Does a new social movement/policy to increase the participation of women in politics in South Asia actually bear fruit? (original) (raw)
Across the world, men outnumber women in positions of power. South Asia reflects this disparity however, as Omvedt has argued, it presents a paradox (Omvedt, 2005; 4746). While the region has seen some of the most revered female leaders; Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto and Sheikh Hassena to name a few, it still holds a dismal record for women’s participation in politics. Does a new social movement/policy to increase the participation of women in politics actually bear fruit? This paper aims to understand how best to integrate women within the political process in South Asia, using a comparative analysis between the states of Pakistan and Bangladesh. For examining women’s political representation in Pakistan, I will be using Sarah Khan’s Women in Electoral Politics: An Account of Exclusion, in which she elaborates on the challenges faced by Pakistani women whilst joining politics and the efficacy of policies in combating these barriers (Khan 2020). I will be juxtaposing this with an example of political participation of women in Bangladesh, using Elora Shehabuddin’s article, Beware the Bed of Fire, in which she provides an alternative discourse to women’s agency in politics by trying to understand women’s response to a religious social-political movement which wants to garner the support of the rural Bangladeshi woman but provides little incentives to them (Shehabuddin 1999). In answering the question posed I will draw on how descriptive measures of women’s representation are crucial for their increased integration in politics, the need for social reform simultaneously with political policies to enhance women’s participation and the centrality of intersectionality in discussing any issue with regards to women’s political participation.
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