Asian women in politics - the underlying challenges

Politics remains male-dominated in many countries around the world. Even in the United States no woman has, to date, been elected president. Meanwhile, in Asia, female representation in parliaments remains lower than the global average, despite some improvements.

Female politicians and advocates from Asian countries gathered at the “Women-Up Democracy” seminar in late October, to discuss the underlying barriers for female politicians and leaders.

-Gender norms-

The main barriers tend to be cultural norms, which are deeply ingrained in many Asian societies. This makes it much harder for women to succeed in politics.

Patriarchal gender roles also persist, particularly in South Korea, which clearly lists men as the family breadwinners, while women stay at home and raise children. For this reason, women are still expected to become a mother, instead of pursuing traditionally male-dominated careers, including those in politics.

Democratic Party of Korea MP Sun-woo Kang feels that this attitude leads to women facing prejudice when they choose not to sacrifice their careers for their families. This, she says, remains a barrier to women becoming politicians.

“To become a politician [in South Korea], you should give up the balance between work and life, and I think there is a prejudice against women who are not sacrificing their whole life to the family,” Sun-woo opines.

In South Korea, there are currently only 60 female MPs among the 300 MPs in the National Assembly, which is only 20%. The gender-imbalance in parliament means that female politicians are often objectified and not taken seriously, despite advocating for the same policies as their male counterparts.

There have, nonetheless, been some improvements.

“We try to implement policies to increase the number of female politicians. For example, in the primary elections, we give female politicians some additional scores or support them financially,” says Sun-woo.

-Voting system-

While some countries have made changes to enable more women to enter politics, many others are still struggling to catch up.

Fuziah Salleh, Malaysia’s Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Costs of Living, says that Malaysian women are poorly represented in the political arena, as opposed to business and education. The main reason for this is the voting system.

Fuziah explains that the first-past-the-post voting system makes it much harder for women to compete. Even worse, women often have to stand in the most competitive constituencies.

“Even if we manage to get women to stand, that will not ensure that they make it to Parliament,” she says.

Therefore, she believes that the voting system must be reformed, to allow more women to enter politics. Political parties should place more importance on female participation as well.

“I think the political party needs to see the representation of women as adding value, and they need to have reforms within the party. They need policies within the party that pull more women into politics,” Fuziah explains.

-Portrayal-

Another problem that female politicians still face is their media representation, which stems from a gender-bias which, in turn, also contributes to the political bias against them.

Singapore Democratic Party member Jaslyn Go recalls the moment when she was ‘disrespected’ by political reporters. Some examples include news articles, where reporters would publish the most unflattering side of her, from her forehead being cropped out of pictures to how she was questioned about her age, her qualifications and how many children she has - questions that male politicians would never be asked.

“So, how they write about us actually plays a very important part,” Jaslyn pointed out. “I don't need you to write or say something nice about me, but say something fair about me. I think the perception of the media has to change.”

Jaslyn feels that political reporters should be more balanced and more gender-sensitive in their reporting. This, she believes, will shape people’s perspectives towards female politicians.

-Why more women?-

Currently, the regional average of women in national parliaments across Asia stands at 21.5%, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, while the global average stands at 27%.

Taiwan has the highest percentage of female parliamentarians (41.6%), but in Thailand it is only 19.4%. Asian countries with the lowest female representation include Brunei (13.5%), Malaysia (11.8%), Japan (10.8%), Sri Lanka (5.3%) and Bhutan (4.3%).

As to why countries should have more women in politics, many believe that more female representation would make society more equitable, and they can shape policies to be more inclusive, such as in healthcare and education, “Because women bring a different perspective,” claims Fuziah, adding “It’s so important to have more women, as there would be balanced decision making.”

“To make a better world, I think we need more female leaders,” Sun-woo believes. “Female leaders have strength when it comes to reading people's emotions, going beyond logic and words. Being a politician is mainly related to reading people's minds and touching their hearts.”

“Women make up 50% of the population. Women should have 50% representation in parliament as well.” Jaslyn concluded.

By Nad Bunnag, Thai PBS World