By Megan Ritchie and Lauren Sauer
I. Introduction
In the Maldives, as in all countries around the world, women’s interest and ability to participate in the political process is impacted by a combination of legal, political, social, economic and cultural factors. An understanding of how each of these factors independently affects participation within the specific country context, as well as the aggregate effect of these combined factors, is critical to developing targeted strategies to increase women’s engagement in the political process.
IFES undertook a study to determine what specific obstacles exist to women being elected representatives and to develop recommendations appropriate for the Maldivian context. The study was conducted in two phases. During the first phase conducted in December 2013, IFES reviewed the Maldives legal and policy commitments to gender equality and examined the number of women represented in government, how many women ran as candidates and women’s participation in political parties. IFES also analyzed survey reports from international and domestic organizations and program activity reports to ensure lessons learned were captured.
The second phase of the assessment took place from May – June 2014, during which IFES conducted field interviews and focus group discussions with government agencies [1], political parties, women candidates, civil society organizations (CSOs) and other implementing partners. IFES presented preliminary findings and recommendations to study participants for their input and finalization.
II. Context
IFES first conducted a desk-study review of the Maldives’ protection of women’s political rights in the legal and regulatory framework, including commitments to international conventions, current legislation and government units devoted to these policies. Additionally, IFES looked into how women were currently represented in government and within political parties, as well as how often they ran for office.
Commitment to Protection of Women’s Political Rights in the Legal and Regulatory Framework
The Maldives became a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CEDAW) in 1993 and the CEDAW Optional Protocol in 2006. Initially, the Maldives ratified CEDAW with a reservation to Articles 7(a), which provides women the right to vote in all elections and to be eligible for election to all publicly elected bodies, but withdrew this reservation in March 2010 after the Constitution adopted in 2008 removed a previous barrier to women holding the position of Head of State. [2] It has been reported that the Maldives has fallen behind in fulfilling its obligations to CEDAW, which advocates have attributed to state institutions lacking an interest and technical capacity to fulfill their obligations as well as a lack of political will to initiate change. [3] Similarly while the Maldives has made a commitment to achieve the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, the country is reportedly falling short of meeting MDG number three to promote gender equality and empower women. [4]
The Maldives is a member state of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). [5] The OIC Plan of Action for the Advancement of Women was adopted in 2008 and is a comprehensive strategic plan aimed at improving the situation of women in political, economic, cultural and social spheres. [6]
The current Constitution of the Maldives, adopted in 2008, contains a commitment to gender equality. Article 17 states that the law will not discriminate on the basis of gender, and legitimizes temporary special measures (TSM) to redress any inequalities. Attempts to introduce TSM to date have not been successful despite the legal framework protection to do so, suggesting that the requisite political will to bring about structural changes to increase women’s representation was absent. However, some legislative progress has been made -- as of July 2014, the Gender and Equality Law was in its second draft, with a plan to be finalized, put forward for public consultations and be submitted to Parliament by the end of 2014.
As of June 2014, the government unit devoted to gender policy was in the process of developing a five-year gender strategic plan which focused on economic and political empowerment of women. While this was under development, a 100 day “road map” was functioning as the government’s interim national action plan. Several action items have been accomplished to date, including starting awareness programs on gender sensitization in schools, increasing women’s representation in diplomatic missions and ministries, and obtaining approval from the President for the formation of a Women Entrepreneurs Council.
Participation of Women in Politics and Government
There is low representation of women in elected leadership positions in the Maldives. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Maldives ranks 136th out of 154 countries in term of the number of women Members of Parliament. [7] The percentages of women’s representation at various levels of government are presented in the following table:
Most of the islands and cities in the Maldives have a Women’s Development Committee (WDC), which works under the local council. WDC members are elected and serve three-year terms. Since 1982, WDCs have been active on many islands and provided a platform for women to participate in the development of their communities. However, despite having their mandate outlined in Article 35 of the Decentralization Act which gave them legal standing that had previously been absent following decentralization in 2010, an absence of funding has crippled many WDCs.
Women’s Participation in Political Parties
Although the percentages of women contesting elected office are extremely low, anecdotal evidence suggests that women have played a major role in political party activities at the grassroots level, organizing and attending campaign rallies and conducting door-to-door outreach in significant numbers. However, this has not translated into leadership roles within political parties, even in the women’s wings.
IFES met with the five main political parties to learn how their party structure incorporates women. All parties either have a women’s wing or are amending their charters to institute women’s wings in 2014. Some interviewees suggested that despite the existence of women’s wings in political parties, women continue to be underrepresented in decision-making across political parties. At the leadership level, political parties designate one to three slots for women representatives on the party’s council, and some of the political parties allocate seats for women at the deputy leadership level.
III. Findings
Based on findings from IFES’ desk study research, areas of inquiry were identified for in-depth interviews with government agencies, [9] political parties, women candidates, CSOs and other implementing partners to identify the main barriers affecting women’s political participation. Findings from both IFES’ desk-study research of survey reports and interviews conducted are summarized below.
Area of Inquiry 1: Power and Decision Making
Research and interviews showed that one of the barriers inhibiting women from successfully contesting for national elections is their lack of financial resources. All interviewees stressed how important it is for a woman candidate to have family support in running for office; this is often, but not always, linked to financial backing from her family. Female candidates in the major parties tend to come from political families and receive significant financial backing from their families – it would be difficult, if not impossible, for women to run a successful campaign without this financial support. Women in the Maldives, according to the Gender Gap Index, have lower employment rates than men and on average earn half as much as men. [10] Therefore, women lack the personal financial resources to fund their campaigns. Campaigns have become extremely expensive in the Maldives, largely due to vote buying. Interviewees reported that many male candidates spend between USD 460,000 and USD 860,000. Very few female candidates were reported to have spent such large sums of money.
Area of Inquiry 2: Knowledge, Beliefs, Perceptions and Gender Roles
Several surveys and focus group discussions conducted by other implementers in the Maldives showed there was a lack of support for women’s equality. The Democracy at the Crossroads survey conducted by Transparency Maldives (TM) in 2013 found that about two-thirds of the public do not support the idea of gender equality. A human rights survey conducted by the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) in 2005 and again in 2011 depicted a decline in men’s belief in women’s equality. When looking in the aggregate at responses to questions pertaining to women’s rights, HRCM found that “men have become more conservative on issues related to women’s rights…whereas women’s views, for the most part, have altered much less and in some areas are more strongly supportive of women’s rights.” [11] HRCM’s survey findings also illustrated the dominance of men in society. A significant percentage of respondents indicated that they considered women to have a subordinate role in the husband/wife relationship; 87.3 percent of women said that they agreed or strongly agreed that a good wife always obeys her husband even if she disagrees. [12] Based on anecdotal information gathered from those consulted during this assessment, this often translates into a husband expecting a wife to vote the way he instructs. Negative public and self-perceptions of women are reinforced by stereotyping of gender roles in school textbooks, i.e. portraying women as cooking and cleaning, with girls helping, while conversely portraying boys playing active games and men as heroes. [13]
Other surveys showed that some women were not supportive of other women taking elected leadership roles. UNDP’s Women in Public Life 2011 focus group discussions showed mixed views on women running for political office. While some male and female respondents said that they would support women entering the political arena (predominately in the southern atolls), many urban men and women expressed traditional views of women’s roles in the family, demonstrating that they would likely not vote for a female candidate. [14] TM’s Democracy at the Crossroads survey results showed that 70% of women believe that women make worse leaders than men while only 60% of men responded to have felt this way.
UNDP’s Women in Public Life study found that women lack confidence in their ability to function in a leadership position. Female participants perceived “courage and willingness to carry responsibility” as important qualities for a successful politician, and many of these participants felt that women might not have these qualities. [15] Those consulted during IFES’ in-country interviews said that women’s lack of confidence in general, specifically in public speaking, affects their interest in running for office.
Despite public and self-perceptions noted above, it is encouraging that TM’s survey finds “support for gender equality in the Maldives is significantly higher among the young and better educated than it is among older generations (those over 35 years of age).” [16]
Area of Inquiry 3: Access
Those consulted spoke of the disparity between the public space available to men and women. Several examples were given to illustrate this point. Previously, the Maldives had separate mosques available for men and women; however, in 2009, the Islamic Affairs Ministry decided to close the women’s mosques due to budget limitations. As discussed in UNDP’s Women in Public Life study, this conveys “a very public message that women have no right (or need) for public space…[and] suggests institutional decision-making processes that discriminate against women.” [17]
In addition, the Maldives has a culture of men congregating at ‘hotas,’ or traditional men’s cafes. Men use this space for socializing and holding political and business discussions. Interviewees noted this is where men interested in running for office learn about the needs of their constituents and secure financial resources for their campaigns. Women do not have similar spaces in which to increase their social capital. Unless women have family connections to people of political influence and economic means, it is often very difficult for women to become involved in politics, particularly at the national level.
However, there are some examples of women in the Maldives overcoming this barrier. Interviewees discussed how eight women candidates who ran in the 2014 parliamentary election were able to form their own network for mutual support and to seek funding. Another success story was shared of women who attended a campaign school held by a Maldivian NGO and maintained contact throughout local level elections while running for local council seats in order to support each other.
One of the biggest hurdles to women’s active political participation, as well as to employment, is the lack of access to childcare. In the Asian Development Bank’s 2007 Strategy and Program Assessment, household management and childcare were seen as the sole responsibility of women in the Maldives with estimates that “less than 4% of men contribute to household tasks and childcare.” [18] Currently there are no government-funded childcare facilities, and private childcare facilities are expensive and not always available. While the government is currently in the process of formulating guidelines and standards for childcare facilities, the absence of this public service makes it exceedingly difficult for women to be employed after they have children and to take on leadership roles in political campaigns. This is exacerbated by the rise of nuclear families.
Area of Inquiry 4: Legal and Human Rights
Although there is legislation in place to support TSM, three bills proposing TSM for women have failed to date in parliament, two on reserved seats for women in parliament and one on reserved seats for women on Island Councils. Male and female MPs argue that quotas aren’t needed because five women MPs have been elected. In addition, male MPs are resistant to TSM because some of them could lose their seats, depending on how the quota bill is designed; this shows a need for increased education regarding the different options for TSM. There are, as of yet, unrealized opportunities to engage political parties as catalysts for this change, as there has been almost no discussion about voluntary reservations of seats for women on party lists and other potential measures to increase women’s leadership within political parties.
IV. Recommendations
IFES’ recommendations were formulated in consultation with interviewees and reflect past and current initiatives that should be supported and expanded, as well as new ideas introduced by stakeholders and stemming from IFES’ experience in women’s political empowerment programing.
Recommendation 1: Political Parties Promote Greater Participation of Women in Politics
Interviewees overwhelmingly stated that political parties were the key to increase women’s political participation in the short term. As such, it is important that political parties at the highest level disseminate messages on the inclusion of women at all levels within the party, including as candidates, and raise awareness of women’s empowerment opportunities. Since the findings indicated a reluctance of women at the island level to become politically active outside of campaign rallies, political party members, including male champions and female politicians, should reach out at the island level (face-to-face) to recruit politically active women into political party leadership at the local and regional levels and encourage women to run for island councils.
Many interviewees stated the need for political parties to strengthen their women’s wings. In order to better prepare female candidates between election cycles, we recommend that political parties hold strategy sessions with female leaders on how political parties can encourage and groom female candidates, beyond allocated elected seats within the party, through their women’s wings. More formally, political parties should amend their constitutions to encourage women’s participation.
Since the findings showed a lack of confidence and public speaking skills among potential women candidates, political parties should conduct workshops on how to campaign and perform public speaking, as well as on the roles and responsibilities of government officials and government operations for politically active women at the island and national levels. We also recommend that political parties increase public speaking skill-building opportunities for young women by encouraging the youth and women’s wings of political parties to conduct public speaking workshops and encouraging young women to speak up at meetings and rallies.
Another major finding was the absence of networking opportunities for women. To improve this, we recommend that political parties conduct an orientation program for women participating in internship, mentorship and training programs to create a network of up-and-coming women who are interested in seeking political office. Networking meetings could take place quarterly to share what they learn and solidify the network.
Recommendation 2: Increase Women’s Participation at the Local Level
Increasing women’s political participation at the local level was a key theme that emerged throughout IFES’ interviews.
A key area for action is increasing women’s exposure to how government works so that they are prepared to run for political office and be effective leaders. Since the findings showed the reluctance of women to participate in political party leadership, we recommend advocating for affirmative action policies on decision-making bodies at the island level, so that women gain experience in decision-making roles at the local level. Another way to help women gain experience in governance is to create internship opportunities with island council members.
WDCs should be a natural pipeline for women’s political participation at the local level; however they are not functioning that way. We recommend conducting a study to identify why active members of WDCs do not run for political office, which will inform outreach activities to WDCs and island councils to promote women running for office. One of the key challenges to WDCs’ functioning effectively is the lack of funding. We encourage supporting the Gender Ministry’s efforts to unfreeze WDCs bank accounts, advocate for funding WDCs, and encourage them to be politically active and take up their mandate to voice women’s concerns to the island councils. In order to address the challenge of WDCs that do not fully understand their mandate, we recommend having active WDC members visit dormant WDCs to work with them to explore how they can become more politically active.
Recommendation 3: Structural Reform
Although political will was not present to work on TSM, many interviewees still felt it was important not to give up on the issue because of its importance in leveling the playing field. The goal is to achieve not only “equality of opportunity,” but “equality of results,” i.e. more women in political leadership positions. To accomplish this, we recommend advocacy efforts to educate influential stakeholders on TSM, including MPs, the media and the public. Materials should be developed to provide information on different ways of introducing TSM. Political parties should also be educated on options for voluntary reserved positions for women.
A suggestion that emerged from study participants was to change the legal framework to have the eligibility to vote in local council elections be residence-based instead of constituency-based. This may have the effect of increasing the number of women on local councils, since female residents exceed male residents on the islands.
Improved regulation of campaign spending will decrease the role of money in politics and benefit women, who have less access to campaign funding. To address this issue we recommend raising awareness about political finance and promoting affirmative action policies among political parties to give additional funding to female candidates. Discussions are currently taking place regarding how state funding is allocated to political parties, providing an opportunity to amend the Political Parties Act to allocate additional funding to political parties who field female candidates.
Recommendation 4: Change Perceptions and Attitudes
Based on findings of pervasive attitudes amongst Maldivians regarding gender equality, there is a need for community dialogues and gender sensitization programs to change perceptions that women are not equal to men. We recommend that public awareness campaigns, designed to reach a mass audience, be developed which: (1) publicize success stories of female leaders in politics, business and other professions; (2) show women being able to balance family and public life and show men sharing housework and childcare duties; and (3) highlight women’s contributions to Maldivian society.
As noted in the findings, stereotyped understandings of men’s and women’s roles begin at an early age in schools. In order to address this issue, we recommend that gender sensitization take place in schools. Civil society can coordinate with the Ministry of Education to revise gender messaging in the school curriculum, support the Ministry of Gender in conducting gender awareness and sensitization programs for students and teachers, including bringing in male and female role models in a wide variety of occupations that break down gender stereotypes, and work with the Maldivian National University’s Faculty of Education to bring gender sensitization into the school teachers’ curriculum.
We further recommend gender sensitization training for those in positions of influence. This could include gender sensitization training as part of orientation for MPs and for political party councils (both male and female members) and for journalists to reduce objectification of female candidates in the media and to support coverage that highlights the need for increasing women’s political participation.
In order to fully understand negative perceptions of women’s political participation, we also recommend supplementing existing quantitative data with qualitative studies examining prevailing attitudes that marginalize women in public life. This study should include community dialogues on identified barriers to women’s political participation.
Almost all of our interviewees were distressed at the increasing dominance of conservative Islamic views. To address this issue, we recommend promoting other scholarly views about women in politics according to the Qur’an. For example, HRCM, Ministry of Gender and Ministry of Islamic Affairs could work together to develop Friday sermons on women in public life, and experienced religious scholars from abroad could come in to discuss the role of women in politics under Islam.
[1] Government agency meetings included Human Rights Commission Maldives, Attorney General, Elections Commission, Family Protection Authority, Ministry of Health and Gender.
[2] Hope for Women, Maldives NGO Shadow Report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (2012), p 4 and 6.
[3] Ibid.
[4] This is to be assessed through the ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education; share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector; and proportion of seats held by women in national parliament. The target is to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education at all levels by 2015. UNDP assessed in June 2013 that the Maldives had still not met this goal.
[5] OIC website, http://www.oic-oci.org/oicv2/page/?p_id=52&p_ref=26&lan=en, accessed 3 March 2014.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Inter-Parliamentary Union, “Women In National Parliaments,” http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm
[8] Statistics from Judicial Service Commission, http://jsc.gov.mv/jlist/,Dec. 2013. There was a historic appointment of the first two female judges to the judiciary in 2007. However, there is still no female representation on either the Supreme Court of the Criminal Court benches, each consisting of seven justices.
[9] Government agency meetings included Human Rights Commission Maldives, Attorney General, Elections Commission, Family Protection Authority, Ministry of Health and Gender.
[10] Global Gender Gap Index, World Economic Forum, 2014, p 64-66.
[11] Ibid, p 31. Note that the survey asked questions regarding supporting women’s right to equality in seven areas: family matters, courts, inheritance, custody, divorce, work and politics.
[12] HRCM, The “Rights Side of Life” Second Baseline Survey (2012), p 44.
[13] Rasheeda Mohamed Didi, “The Role of Males and Females in Text Books”, published by Hope for Women.
[14] Women in Public Life in the Maldives: Situational Analysis, UNDP, 2011, p 23-26.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid, p 27.
[17] Ibid, p 31.
[18] Asian Development Bank, Maldives: Gender and Development Assessment (2007), p 1.
