaging politically: beyond magic bullets and motorways
Abstract
This policy paper adopts an upside-down approach to women鈥檚 political empowerment. While the number of women we need to get into legislatures has often assumed centrestage, this paper takes women鈥檚 pathways as its starting point. In so doing, it challenges the narrow conception of women鈥檚 political engagement as occupying formal positions and seeks to present a more nuanced perspective on the spaces, relationships and ways of working that influence power hierarchies and dynamics. The paper鈥檚 aims are two-fold. First, through a multi-country case study, it explores the possibilities and limitations of mainstream approaches such as quotas to strengthening women鈥檚 access to political power. Second, it seeks to broaden the debate by practically engaging with the question of how we can support women鈥檚 political leadership in ways that speak to women鈥檚 realities in very concrete ways.
Citation
Tadros, M. Women engaging politically: beyond magic bullets and motorways. Pathways Policy Paper, October 2011, 14 pp.
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