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10. Women and Politics
- Hong Kong University Press, HKU
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Ul nun ~ v 1 0 WomenandPolitics IreneTon g 1.WhyWomenMatte r Politicsan dpolicie saffec twome na swella smen ,buti npolitica ldecision making worldwide ,wome nar eunder-represented .Whil eclassica lpolitica l philosophersequatepoliticswiththepublicrealm,andhencethemalesphere, modernconceptionsofpoliticsandcitizenshipwouldnotbecompletewithout includingallmembersofhumanity.1 Prevailingargumentsforincludingwomen indecision-makingprocessescanbecategorisedasfollows:2 Naturalrights/God-give nright s- B yvirtu eo fthei rhumanit y womenshoul denjo yequa lright swit hmen ,includin gful l citizenship.3 Difference- Whethe rdu et onatur eo rnurture ,th elive d experiencean dcognitiv eframewor ko fwome ni squit edifferen t fromtha to fmen .Therefore ,i fdecision sar emad efro mth e standpointo fme nonly ,th eneed san dinterest so fwome nma y notbeconsidered.Moreover,differencenee dnotimplyhierarch y -neithe rmen' sviewpoin tno rwomen' sviewpoin tshoul db e privileged.Rather ,th ecurrentl ymal edominan tpolitica lstructur e needstobebalanced. •Democrac yan dlegitimac y- Th econcep to f"rul eb ymany " 1 A goodcollectio no fessayso nthissubjectca nb efoundi nPhillips,Anne,ed.(1998),Feminismand Politics,Oxfor dan dNe wYork,OxfordUniversit yPress . 2 Se ealsoUnite dNation s(1992) ,Women in Politics and Decision-Making in theLate Twentieth Century, Dordrecht,Bosto nan dLondon :Martinu sNijhof fPublishers . 3 Thi sargumentwa sverypopula ramon gth esuffragettesdurin gthe19t handearly20t hcentury . BuildingDemocracy11 7 WomenandPolitics obviouslyinclude sbot hsexes;asystemthatexcludeshal fofthe populationi ndecision-makin gcanno tb ecalle ddemocratic .Th e outcomeo fpubli cdeliberation swoul db esee nt ob emor e legitimatei ftheperspectivesan dpreference so fbothsexeswere included.Thi scoul dlea dt omor eeffectiv epolicy-makin gan d implementation. Utility-Fro mahumanresourcepointofview,itwouldbewasteful nott ota pint oth epoo lo ftalent srepresente db yhal fth e population.Aswome nenjo yincrease dacces st oeducatio nan d information,itisdifficulttomaketheargumentthatwomenshoul d beexclude dfro mdecision-makin gbecaus ethe yar eles s knowledgeableabou tpubli caffairsthanmen. •Transformin gpolitic sitsel f- Th eexistin gdefinition ,conten tan d modeo fpolitic smay no tb eth emos tdesirabl eo roptima lfor m thathuma nsociet yca nachieve.Withtheparticipatio no fwomen insufficien tnumber s(critica lmass) ,th epotentia lo fpolitic st o workforthebettermento fsocietya sawholema yb eincreased. Onalesstheoreticallevel ,therei snolackofexamplest oshowthenee d toloo ka tth eworl dthroug hwomen' seyes .Anapparentl yuniversa lan d gender-neutral4 institutio nsuc ha sth eMandator yProviden tFund ,fo r example,may ,upo nclose rinspection ,fai lt oprovid eadequat eold-ag e securityfo rhousewives .O ntheothe rhand ,well-intentioned,pro-woma n policiessuc ha smaternit yleav emight ,i ntheabsenceo fcomplementar y legislation,lea dtounintendeddiscriminatio nagains twomeni nthelabou r market.I nshort,wome nar estakeholder s...