3.

PEMINGGIRAN KELOMPOK PEREMPUAN DALAM

PERENCENAAN KEBIJIKAN PUBLIK.

Kiira Jamal
2009851001

Ujian Tengah Semester

Mata kuliah: Perencanaan, Implementasi dan Evaluasi Kebijikan/Program

Dosen: Dr. Indraswari

MAGISTER ILMU SOSIAL

KEBIJIKAN DAN ADMISTRASI PUBLIK

UNIVERSITAS KATOLIKPARAHYANGAN
 2009/2010
1.0. DEFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS1

1. Gender Equality: This is when both Women and men have the same rights and
opportunities in life as men including the ability to participate in the public sphere.
2. Women’s Empowerment: A process of transforming gender relations through groups or
individuals developing awareness of women’s subordination and building their capacity to
challenge it.
3. Gender Mainstreaming: is a strategy to ensure that women’s and men’s concerns and
experiences are integral to the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all
legislation, policies and programmes in any area and at all levels.
4. Gender awareness is the ability to view society from the perspective of gender roles and
how this has affected women’s needs in comparison to the needs of men. Gender sensitivity
is translating this awareness into action in the design of development policies, programs and
budgets.
5. Minority here refers not to a group’s numerical strength in the population but to groups that
are marginalized or disadvantaged in some way.

1.1. ABSTRACT

Gender" is not the same as "sex" or "women"; it is about the relationship between men and
women, and therefore concerns men as much as it does women. Defined by societal norms and
practices, and supported by societal attitudes, this relationship is usually skewed in favour of
men. Although there is widespread agreement that public policy formulation should be broad-
based, women often remain marginalised in the process. Though the experiences of individual
women vary widely, in general, women as a group fare worse than men on a number of fronts,
ranging from the incidence of poverty to protection under the law, and from access to property,
health care, Gender Based violence, and to decision-making power. Hence, the focus of this

1
Kabeer Naila (2003:2), Gender mainstreaming in poverty eradication and MDGs, a handbook for policy makers, 1st
edition
paper is to analyse the conditions under which women are marginalised in public policy
formulation process and suggest possible recommendations.2
1.2. INTRODUCTION

Most people would like to live in a society founded on moral principles that would help guide
their interactions with their friends, neighbours, opposite sexes, and acquaintances, and even
with their enemies. But most individuals also resist constraints on their behaviour that frustrate
their attempts to achieve their personal goals and desires. This dilemma is often reflected in the
importance of public policy and personal decisions in people's lives. This moral obligation of
living in peace and harmony is only possible if policies formulated, adopted and implemented
are with the consent of the general public.

In the quest for pro-marginalised policy development and democratisation, there is increasing
need to formulate all inclusive, and adequate policies and effective implementation by engaging
both men and women in all policy formulation stages by both local and national Government
units. Throughout the world, however, women are less likely than men to participate in policy
making or influence its implementation. Women face social, economic and institutional barriers
to decision-making, from household, community and up to national levels. Their voices are often
marginalised and they have fewer channels for political representation (e.g. there are
comparatively few women in parliament) to influencing policies or holding Governments to
account. This situation has highly negative implications for gender equality as well as respect for
human rights.

Mainstreaming gender perspective is the process of assessing the implications for women and
men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programs, in all areas and at all
levels. It is a strategy for making women's as well as men's concerns and experiences an integral
dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programs in
all political, economic and societal spheres so that both women and men benefit equally, hence,
reduction of inequality against women. The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality.3

2
His Excellency President Cheddi Jagan (1996:1), draft paper on Women, Gender, and Development.
3
Nancy Burns e’tal (2003:1-6), the private roots of public Action: Gender, equality, and political participation, 4 th
edition, Harvard University press Cambridge, Massachutts, London, England.
1.3. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM.

The above analysis focus that there exists gender discrimination against women despite a
relatively positive policy environment for women's empowerment at the national and
international levels in many countries. Governments are making a number of commitments in
achieving gender equality. However the translation of this policy environment to achieve its goal
of equality between women and men is still a challenge. Governments need to do more to align
their constitutional commitments to other laws and the development plans of the country. This
paper therefore makes a critical analysis on why this trend of event (marginalisation of women in
public policy sphere or formulation) still exists despite international effort to curb it. And the
necessary recommendations proposed on how to bridge the gap between women and men.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF GENDER

Gender’ refers to the rules, norms, customs and practices by which biological differences
between males and females are translated into socially constructed differences between men and
women and boys and girls. People use these biological differences to value the two genders
differently and in their having unequal opportunities and life chances. But that is not the essence
why those biological differences exist, having breasts does not mean that sex is inferior but those
are designs to decorate the female gender, to make them look attractive, thus, the fact is, she is
capable to doing what male gender can do if given equal opportunity (time and available
resources)4.

‘Gender equality’ means both equality of treatment under the law and equality of opportunity. In
addition, since these do not take structural inequality into account, it also includes substantive
equality and equality of agency. Substantive equality means that the different circumstances and
characteristics of men and women have to be considered to avoid unfair gender-related
outcomes. For example, in a case where a man and a woman both have the qualifications for a
particular occupation, the latter may be unable to take it up if there is no childcare available. 5

4
Almaz Zelleke (2008: 1-3), Reconsidering Independence: Foundations of a Feminist Theory of Distributive
Justice.”The New School, New York
5
Ibid.
Equality of agency means ensuring that both women and men can make strategic life choices for
themselves (and help determine the conditions under which these choices are made). 6 In most
cases it is the men determining for their wives, even to the extent of controlling their salary for
the case of those who got the opportunity to work. For example, the braid price makes women
properties of their husbands because they paid for them. Men normally claim that they paid
dowry to own their wives including even the education they acquire. The Government of Uganda
has addresses such problem in the Domestic relations Bill which is yet to pass.

Gender inequality is constructed both through society’s formal laws and statutes and through
unwritten norms and shared understandings. It is not only pervasive across all societies but also
the most prevalent form of social disadvantage within societies. It cuts across all other forms of
inequality, such as class, caste and race. And because gender is a key to the organisation of
production and reproduction, women are also ‘‘at the crossroads between economic growth and
human development”. The argument for addressing gender inequality, therefore, is not simply
that it exists in all societies but that it exists at all levels of society. It makes the effects of
poverty worse for women and biases the form taken by economic growth.

Group claims for recognition and positive valourization are not a new political phenomenon nor
are they specific to ethnic or religious minority groups. Feminist theorists have long struggled
not only for economic measures that abolish the gender division of labour, but also for measures
that replace institutionalized androcentric values privileging attributes historically associated
with masculinity with values expressing equal respect for women. Like gender claims, the claims
of ethnic and national minority groups are matters of both redistribution and recognition. They
tend to experience higher rates of unemployment and poverty and are overrepresented in poorly
paid menial work. Some groups are valued more worthy of social respect than others. Patterns of
cultural valuation privilege attributes associated with identity of men and women where women
experience cultural devaluation and social and political marginalisation.7

Virtually all axes of subordination (e.g. race, gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality) implicate both
maldistribution and misrecognition in forms where each of those injustices has some independent

6
Ibid.
7
Sarah Song (2007:1-8), Justice, Gender, and the politics of multiculturalism, 1st edition, Cambridge University
press, London, UK
weight, whatever their ultimate source. To be sure, some axes, such as class, tilt heavily toward
the distribution end of the spectrum while others, such as sexuality, tilt toward the recognition
end. Nancy Fraser has suggested that in contrast to class and sexuality, race and gender cluster
closer to the center and are matters of both recognition and redistribution to a similar degree.8

Some ways of protecting minority groups from oppression by the majority make it more likely
that these groups will be able to undermine the basic liberties and opportunities of vulnerable
members. Indeed, representatives of minority groups may exaggerate the degree of consensus
and solidarity within their groups to present a united front to the wider society and strengthen
their case for accommodation. This tension has been characterized as the problem of ‘‘internal
minorities’’ or ‘‘minorities within minorities. Vulnerable subgroups within minority groups
include religious dissenters, sexual minorities, women, and children. Focused on the effects of
group accommodations on women within minority groups, feminist theorists, including Susan
Moller Okin and Ayelet Shachar, have characterized the problem of internal minorities as
‘‘multiculturalism v. feminism’’ or ‘‘multicultural accommodation v. women’s rights.9

It is important to point out that this dilemma arises most clearly in liberal democratic societies
committed to the value of equality. The basic dilemma emerges from conflicting demands that
arise in the pursuit of equality for all. A core commitment of liberal democracies is that citizens
treat one another as equals. On the one hand, as I will argue, treating members of minority
groups with equal respect requires special accommodations under certain circumstances. On the
other hand, such accommodations cannot be permitted to violate the basic rights and liberties of
individual members of minority groups.

The normative solutions offered by political theorists fall short more because they have too
narrowly defined the problem than because of the shortcomings of their normative theories. The
problem of internal minorities has largely been understood as a problem with deeply illiberal and
undemocratic minority cultures. For instance, recent formulations of the problem as
‘‘multiculturalism v. feminism,’’ ‘‘group rights v. women’s rights,’’ or ‘‘culture v. gender’’
suggest that minority cultures are the source of minority women’s subordination.

8
Nancy Burns et’all (2001:1-6), the Private roots of Public Action: Gender, Equality, and Political Participation, 4 th
edition, Harvard University press, Massachusetts, USA.
9
Ibid.
The theory of possessive individualism gave feminists a useful entry point for considering
gender, those bonds that were most arguably natural, namely the family, were removed from the
public sphere by definition, and women were assigned exclusively to that realm of the family. In
this sense, the language of “free and equal” individuals in a state of nature laid very unequal
beings that were not at all universal or natural but rather situated in particular social and
economic relationships in a particular historical era. Feminists subsequently argued that this
language also masked a gender bias by reducing the responsibility of women only to family
management.

The negative and positive model defines free individual as a desire-generating and expressing
being who is able to act on those desires without being prevented by other individuals, groups, or
institutions. To them freedom is absence of external barriers to doing what one wants. “By being
free in this sense means not being interfered with by others. The wider the area of non-
interference, the wider is the freedom.” For negative liberty, “frustrating ones wishes” is the
delimiting factor of freedom. This is typically what happens with female gender in policy
decisions where their inputs are rarely considered and regarded worthless.10

Gender roles and relations can determine opportunities and obstacles to state-building. Many
argue early. State reconstruction can provide opportunities to shape new social, economic, and
political dynamics that can break existing gender stereotypes. For example, recent research has
shown how the redrawing of the boundaries of authority between the formal state and customary
governance systems can provide new citizenship opportunities for women. Not focusing on
gender early on can entrench systems that discriminate against women which are much harder to
challenge later.

ANALYSIS OF WOMEN MARGINALISATION IN PUBLIC POLICY FORMULATION

Women are normally relegated from the positions of policy formulation, adoption, and
implementation. This prompts the international community and governments to come up with
programmes like women empowerment, gender equality, gender mainstreaming etc, most of
which remain in theory with little attention paid for implementation. For example, out of one
10
Ibid.
hundred district Chairpersons in Uganda, only one is a female, and there is an equal number of
female councillors as compared to male councillors. This makes them to have lesser voice in
decision making process.11

Secondly, since most of women councillors go through affirmative action, it is hard to convince
the community to support them during consultative meetings in policy formulation processes;
people normally ignore them because they were not directly elected by the whole electorates.
This makes them to always feel inferior towards their male counterparts because they never
competed with them. Questions like, whose mandated to the leadership arena?, whose interests
are you representing? Why don’t you concentrate on women issues? So such questions suppress
women in policy process both in local and national politics.

Thirdly, culture, culturally women are relegated to the house wife and family responsibilities.
For example, in many cultures in Uganda, women who engage in politics are normally disowned
and or cursed and Cultural leaders and their supporters openly dicampaign female candidates.
This tendency demoralizes women politicians to declare their intentions for leadership positions.
This therefore makes women to be ill represented and thus, decisions are always not taken in
their favour. For example, the 2003 domestic relations bill which is before the Ugandan
Parliament is up to now not approved, this is because the proposed law gives women equal say in
every aspect of life.

Political participation, women world over does not have adequate representation in decision
making positions, and those who show interest receive less support. For example, their intent or
effect of influencing government action either directly, by affecting the making or
implementation of public policy, or indirectly, by influencing the selection of people who make
those policies is low.

The media, as an important agent of socialization in the modern world, either support or contest
cultural conceptions, and have a significant impact on the social construction of gender. The
media's effects operate at the level of gender belief systems, affecting individual "beliefs and
opinions about males and females, and about the purported qualities of masculinity and

11
Kabeer Naila (2003:2-7), Gender mainstreaming in poverty eradication and MDGs, a handbook for policy makers,
1st edition
femininity The mass media have been found to play a critical role in maintaining the gender-
power imbalance, "passing on dominant, patriarchal/sexist values"

The mass media plays a critical role in maintaining the gender-power imbalance in all areas,
including communication and media policy. Although the media cannot be held responsible for
individuals’ actions, attitudes and behaviour, they are irrefutably powerful in creating public
awareness and defining public discourse. As such, media play key role in reflection of gender
roles and related stereotypes. Through maintaining negative and stereotypical images of women,
media do not provide accurate and realistic image on multiple women’s roles in social and
political life. For example, during the US Democratic elections between Hillary Clinton and
Obama of 2008, the media gave more attention to Obama than Hillary Clinton. The media even
though direct but indirectly portrayed Hillary an inferior despite her vast experience in politics.12

 Media are more prone to treat women politicians as women and objects, than as political
protagonists, which they rarely do when men are concerned.
 Women politicians are less frequently present in media, and they speak on issues of lesser
importance, such as social care, children’s allowance, maternal leave compensations.
 Media are less aware of the women’s issues and women politicians’ achievements.

Dependence upon Men in developing countries, among the poor, the rural women are the poorest
and more vulnerable. Empirical evidences suggest that women in rural areas are more adversely
affected by poverty than men. The incidence of poverty among rural women is on the rise in
most of the developing countries. The issues of gender bias and equity point to the double burden
women have to bear being poor and being a woman. This makes them submissive, completely
ignored and only thinking of survival. Since men have the financial strength, they dominate
leadership positions, hence relegating women to housewife duty.

Education as a pillar of development in most developing countries more especially in Africa does
not favour women. Girl child education is still low in those regions. This makes women to be ill
equipped with knowledge. Parents normally prefer boy child education to girl child education on
assumption that ladies are dull who cannot compete. To them educating a girl child is wastage of

Ines Jemric (2003:1-5), Brochure on monitoring and content analysis of daily news papers. Marginalisation of
12

women politicians in the media: results of daily newspapers’ analysis

a resource. This does not only affect these girls’ education but affect their leadership potentials.
As a gender focal person, I experienced this personally in my senstisation meetings on the
importance of girl child education.

Religion, People use religion to suppress women by claiming that women do not have moral
authority to talk in public and or associate with men. Such spiritual preaching makes women to
be relegated to backgrounds. Religious leaders use their influences to let down women who
would be good leaders by decampaigning them in places of worship, public places, and
ceremonies. So, men fear to let in their wives into politics because they fear to be disowned by
their respective religions. Such marginalisations against women make them to be the lowest
represented group in leadership, hence, affecting their inputs in public policy formulation.

Employment, women do not have level grounds for consideration in the labour market even if
they possess the same qualifications with their male counterparts. The senior and strategic
positions closer to the political leadership are always reserved for male candidates. And those
few who got the opportunity to be in those positions are less used by their supervisors on issues
of policy decision. For example, in Uganda there is no female Clerk to council, these are officers
who together with their speakers prepare the order papers for council businesses, take
subcommittee, executive and council minutes and guide Councils of matters of policy. Such
positions which prepare people as future political leaders are all occupied by men; hence,
technically neglecting women to gain the political experience needed.

Lower level of Women empowerment is defined as women's level of control in decision making
positions, for control over the allocation of resources, the determination of policy, regulations
and laws. At the level of the society or the nation, women's empowerment is here measured in
terms of the level of women's representation in higher levels in decision making positions in
public institutions. Any family property is considered of the husband, so, women do not have
access to resources, the Domestic Relations bill in Uganda which tries to give some hope for
women to the right of property is delayed since 2003 todate because the bill does not favour men.

Political equality is about empowering those who are currently marginalised in terms of political
influence. This is a difficult task, not least because of the capacity of those who are powerful and
wealthy to use their social networks in particular to advance their interests by informal means.
Since women do not have means or access to resources, their financial martial is weak and as
such they cannot compete favourably with their male counterparts in political and civil service
positions. Such tendency makes women to always underlook themselves and decide to surrender
leadership for men.

Polygamy to me plays an important role in women’s marginalisation in decision making. Due to

competition for loyalty towards their husband, women tend to be submissive, close enough to
their husbands in order to draw attention and always say yes to whatever bad or good their
husband suggest. In Africa for example, men threaten their wives for divorce if she engages in
politics. Men easily make such decisions because they have alternative wives. These oppressions
and marginalisations against women are because the voices of women in policy leadership are
less, so, there are no such policies that support women’s cause for equality. The law in Uganda
that would save women from such an aggressive act received stiff resistance from religious
leaders, cultural and traditional leaders, male politicians and even some intellectuals.

In many African countries women have little contact with the formal state and their lives are
governed by customary governance systems that seriously limit their rights and opportunities for
political participation. This is particularly true for women in fragile states, where the formal state
is weak and inaccessible. For example, Somalia, Darfur in Sudan, Yemen where it was reported
on BBC that some ten year old kid who was forcefully married could not sustain the marriage
and applied for divorce. Such situations where women are ill treated, marginalised, suppressed
and considered as second class citizens are left to exist because men see them as women issues
not issues affecting fellow human beings.

Standard ways of strengthening the voices of citizens do not work for women, as their access to
public spaces is mediated by men. Specific initiatives to strengthen the voices of women can help
build state accountability to women. Women are not given adequate platform to voice out their
grievances heard. Those who could cannot because their male counterparts are the controllers of
public space. For example, budget allocations in local governments in many countries do not
favour women. What is allocated for gender is just a peanut which could not enable women to
come together to share their grievances with their colleagues, carry comprehensive sensitisation
and support girl child education. Such technical marginalisation makes women to have disjointed
group, hence, no common voice.

Recommendations
 Women’s rights need to be strengthened during ‘normal’ times, not just during conflict, crisis
or elections. This should involve not just legal and justice reforms but should also address
informal systems and economic and social rights.
 They can also seek to ensure that women’s rights and participation remain a priority for the
international community and partner governments within fragile state environments.
 Specific initiatives to strengthen the voice of women can help build state accountability to
women.
 Strengthening women’s political participation means addressing women’s participation in
informal institutions at household and community level.
 As sovereign creators of collective consciousness, media should direct their power towards
achieving gender equality.
 The democratic participation of marginalised groups needs to be strengthened both inside and
outside of political decision-making structures, in a way that is unlikely to be comfortable to
existing power holders
 Attention needs to be given to gender equality and to increasing women’s voice in political,
social, and economic development in fragile and post-conflict settings.

Conclusion

Ending discrimination against women requires everyone’s participation, including an active and
vocal role for men and for religious leaders of both sexes. The US is supporting programs around
the globe in order that women voices will be heard. Despite the pledge made in 1995 by so many
countries to end the discrimination that robs the world of the talent it desperately needs, women
are still the majority of the world’s poor, unhealthy, underfed and uneducated. To the silent
majority around the globe that supports women’s equality, we say: The time to translate support
into action is now.
Marginalisation of women is more obvious in positions of power and decision-making, and there
is a well-known pattern of women being more represented on lower than on higher levels of
political system. Discrepancy between women’s formal and legal status and their real power in
formal politics comes out of this relation of power and authority. This under-representation of
women constitutes serious deficit in democracy, which undermines legitimacy of contemporary
democratic principles. Concept of democracy presumes real partnership between men and
women, and achieving gender equality is integral part of the process, which leads to the true
democracy. As pre-condition, participation of women and men in all social circles must be
ensured, and democracy has to become gender-mainstreamed and gender – sensitive.
 REFERENCES

1. Kabeer Naila (2003:2), Gender mainstreaming in poverty eradication and MDGs, a handbook
for policy makers, 1st edition

2. His Excellency President Cheddi Jagan (1996:1), draft paper on Women, Gender, and
Development
3. Nancy Burns e’tal (2003:1-6), the private roots of public Action: Gender, equality, and political
participation, 4th edition, Harvard University press Cambridge, Massachutts, London, England
4. Almaz Zelleke (2008: 1-3), Reconsidering Independence: Foundations of a Feminist Theory
of Distributive Justice.”The New School, New York
5. Sarah Song (2007:1-8), Justice, Gender, and the politics of multiculturalism, 1 st edition, Cambridge
University press, London, UK
6. Ines Jemric (2003:1-5), Brochure on monitoring and content analysis of daily news papers.
Marginalisation of women politicians in the media: results of daily newspapers’ analysis