Gender Aspect of the Concept of Global Governance - Essay Example

?Introduction Governance is a word that has many distinct definitions. To put it simply however, it refers to the process by which a group of personsor a group of societies are managed by a predetermined procedure. Usually, there are systems that have been set that determine how the people in question will be governed. For instance, countries usually have constitutions that are used as a reference point on the issues that relate to the governance of a given group of people. In any system of governance, there are usually two types of people. We have those that influencers and we have those that are influenced. For instance, in a government, the politicians of the country usually influence the decisions that are made on a day to day basis while the normal citizen is influenced by the decisions that are made by the political leaders whether directly or indirectly. Needless to say, these kinds of decisions usually impact on both men and women. It follows without say that most of the times; the decisions are made by men since they hold most of the powerful positions almost in all of the countries the world over. In the past few decades, the advent of technological advancement has to the growth of a new kind of economy-a global economy. The internet has reduced the entire globe to nothing but a global village. The global economy has also given rise to a new system of governance which is referred to as global governance. There is a need to have a means of controlling the integrated nations. Different bodies have been setup to achieve this and the different bodies that have been setup have also come up with different policies. Quite unfortunately, the balance of women to men in the global government is anything but balanced. This is an important concern since women are the majority in the population and it seems not right to let the minority make decisions that affect the majority without involving the majority at some stage. This is the main reason why there has been a growing concern for gendered governance. Global governance There are many transformations in leadership and generally in society most of which can be traced to the activities and campaigns of human rights movements. Gender equality is one of the most important of the reforms that is sweeping across most modern societies today. As Rawls (2003) state, “A gendered analysis of global governance can enhance our understanding of the key concepts and frameworks as well as institutions and strategies of transformation? (p17). There are two important spheres that need to be studied to understand the concept of gendered governance since they directly influence the issue of gender and governance in the world. The first is the United Nation and how it approaches the issue of human rights and secondly is the trade policies and institutions. The concept of global governance is at best very fragmented and is therefore hardly traceable not only to agencies but even to individuals. In fact, Rosenau (2003) defines global governance as “governance without government. “ however, global governance can be looked at in terms of the institutions that processes, rules and the different frameworks that help in the establishment of internationally recognized policies (Hassanali, 2000). The international policies that are often crafted are in most of the cases results of negations from a variety of parties including representatives from different countries. The stakeholders of global governance are usually drawn from different governments across the world. Apart from political leaders, there are usually members from transnational companies, global financial and trade organizations under the WTO, IMF and World Bank as well as various chapters of the UN and other relevant regional associations like the EU .Some experts believe that global civil societies which include internationally recognized NGOs that have the function of lobbying in conjunction with international gender groups like the International Trade and Gender Network (ITGN) are part and parcel of the international governance (Huntingdon, 1999; Edwards and Hulme, 1996). The activities of global governance are usually not centralized in one location but are typically scattered across the different nations and states. The players are usually brought together for forums depending on the issue that they will be coming to debate or in some cases negotiate on (Huntingdon, 1999). These processes often have huge ramifications on the society and the trickle down effect makes them permeate from the top level government down to the common man in the street. For instance, the developed economies might agree to allow for the poor countries to enjoy a free market like was the case in the North American Free Trade Agreement. While the poor countries will get a good chance to see their produce, the North Americans might have to deal with risk of a market that is flooded with substandard goods at the expense of their own industries. When such floods are created, women are the most hit since they are in most cases the ones that run production of such goods and since they might be unable to compete with the influx of cheaper goods, they might run out of business and the poverty levels will ultimately be worsened. Is global governance gender sensitive? Even though fluidity of global governance is almost a guarantee, it is clear that there are some power relations in between different institutions. In most cases, the developed countries usually form the core or the inner circle which are usually endorsed with such organizations as the G8. The poor countries are left on the periphery and are at most of the times slaves to the decisions that will be made by the developed countries. In the same way, the power relations are usually very heavily gendered. While it is true that there has been some effort to ensure gender equality, it is also clear that global governance is still heavily gendered. The executive and most of the decision making organized are often dominated by men. These men already have a privileged position in terms of social standing, educational background, family and other connections and many other societal and culturally granted benefits (Falk, 2000). The focus of the international community on macroeconomics and the concept of neo-liberalism also means that the organizations thare are termed as hard, and which actually handle the important issues of international trade and international finance are usually very least inclined to gender equality. These organizations usually suffer from acute internal gender imbalance even though they are often the ones that make decisions that impact on the hierarchy of global governance (Florini, 2003). The role of UN The United Nations was established as a global governance tool in order to achieve uniform international cooperation on issues like law, security, social development, economic development and also for the purposes of providing a platform for dialogue and diplomacy. The system of the UN usually works by putting in place relevant legislations and conventions for the purposes of sustaining human rights of individuals in the member states. The UN is also mandated with the task of creation of indicators that can be used to test and measure the progress of given societies in terms of poverty reduction, social development and many other important factors that are often used as was the case in the Millennium Development Goals. In spite of the mandate that the UN has, it has also been on the spotlight for being unnecessarily bureaucratic and wasteful of the resources that are given to it. There are some who now believe that the UN’s power has been weakened by the systems of accountability that are often thought to be too weak and there are some countries, including United States of America, who have actually protested against the notion of having universal rights (Gilbert, 2000). The milliohm development goals have also received their fare share of critics since many believe that they lack the strength to fight the poverty that they were incepted to do. For instance, the MDG3 which mainly focuses on creation of gender equality and empowering of the girl child would have been more effective if instead of just creating avenues to educate the girl child, it also went further to address the issue shifting of the social norms on gender inequality. As long as the societal views are not changed, most of the other things that will be done can be said to be quick fixes that will not last too long. The United Nations is founded on the framework of universal rights for every human being on the planer irrespective of age, race, creed or gender. It embodies the universal deflation of human rights of 148 as well as the one of 1997. The declarations state that all human beings should be treated equally and they should also be given certain rights like the right of critiquing one’s government. Most of the tenets of the declaration have been rafted into treaties that the UN has overseen and the member states have signed them. Member countries are therefore obligated to ratify the treaties and treat them with seriousness since the treaties are actually law. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is an organization that helps in addressing gender issues in governance. The organization is important in attaining gender equality for women since it defines what discriminating against a woman really is. Any country that has ratified the convention has committed itself to actively plan and undertake necessary measures to stop the discrimination of women in society. There is need for the UN to implement the existing statutes on gender balance to the latter and in addition to be actively involved in the creation of any future policies that may help improve the issue of gender balance (Gilbert, 2000). Feminists and the literature on gender Even though the issue of gender in the global governance perspective is a relatively new area of study, there are a good number of feminists who continue to write on domestic institutions. One of the most developed forms of writing in this type of literature is the writings that address the issues of gendered welfare states. Writers probe the issue of distribution of opportunities and they also look at how the labor laws of the day have affected women in the society. In America, feminist writers seek to explore the regulations that have been placed on welfare and how these regulations actually shifted the state of patriarchy from the private sector into the public sector. It is argued that most of the policies that were put ion place were put with the aim of accommodating women as wage earners equal to their male counterparts expect for the fact that the females also remained to be the bulwarks of the homes. One of the important concerns that have been raised is that the women have largely remained to people home laborers that have no financial compensation for their hard labor (Heimens, 2003). In the European situation, writers take issue with the principle of categorizing of states based on the welfare rules and relationship of work. They argue that the categorization that should be used should be on the criteria of paid and unpaid work and that the sates should be categorized basing on how the prevailing labor laws construct the status of the woman in the society. Studies revealed that Ireland and Britain are very strong male bread winner societies while France had a weak male breadwinner society. Sweden had a somewhat modified system where males and females had almost equal chance. There is a common notion propagated by most authors that women are usually less corrupt than their men counterparts. In fact, some authors have endeavored to prove that the countries that have more women in the positions of authority usually have lower levels of corruption than those that have more men in governance. This myth is often based on the idea that women are naturally more inclined to morality since they have a higher moral nature. It is therefore thought that this natural affinity to morality is easily reflected in their politics (Gilbert, 2000). The women from Albania usually support the training of the existing as well as the potential female leaders in the political elections. The women also work with different types of actors like journalists and other politicians with an aim of trying to change the mindsets in the community. The Afghanistan women use a totally different approach. They usually try to empower the women by providing them with literacy skills in basic health and other important information that will make the women more empowered. Post conflict states usually provide a very good environment for positive change. Usually, there is a need in such environments to shift away from the usual humanitarian crisis that is characteristic of any conflict or war to other long term issues of development. It has been observed that under such environments, the gender movements can take advantage of the formulation of new governments and ride the cloud of change. Why Gender matters As Beck (2000) illustrates, women are seldom included in the decision making processes when making most of the urban plans. This is seen as unfair to the women who mostly constitute a majority of the population and the needs of the males are usually very different from the needs of the females. There is a need for the policy makers to take a more gender sensitive approach to the whole issue of planning. Women will as a result be included in the decision making process and their needs are ultimately factored in the entire process. The gender sensitive approach to global governance has two main objectives on the local scene. First and foremost, it is in order to increase the number of women that are participating in the development of human settlement. The second objective of global governance is to increase the awareness of gender equality in the society thereby creating a platform for women to be more actively involved in the global governance. It is also important to have changes in the culture and structures of organizations in order to make people more aware of the importance of gender balance in urbanization (Gilbert, 2000). There are many obstacles that must be overcome in order to achieve gender balance. For instance, there is need to fight the shyness that most women have when it comes to taking up political positions. This shyness mainly emanates from the societal norms and many other underlying demographics. The other important obstacle that women have is the huge burdens that they have of household chores coupled with their day time jobs for those that are not stay at home mothers. It is important for planners to consider that even in unique situations where men and women share some common needs, the men and women usually come from different backgrounds. Gender sensitiveness is important since it would not be possible to come up with a society that has an effective and fair system of governance unless both genders are equally involved in the decision making process (Huntingdon, 1999). Measures to ensure women participation There are several actions that the governments can do in order to improve the participation of women in the governance. For starters, the individual governments can make a deliberate effort to try to understand the importance of gender sensitivity in governance as a whole. The government can demonstrate its commitment to gender equality in the public appointments including positions in the executive, legislature and the judiciary. Deliberate effort can be taken in order to increase the number of women in the job slots with an aim of narrowing the gap between the numbers of women in leadership with that of the men holding similar positions. The best way to implement this would be by establishing of targets and coming up with smart goals that will help the governments to achieve them. A second responsibility that governments have is the establishment of necessary electoral reform in order to create a level ground that gives women an equal chance to compete for the elective positions. Some experts even suggest that some of the potions should be protected by the law to ensure that only women can take them up. The political parties can be coerced by the established legal requirements to make sure they include women in their appointments. The observers and regulators of the political parties can also observe such parties with an aim of ensuring that there is no discrimination of women and that any laws that discriminate against women should be abolished (Kaldor, 2003). Another method that can be used to encourage the participation of women is to encourage the participation of women by the introduction of incentives. These incentives can be used to encourage women to be actively involved in the making of policies as well as in taking part in the election process of leaders. Every government should come up with a strategic plan that will ensure that the volume of women in strategic management increases. This can be done by encouraging women to get more education by tailoring courses that fit their lifestyles and the unique needs as well as by making education not only readily available and relevant but also affordable. Challenges and opportunities Even in situations where the women have managed to achieve a considerable percentage as far as gender balance is concerned, there is still the challenge of making the issues of women to be relevant to the men. In fact, most of the women issues are often treated as not important and are largely ignored unless there is nothing else that is deemed more important at hand. In addition to this, women are often reluctant to come forward with some of their personal issues like domestic violence, family control and many other issues that often go unreported (Rawls, 2003). Another main hurdle is that there is often disunity of purpose among the few women that manage to ascend to positions of influence. Different women usually want to push their own different agendas and this lack of a collective voice makes their voices less strong. Women can be so focused when it comes to advancement of their career. In most cases, they will be more than willing to tow the party line in order to build a strong career as opposed to swimming against the current in a bid to be the voice of reason in the sea of confusion. On top of that, the fact that women usually represent different needs since they represent different groups or constituencies makes them have totally different priorities (Rawls, 2003). It is worth noting that most of governments have come up with visible tools to empower women. For instance, most have established women’s ministries, women’s NGOs, women’s microfinance institutions as well as many other important organizations that have been established by different states for the sole purpose of empowering the women. Introduction of quotas in the political arrangement has also helped in the improving of the gender balance in political offices. However, there are still some hurdles that are faced by women even in the midst of these reforms (Rawls, 2003). Even though it is clear that women now enjoy the right to participate in the electioneering process in at least 95% of the countries, many of the women do not participate in the process at all. In some countries, women usually lack adequate education and they will therefore not really understand fully on the importance of them participating on choosing of a leader. In other cases, the women believe that the man should make such decisions for them since they are to submit under their husbands at all times. In other cases, the household chores and especially the mother role of the women makes it almost impossible for them to leave their children unattended and go to the polling stations (Rosenau, 2003). There are some societies that usually impose travel bans on the women and that may make it impossible for them to visit the polling stations let alone enter the booth to cast the vote. In fact, some societies forbid them to take photos even for the purpose of taking a voters card since women are not supposed to reveal their faces. As a result of these and many other factors, the female politicians loose thousands of votes from some of their most ardent supporters (Florini, 2003). The quota system was introduced in order to allow women to secure a minimum percentage in representation in the political offices. These quotas are usually applied at three different stages in the electioneering process. First of all, they can be used at the selection stage. A rule can be included that stipulates that the shortlist must have a certain number of women. Secondly, quotas can be introduced at the nomination stage. Typically, parties may be required to ensure that at least fifty percent of the nominees are women. Thirdly, quotas can be used to ensure that a certain percentage of direct appointees are slotted for women. This is in fact the most commonly used mode of quota system today (Dahl, 2000). There are many examples on how the quota systems have positively impacted the different states and societies in which they were used. For instance, the quota system in Rwanda led to a noticeable increase in the women legislators in Rwanda. In fact, some experts believe that Rwanda is closest to attaining a fifty-fifty balance of elective positions than any other nation in the world. Another example where the quota system has worked well is in Latin America. 11 countries in the region have implemented the system and that has significantly increased the number of women that participate in the politics. A case in point is Brazil which had only 5% of the leaders being female in 1990 but the figure grew to a considerable 13% by 1995. On the flip side, when the quota system was abandoned in Bangladesh, the female legislator percentage went down from ten percent to only two percent (Parsons, 2009). Even though the figures on the ground seem to be promising, there are those that are still skeptical about the success of the quota system. The quota system, most experts argue, should be looked at a foundation for gender equality but not a destination. The system will work by attracting an encouraging number of females who can then take up the challenge of reforming the system from within. One of the greatest limitations that the quotas system has in the present world is that they are often looked at as upper limits instead of being appreciated as a bare minimum for female participation. Another important challenge of the quota system is that parties have often used it as a way of attracting female voters without necessarily creating a mechanism of empowering the women after they have been elected into the system (Archibugi, 2000). In most cases, even though women get selected in the initial stages thanks to the quotas, they are then placed at the bottom of the pyramid which reduces their chances of being elected. One of the best methods to avoid this obvious bias is to use the zebra lists which alternate men and women instead of merely replacing them. In such cases, women are usually given seats that are women only and the woman that gets the highest number of votes gets the position. Creation of women’s parties has been seen as one of the most effective ways to champion the rights of women and guarantee election of women. The main problem with this kind of outfit is that it creates a party based on gender related issues instead of looking at the bigger picture of the government as a whole. These parties usually have a very narrow range of issues that they are after tackling and they lack the national outlook of most of the other mainstream parties. The importance of creation of national women rights groups was first identified by the UN in the year 1962. The women machineries take different forms across the different nations of the world. In most cases, they take the form of a single unit or ministry that is usually mandated with the task of carrying out important developments in gender. They also take the form of specialized units that monitor and in some for the cases even influence the process of planning across the different sectors of the economy. The national women movements are often thought by many as toothless dogs. This is because most of them lack the necessary funding which is what would be needed if any meaningful reform was to be realized. Another important limitation that the national women movements face is that they are often isolated from the centralized administration. The women ministries usually receive meager resources as compared to the other government ministries. In addition, the women ministries are usually the first victims in the event that the government needs to do some cutbacks in funding. Since they are usually operating on lean budgets, they most of the time lack the manpower that are needed in planning as well as in implementation of strategic goals for the ministry (Kaldor, 2003). As if not enough, these ministries are seldom given a clear mandate by the government especially with regards on how they are supposed to interact with other ministries in the government. There are some important lessons that can be learned from the Chinese model of government. While most of the western states would have nothing to do with communism, it is important to point out that the ideology of communism emphasized on the need of achieving equality in the population. This by extension created a system that allows women to advance their ambitions and in fact it resulted in the creation of very powerful women organizations and parties. A good example is the China Women’s Federation which was began in the year 1949. The federation has been on the forefront in the promotion of gender sensitivity in the legislation of the empire. The current laws that have been created to protect the female laborers working in the export processing zone can be attributed to this movement. In addition, the federation has also been on the forefront to ensure that women the different freedoms and rights of women are not violated (Huddock, 1999). There are many nations in the present world that can be classified as fragile. These are usually weak nations that in most cases have just come out of a war situation. Countries like these usually remain unmoved by the needs of the people are rarely engaged with the international community. Needless to state, the fragile states pose a very unique challenge to the attainment of gender sensitive governance. The leadership of these countries is usually highly fragmented and this makes the process of changing of policies and laws a very slow and lengthy process. There is usually a general perception by the powers that be that any attempt in decentralization will result in instability in the region. This is even worse in circumstances where the society is dived along tribal or even religious lines (Rosenau, 2003).In such countries, there is a need for a strong and a centralized government in order to restore law and order and it is on this foundation that gender sensitive administration can be birthed. Summary and conclusion The concept of gendered governance may be a relatively one concept but it is spreading fast. Even though women are far from achieving an equal state in the legislation and administration process in most countries in the world, it is still clear that significant progress has been achieved. Today, there are more women in political positions that it was the case only a decade ago. There are more female legislators than it was a few years ago. The task at hand is to maintain the momentum in most societies where positive change as far as gender sensitivity has already been sparked. The different arms o government will be instrumental in realizing the desired positive change in the society at large. In situations where it is relevant the independent civic groups and trade unions can play the important role of putting pressure on the local government for affirmative action. Apart from the government, the UN has a mandate to lead from the front. Over the years, there have been concerns that the body is flawed in terms of gender sensitivity. Most of the appointments that have been made into the important decision making positions have been skewed towards the males. The UN has a unique vantage point to address global gender issues but that cannot be achieved when it has questions raised about its internal approach to gender balance. The biggest challenge however lays squarely in the women’s court. Even after making all the legislations that will help the women have an easy time in the global politics, it will make no sense until the women take charge of the situation and participate actively. For instance, there are many countries in which women rarely turn up for polling days. Women should be educated by civic bodies to understand that they have the advantage of numbers against the men and if they can use this advantage in possible and legal avenues like voting, they can easily get their voice heard to the power brokers of the day. As study has revealed, women are less prone to corruption than men. A case In point is Rwanda where the increase of women in leadership led to a sharp decline in the vice. There is therefore a need for creation of avenues that will facilitate the participation of women in leadership and politics as this will curb on most of the social evils thereby increasing the economic growth of entire economies. This cannot however be achieved until there is a shift of perceptions in societal norms of the roles of women. Women should be looked at as equal contributors rather than mere home makers. References Archibugi, Daniele, and Martin, Kohler. 1998. Re-imagining Political Community: Studies in Cosmopolitan Democracy. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press Beck, Ulrich.2000 ‘The cosmopolitan perspective: sociology of the second age of modernity.’ British Journal of Sociology 51(1): 79-105. Dahl, Robert 2000. ‘Can International Organizations be Democratic?’ In The Global Transformations Reader, edited by David Held and Anthony McGrew, 530-541. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press Edwards, Michael, and David Hulme. 1996. ‘Too Close for Comfort? The Impact of Official Aid on Nongovernmental Organisations.’ World Development 24(19): 961-973. Falk, Richard, and Andrew Strauss. 2000. ‘On the creation of a global people’s assembly: Legitimacy and the power of popular sovereignty.’ Stanford Journal of International Law 36 (12): 191-220. Florini, Ann. 2003. The Coming Democracy: New Rules for Running a New World. Washington: Island Press Gilbert, Robert. 2000. ‘Globalisation and the Emerging Power of Civil Society Organisations: Prospects for a Three-Sector System of Global Governance.’ Doctoral Dissertation, University of South Carolina Hassanali, Soraya.2000. ‘International Trade: Putting Gender Into the Process Initiatives and Lessons Learned.’ Discussion paper prepared for Status of Women Canada, December 2000. [online ] available at http://www.swc- cfc.gc.ca/pubs/0662661974/index_e.html [accessed 25, April 2012] Heimans, Jeremy. 2003. ‘Reforming global economic and social governance: a critical review of recent programmatic thinking.’ [online ] http://www.unu.edu/p&g/gesgp/workingpapers/Heimans2.pdf [accessed 25, April 2012] Huntingdon, Samuel. 1999. ‘The Lonely Superpower.’ Foreign Affairs 78(2):12-18 Hudock, Ann.1999. NGOs and Civil Society: Democracy by Proxy? Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Kaldor, Mary, Helmut Anheier and Marlies Glasius.2003. Global Civil Society 2003. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Rawls, John.2003. The Law of Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Rosenau, James. 2003. Distant Proximities: Dynamics Beyond Globalisation. Princeton: Princeton University Press Parsons, Talcott.2009. Theories of Society: foundations of modern sociological theory. Free Press: New York. Read More